Media Contact: 
Will Wiquist, 202-418-0509
will.wiquist@fcc.gov
For Immediate Release
FCC INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TEAM RECOGNIZED WITH THE AFFIRM 
LEADERSHIP AWARD IN CLOUD COMPUTING
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WASHINGTON, June 22, 2015 – The Federal Communications Commission was recognized with 
the Association for Federal Information Resources Management’s (“AFFIRM”) Leadership Award 
in Cloud Computing. A first-time AFFIRM Leadership Award recipient, the FCC information 
technology team is being honored for its role in developing the new Consumer Help Desk. The 
FCC was the only recipient of a team award from AFFIRM this year.
“It takes a team to not only make complete an important project, like the Consumer Help Desk, 
but also to do it within a tight budget and timeline,” said FCC Managing Director Jon 
Wilkins. “We all thank CIO Dr. David Bray and his team for their outstanding work on this project 
and look forward to their continued success in helping the agency as well as the consumers and 
businesses with whom we work.”
The information technology team developed the Consumer Help Center, eliminating the 
previous paper-based system in favor of an online system. This new online system allows for 24-
hour filing, tracking and handling of complaints and uses a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service 
(SaaS) model, which embodies the FCC’s approach to IT moving forward.
For systems using the traditional in-house, “on-premise” model, the FCC received estimates of 
approximately $3.2 million over 1-2 years. The new system’s price tag of only $450,000 
represents savings of 85 percent to taxpayers. From purchase of the technology to the launch of 
the platform, the process took approximately six months to complete. The new, easy-to-use-
system has been praised by the Commissioners and public advocacy groups alike.
AFFIRM has presented Leadership Awards to recognize leaders in the Information Technology 
community since 1979. Previous winners of the award include Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS), 
Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), and Robert J. Carey, Deputy 
Assistant Secretary of Defense. This is the first award to be given to the FCC. 
Dr. Barry A. West, AFFIRM President, presented the AFFIRM Leadership Award to the FCC 
Information Technology Team on June 17, 2015 at the AFFIRM Celebration of Government 
Leadership. The event took place at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. 
The FCC’s Consumer Help Desk can be visited here: https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov.
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Office of Media Relations: 202.418.0500
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www.fcc.gov/office-media-relations
This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action. Release of the full text of a Commission order 
constitutes official action. See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).