Lehighton Area School District is considering letting an outside consultant comb through a year of its technology and telecommunications bills to hunt for savings at no cost to taxpayers.

The firm, Bluewave Technology Group, would review 12 months of accounts payable data covering IT and telecom spending, plus a month of recent vendor invoices, and deliver a summary of findings within seven to 10 business days. Bluewave charges nothing for the assessment and takes no cut of anything it finds.

According to district documents, Lehighton would keep 100% of any savings identified.

The company projects annual savings of 3% to 10% for districts of Lehighton’s size by flagging billing errors, eliminating redundant services and renegotiating vendor contracts across connectivity, voice systems, cloud and wireless plans.

Superintendent Jason Moser brought the proposal to the board’s Tuesday workshop. The only thing the board would sign is a non-disclosure and authorization agreement.

“It’s a company that offers an assessment of your expenditures, specifically in the areas of technology; so phones, Internet, all types of things that we pay a lot of money for in a district our size,” Moser said. “They don’t take a cost from us, but they look for potential savings.”

Asked how Bluewave makes money, Moser said the firm collects finder’s fees from vendors it steers business toward.

“We’re not necessarily paying it. The companies that they go out and find the contracts for — that’s how they make their money,” he said. “We know nothing’s for free. We all know that. But if there are realized savings, they’re not carving into it.”

Board member William Howland asked whether EDM, the consulting firm that provides Lehighton’s business administrator services, had any experience with Bluewave. Moser said the two have a working relationship.

“EDM is somewhat affiliated. They’re not financially affiliated with them, but they are looking at other districts where EDM is working, and they have found some benefits from it,” Moser said.

EDM would work alongside Bluewave during the initial review, Moser said. Once the firm produces recommendations, the matter returns to the board.

“(Bluewave) won’t actually make the changes. They’re telling you where there are savings to be found,” he said. “At that point in time, they become board decisions.”

Moser said the review would not touch student records.

“What they ask for is information that is actually readily available publicly. There’s no collection of student information or anything like that,” he said. “It’s really contracts.”

He described a district that has not stress-tested its vendor relationships in some time.

“We have a lot of contracts that sometimes are things that get renewed over and over again, and we have not taken a very deep dive look to see if it’s the best market value,” Moser said. “It might be the best price we received from three or four companies that do a lot of local business, but that doesn’t always mean it’s the best thing out there.”

Bluewave’s track record is largely in the private sector, Moser said, and the firm is now pushing into K-12 and higher education.

Board member Jeremy Glaush said a review made sense given how fast the market moves, particularly on security.

“The prices are changing all the time, especially with cybersecurity. It’s getting worse out there,” Glaush said. “To get a bearing on cybersecurity, something like this would be great.”

Moser told the board the district is not obligated to proceed at all.

“We technically would not have to go into an agreement with them. I’m bringing it to you so that you know that we’re trying to do this,” he said. “If we can save even 2%, it’s worthwhile because there’s no cost to us.”

No vote was taken at the workshop. The agreement is dated Oct. 10 and is expected to come before the board at its Oct. 26 meeting.