Verizon Business will help the U.S. Department of Interior manage and track the expenses for more than 22,000 mobile devices, under a new managed services contract.

Under the two-year deal, worth up to $15 million if all three additional one-year optional extensions are exercised, Verizon Business will provide expense-management services for mobile phones, personal digital assistants and other wireless devices used by the Interior Department, which has eight bureaus nationwide. The bureaus are: the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Land Management, the Office of Surface Mining, the Minerals Management Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Reclamation.

The Interior Department indicated it was looking for a solution that allowed for greater visibility into where wireless devices were deployed and how much was being spent.

Verizon Business will provide a custom solution to help the agency track and manage expenses and identify efficiencies. The solution covers ordering, billing, inventory management, invoice processing, payment auditing and claims recovery for wireless devices used within the Interior Department. The service covers devices provided by any wireless provider, and the contract includes a Web portal and help-desk support 24 hours-a-day, seven days a week. Verizon Business is providing the custom service via a strategic business relationship with ProfitLine, a leading provider of outsourced telecom expense management and managed mobility solutions.

The company offers both wireline and wireless expense-management services as part of its broad portfolio of managed services that also includes wireline wide- and local-area networking, IP telephony and wireless local area networking, as well as a host of professional services.

Verizon Business will work with the Interior Department to compile comprehensive inventories of wireless assets, including equipment and services. Verizon Business will manage the procurement of wireless services through a customer-established corporate catalog of approved services, and analyze wireless plans to identify unauthorized usage and unused devices. Advanced analytical capabilities will enable Verizon Business and ProfitLine to work with the Interior Department to compare wireless plans against a database of national plans to determine cost-effective alternatives.

Verizon Business has a long history with the Interior Department and has provided managed network services since 2004. Verizon Business manages the Interior Department’s multiprotocol-label-switching (MPLS) IP network round-the-clock, 365 days a year out of the company’s dedicated Government Network Operations and Security Center (GNOSC) in Ashburn, Va. This network supports many aspects of the Interior Department, from operations to administration of such organizations as National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife service and others.

Verizon Business, the largest provider of communications services to the U.S. federal government, serves virtually every federal agency and is one of the largest providers of advanced data, Internet and voice communications services globally. It offers local-to-global-to-local network capabilities coupled with a broad range of telecommunications products and services, including managed network services and systems integration, to all levels of government.