IT E-RATE AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS UTILITY BILLING SUPERVISOR

IT E-RATE AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS UTILITY BILLING SUPERVISOR

Position Overview

The ideal candidate must possess the following:

• Knowledge in reviewing contracts and network design for suggestions to improve

stability along with adding dedicated support to any project or billing issue.

• Knowledge of E-Rate process and procedures.

• Expertise in creating and managing spreadsheets to account for product

inventories within the IT department, such as phones, circuits and lines and

updates those spreadsheets.

• Expertise in creating and managing spreadsheets to track the progress in

resolving telecommunications issues, i.e., billing, repair and orders with each

carrier.

• Knowledge of carrier network for problem resolution.

Creation and maintaining of MS SharePoint for all telecommunications vendor

records.

• Knowledge of MS SharePoint that was created to house all of the IT

spreadsheets of inventories (Level 3); Verizon TLS/Centrex/POTS lines and their

locations, along with any orders to add and disconnect services to assist in

verifying billing accuracy.

Responsibilities

• Supervise the E-Rate (FCC and USAC) Government program for

telecommunications reimbursement of cost incurred for all of Baltimore County

Public Schools; bringing revenue to the schools of approximately $1 million

dollars per year.

• Input and maintain all required forms to the USAC Schools and Libraries program

within the USAC EPC system for each new funding year.

Insure proper forms are filed by established deadlines as well as sequential

forms are filed within the system based on previous submissions.

• Maintaining of bills for 1O years per FCC regulation.

• Serve as Project Manager for telecommunications product analysis for various

departments within the school system.

• Communicates and meets with various departments of the school systems to

identify telecom expenses to ensure that any monies eligible for E-Rate are

included.

Within the E-Rate program the position requires the ability to justify any

expenses as well as to appeal any decision up to and including the FCC

Commission and the presentation of those arguments.

• Must be able to communicate properly with each department of the FCC and

debate the funding decision with precise statistical information to justify the

funding request.

• Prepare FCC/USAC reviews and response to questions on any E-Rate program

request.

• Facilitate and attend Vendor Meetings and other Government and Internal Team

Meetings (i.e., Verizon and BCG) to understand and coordinate functions with

BCG and BCPS (i.e., telecommunications for Disaster Recovery Center) and any

other E-Rate related work.

• Create RFP’s for needed products to be approved by the Board of Education and

work with the Procurement department on any contract renewals required for

signature by the Carriers and facilitating that activity to closure.

• Conducts product reviews to investigate new technology that could potentially be

utilized within the County and scope out any departments that are not being

considered.

Vendor Management of telecommunications products for analysis, use, cost as

well as a high level knowledge of the vendor billing systems, such as taxes and

understand the tax laws that regulate the charges in relation to the bills and ERate.

• Reviews contract and telecommunications billing to accuracy and identifies errors

and notifies the Carriers for refunds.

• Checks for Contract addendums to insure that compliance analyzing

telecommunications bills for errors such as taxes, which requires the position to

know the FCC Tariff.

• Has an established network of contacts with the various telecom carriers.

• Point of escalation for the BCPS repair department to escalate outages within the

Carriers organization.

• Point of escalation for telecommunications problems encompassing billing,

orders and repairs with the various Carriers.

• Facilitates Carrier meetings to discuss current issues that BCPS is having with

the vendor, creating an open action register to resolve those issues. Within

these meetings review new product offerings for potential use within BCPSE.

Establish SOW’s with the Carriers to effectively and efficiently review contracts

and renewals

Assist in facilitating meetings with the Office of Budget & Reporting Director to

discuss E-rate refund schedule and processes,

Assist in facilitating meetings with Purchasing to discuss billing disputes with a

Carrier for legalities as well as to discuss new RFP and contract issues.

• Understands the Telecommunications Carriers processes and has contacts

within those Carriers to assist BCPS in getting problems resolved in a timely

fashion.

Streamline products used to maximize Carrier discounts for volume of services

utilized. Example consolidation of Verizon Wireless bills to afford all departments

of best cost usage and still maintain individual billing for budgetary purposes.

Contract identification for E-Rate eligibility (i.e., MiCTA contracts, State of

Maryland contracts and other suppliers within the US Government agencies)

where BCPS can

Ensures that projects are completed in accordance with established scope,

deadlines, budgets, and FCC/USAC standards.

• The yearly filing of the reimbursement requests with the E-Rate/FCC/USAC per

program requirements to report detailed statistics such as types of products

used; bandwidth and upload/download speeds for internet along with the

statistical information on the school system; i.e., total number of students within

the system and how many are on the Free and Reduced Lunch Program (NSLP)

then mathematically calculating the funding amounts required.

Produces status reports and communications on a regular basis.

Takes ownership for a variety of project initiatives and communications in

parallel.

Required Skills

Extensive skill in supervising the analysis of telecommunications billing.

Ability to administer the E-rate program for the entire BCPS school system.

Evaluating and understanding E-rate processes.

• Professional verbal and written communication skills.

• Ability to positively communicate and interact with various County departments

and act as a liaison for any telecommunications needs to insure eligibility.

Ability to coordinate the work of a team with the work of other units within the

Office of Information Technology and County agencies.

Ability to develop needs assessments and prepare administrative reports.

• Knowledge of personal computers, Microsoft Office suite of tools including; Word,

Excel, PowerPoint.

Knowledge of the principles and practices of telecommunications billing.

• Efficiency of existing processes and develops strategies for improvements.

Skill in the operation of computers and peripheral equipment.

Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships.

Certifications in ITIL (IT Service Support) and Project/Program Management,

Degree from an accredited college with a bachelor’s degree in Business or Public

Administration, Project Management, Communications or a related field.

• At Least five years of experience as a business analyst, telecom analyst, project

manager, systems analyst or closely related experience in the analysis of

information technology organizations and systems.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $39,467.36 – $104,856.59 per year

Experience level:

• 5 years

Schedule:

• 8 hour shift

Work Location: One location