Outbound Call Center Featured Article

New York City's New 911 Contact Center is Mired in Delay and Overspending

By Tracey E. Schelmetic
TMCnet Contributor

New York City's planned cutting-edge 911 emergency contact center appears to be drowning...in red tape, bloat, inefficiency and frustration, and not even a phone call to NASA for assistance has been able to help.

According to the NY Daily News today, New York City is spending $2 billion to try and put the most high-tech, efficient contact center in the country in place. But it's failing miserably.

Managers at the behind schedule and over-budget Emergency Communications Transformation Program contacted NASA in February for help – the goal was apparently to have NASA engineers monitor the center's new systems – but NASA hasn't been forthcoming with an answer. Even construction of the physical call center in the Bronx – for which $95 million was authorized – is far behind

The office of New York City Controller John Liu believes that there has been a great deal of waste on the project and is in the process of auditing it.

“Notwithstanding the importance of this system,” said Liu, “there is unfortunately reason to believe that a huge amount of time and money has been wasted on this project.”

So does “waste” mean “fraud”? It certainly wouldn't be the first time a project in New York City had been bogged down with fraud. It would appear that some of the technology providers chosen to install the systems aren't helping: earlier this year, Liu's office flagged a $286 million contract for the center, saying it allowed Northrop Grumman (News - Alert) to bill by the hour, reported the NY Daily News. This same scenario has allowed for massive overruns on other city projects in the past.

When companies are given financial incentive to drag out projects indefinitely, they frequently do so.