Wednesday, December 29, 2010

LA County Wastes Over $500,000 on Misused Cell Phone Bills

With a towering government deficit and various funds being cut, many taxpayers’ concerns rise when they read articles like the LA Times’ recent piece about LA County’s child welfare agency wasting over half a million dollars on unnecessary cell phone usage. An audit discovered that the agency spent $330,000 on service charges for cell phones that were activated and never used. Twenty of the agency’s used cell phones were issued to users who incurred excessive charges on personal use, including one employee with over $2,000 worth of charges in personal international calls. In addition, although there were over 1,400 cell phones activated and unused, the department denied child abuse investigators of cell phones.

With so many resources available to prevent these situations, this misuse of taxpayers’ dollars is unacceptable. Call Accounting companies, such as CDR-Data, can ensure that a client never ends up with these problems. CDR-Data produces simplified reports for their clients with all necessary land line and cell phone records. Reports are updated routinely and CDR-Data’s technicians will contact their clients if any anomalies arise. Unused lines and irregular usage will all be brought to the attention of their clients.

As a veteran in the Call Accounting industry, CDR-Data Corporation has added numerous and notable government organizations to their list of clients. CDR-Data’s services have enabled these organizations to flourish by allowing them to manage their telecommunications with ease.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1222-dcfs-cell-phones-20101222,0,7191601.story

L.A. County's child welfare agency wastes $514,000 on cellphones, audit finds

More than 1,400 of the department's 5,000 phones were not used by employees, yet were activated and incurred $330,000 in service charges. One worker racked up $2,000 in personal international calls.

By Garrett Therolf, Los Angeles Times
December 22, 2010
A quarter of the money spent last year on cellphones by Los Angeles County's child welfare department was wasted on "unnecessary or inappropriate" charges, according to an audit released Tuesday.

The audit found that $514,000 of the $2.2 million spent in 2009 on the department's 5,000 cellphones went to devices that were never used, personal calls to foreign countries and other questionable ends.

"It is likely that the department paid for inappropriate charges in the prior and current years" as well, Los Angeles County Auditor-Controller Wendy Watanabe wrote in her report.

Trish Ploehn, who was removed last week as director of the Department of Children and Family Services, was given a draft copy of the audit this fall.

Ploehn wrote in September that she would soon be providing the county Board of Supervisors with a detailed plan to address problems raised by the auditors.

"We generally agree with the majority of the recommendations contained in the report and completely concur that it is the department's responsibility to safeguard county resources," Ploehn wrote in her initial response to the report.

No additional plan from the department has been submitted, according to supervisors' aides and the county's website tracking correspondence between departments and the board.

Among the audit's findings:

--Welfare officials did not have up-to-date logs and could not identify users for more than 250 active phones.

--More than 1,400 cellphones were not used by employees, yet were activated and incurred $330,000 in service charges. At the same time, the department refused to give cellphones to child abuse investigators, county officials have acknowledged.

--Auditors carefully reviewed 20 users who appeared to have excessive charges and found one employee had incurred more than $2,000 in personal international long-distance charges.

--The department had 532 broadband cards to access the Internet from portable computers yet 220 were unused and incurred $90,000 in service fees.

Earlier this year, The Times reported that the department paid $5.9 million for about 2,400 of the portable computers in 2007 so that social workers investigating abuse or neglect allegations might better access data relevant to their probes. But the infrastructure was never put in place to make them functional out of the office, leading them to be used as desktop computers or simply collect dust.

Susan Herman, a spokeswoman for county Chief Executive William T Fujioka, said "the county takes the audit findings very seriously, and DCFS is going to be giving out a detailed response sometime soon."

Herman also said child welfare officials are reevaluating a policy of denying child abuse investigators cellphones after seeing so many devices go unused.

"We are committed to giving employees the tools they need to make children and families safe," she said.

According to the audit, the department already has begun canceling services for phones for which there was no identified user.

garrett.therolf@latimes.com

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Nick Walters Becomes Newest Member of CDR-Data

Nick Walters has recently been named the newest member of CDR-Data’s growing organization. Nick’s background as a computer science major and computer technician will be beneficial as Nick learns the operations of CDR-Data. Working under CDR-Data’s Vice President and General Manager Ron Woods, Nick will be assisting with the company’s IT duties, including data collection, rates, tariffs and documentation. CDR-Data is pleased to have Nick join their team and looks forward to working with him.  

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

CDR-Data Welcomes Michelle Chin to Their Marketing Team

CDR-Data Corporation is delighted to introduce Michelle Chin as the newest addition to their team. Working in the marketing department, Michelle will be tasked with an array of assignments, including writing press releases, launching email marketing campaigns, organizing socials and managing the company’s social networking accounts. CDR-Data welcomes Michelle to the company and is confident that her education, experience and interests will make her an asset to their organization.

