(Houston, Texas, February 11, 2002) - Mayor Lee P. Brown today announced that the City of Houston is transforming its data network and hundreds of standalone phone systems into a single, converged voice-data communications system based on Cisco AVVID (Architecture for Voice, Video, and Integrated Data). The new network is expected to generate $6.2 million in annual savings with an investment payback in less than one year for the City and its taxpayers.

"It's truly exciting when we can deploy new technology, gaining more functionality and at the same time saving taxpayer dollars," said Mayor Brown.

"In August, we deployed 600 IP phones throughout the Houston Public Library system's 35 facilities as a 'proof of concept'," said Denny Piper, CIO for the City of Houston. "To date, the program has been an overwhelming success. We're always looking for ways to improve the efficiency of our information systems while saving valuable taxpayer dollars. The new converged network will pay big dividends in both of these areas."

The full network deployment will include 25,000 Cisco IP phones throughout 400 city facilities. The project is scheduled to be complete by the end of summer 2002. The city projects a payback on its network investment within 12 months.

"The bulk of the cost savings will come from reductions in telephone line costs, PBX equipment and related PBX maintenance, support and upgrade costs," Piper said. "We calculated an overall monthly cost of $44 per phone with our legacy system. Our monthly costs will drop to $21 per phone with the Cisco solution. The real payback is that our employees will get 10 times the functionality with the new phones compared with what they have today. The industry has just started to build applications that take advantage of all the things you can do with these phones."

The new converged communications system will enable city-wide, five-digit extensions for the first time. It will also solve a critical emergency 911-dialing safety issue and enable greater efficiency and productivity through a centralized call processing architecture, which will include a centralized unified messaging voicemail system.

New Phone System To Save $6 Million Annually

Like most metropolitan areas, the City of Houston manages a diverse set of public services in over 400 locations. Examples of city services include: police and fire departments, emergency services, parks and recreation, water and sewage treatment and disposal, healthcare clinics, convention and entertainment facilities, housing and community development, municipal courts and jails and libraries.

The City has had a Cisco data network but lacked a centralized telephone system. As the City grew, it stuck to its tried-and-true method of building standalone phone systems. Each PBX has its own dial plan, voicemail servers and trunk lines to the public switched telephone system (PSTN). The City currently manages 27 PBXs, 43 voicemail systems, and 175 key systems-from many vendors-dispersed city-wide.

"There was economic obsolescence on some of our PBX infrastructure," Piper said. "We lost maintenance options because of age. There were no cannibalized parts available anywhere in the country to service that infrastructure."

Those days are now over.

"We are very excited to be working with the City of Houston to create a converged communications system that will be a true showcase for the cost savings and productivity benefits attainable with new world telephony technology," said Marthin De Beer, vice president and general manager for Cisco's Enterprise Voice, Video Business Unit. "The City of Houston will provide municipalities across the country and the world with a valuable case study about the real value of convergence."

In addition to the converged network project, the City is also showing its commitment to utilizing the best technology available for its citizens and 23,000 employees. Houston ranked fifth in the 2001 Digital Cities Survey for outstanding achievement in technology. The City Web site (www.cityofhouston.gov) was a 2001 "Best of the Web" finalist, ranking in the sweet sixteen of outstanding local government Web sites.

In keeping with Mayor Lee P. Brown's E-Government Center and vision for real time eGovernment, the City of Houston has launched a city-wide technology upgrade that offers multiple online services through the City website. City Hall is continuing to fulfill its promise to find innovative new ways to save valuable taxpayer dollars and time.