Friday, December 3, 2010

CDR-Data Lends a Hand to Union Station Adult Center

CDR-Data recently provided dinner for over 50 homeless men and women at Union Station Adult Center in Pasadena. For more information on the Union Station Foundation visit http://www.unionstationfoundation.org/

Click here to view pictures of the event on our Facebook page.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

See You All in Sante Fe!

The GMIS 2011 Educational Conference will be held in Sante Fe, New Mexico. The conference will be from June 12th - 16th at La Fonda on the Plaza. For more information visit http://www.gmis.org/page/gmis2011
See you then!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Thanks for being a part of LMN LA’s Fall Social!

Thanks for being a part of LMN LA’s Fall Social! With your help the social was a great success.

Congratulations to our raffle winners!

Mark Walter and Katie Gallicchio, both from Premier Business Centers, took home $50 Nordstrom’s gift cards from SITE REsolutions and MorningStar Software. Rebecca Hodgers, also with Premier Business Centers, left with a $100 Nordstrom’s gift card courtesy of AFR Furniture Rentals and OBCANY.

A big thanks goes out to all of our sponsors. To ensure that all of our sponsors receive the recognition they deserve, agendas were passed out to all the attendees with a list of all the sponsors.

You can click here to view photos from the event on our Facebook page.

Thanks again. We really appreciate your involvement with OBCAI LMN LA and couldn’t have done it without you. See you at the next social!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Join CDR-Data at LMN LA's Fall Social

You are invited to attend LMN LA's Fall Social.
$20 per person. Wine and beer will be included.
Appetizers provided by CDR-Data.

Great door prizes will be raffled!

Grand prize is for $100 gift card to Nordstrom courtesy of OBCANY and AFR Furniture Rentals.

Second prize is for $50 Nordstrom gift card generously donated by
SITE REsolutions.

More great prizes will be announced at the event.

http://www.whisperloungela.com/

The Whisper validates for 2 hours of free self parking.

Self parking may be accessed from either Fairfax Ave or The Grove Dr. between Beverly and 3rd Street.

Valet Parking Rates
0 to 2 hours = $8
2 + hours = $8 + $2 each 20 minutes
Daily maximum = $24

Contact Kevin Young for more information at 626 791-9700

Friday, October 29, 2010

CDR-Data Corporation Introduces Mobile Vision

CDR-Data Corporation is proud to add Mobile Vision as its latest feature. With organizations frequently complementing their staple landlines with mobile phones and smart phones, the use for a consolidated option has become increasingly necessary. After providing landline phone solutions for over 30 years, CDR-Data clients now have the capability to view cell phone and landline reports merged into one convenient display.

Mobile Vision is just one of the many new changes that CDR-Data has added to adapt to the changing telemanagement market to serve current and future networks for the Public Vector and other users. By using the company’s acclaimed eCDR® system and the cloud platform, clients can access their account through the internet without the inconvenience of installations. Mobile Vision will simplify the billing process allowing management to view equipment cost, cell phone and landline data in one basic display.

CDR-Data Adds the City of Beverly Hills to its List of Valued Clients

The City of Beverly Hills has announced that they have chosen CDR-Data Corporation for their Call Accounting services. Starting the second quarter of 2010, the world-renowned city will receive reports created by CDR-Data via the Web and cloud technology. The reports will provide Beverly Hills the information they need to lower costs while expanding productivity.  
CDR-Data will provide Beverly Hills with their flagship product, eCDR®. eCDR® is a service that provides companies and organizations the ability to manage the many calls for allocating expenses and highlighting the anomalous.

The City of Beverly Hills joins the many organizations choosing the cloud platform rather than paying the higher capital expenses, dealing with software maintenance and losing time updating new software and hardware. 

With over thirty years of Call Accounting and Telecommunications experience, CDR-Data has resolved concerns for some of the largest companies and organizations. CDR-Data answers clients’ questions about data collection, multiple cost centers, daily review and notification of erroneous call record information.

About Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is one of the world’s most sought-after locales.  Centrally located in greater Los Angeles, Beverly Hills is a premier vacation and business travel destination, boasting beautiful year-round weather, acclaimed full-service and boutique hotel accommodations, sumptuous dining, world-renowned designer boutiques and incomparable shopping. Synonymous with Hollywood glamour, Beverly Hills enjoys an international reputation as the home and playground of A-list movie stars.  The city is not only known worldwide for its grand mansions and chic shops along Rodeo Drive, but also for its multitude of art and architecture, spas and salons, and walkable drives.
About CDR-Data Corporation - CDR-Data Corporation, based in Pasadena, CA, http://www.cdrdata.com/, consists of a group of professionals with decades of experience in the Telemanagement, Call Accounting and IT industry. By using an ASP environment, this team has consistently delivered proven products and services that provide answers to management's questions of telecommunications usage and billing. CDR-Data has gained its market share by consistently delivering high quality and flexible solutions to each and every CDR-Data client.
For more information:

CDR-Data Corporation       Kevin Young                         626-791-7900
The City of Beverly Hills      Cheryl Burnett                      310-285-2454
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