Back on October 21 federal officials held a “Vendor Day” to discuss a new multi-vendor Blanket Purchase Agreement for geospatial products. The focus of the event and the little coverage it received was to highlight how coordinated buying could save the government money and ideally encourage data and technology sharing, consolidated management and quicker delivery of needed tools.
Today FCW highlights some of the concerns voiced by vendors and their representatives. In particular:
- “the government proposes a provision that would let multiple agencies band together on purchases, enabling them to receive bigger discounts than they would get individually” - vendors may lose money on the deal
Perhaps, but most vendors already have “government pricing” of some kind. The question is how much lower can it go? Further, only one vendor ultimately provides each product; that vendor (MapInfo, ESRI, ERDAS…) will set the price in a bid to be in the contract.
- “government analysts worry that the contract might slow geospatial innovation” - once vendors are in, why worry about enhancements
I suppose that’s possible, but many vendors serve both public and private clients and you don’t want to hold back say Exxon by not innovating. Besides, with all the new players in the space, it’s hard to imagine a “slow down” just now.
- “vendors fret that mapping professionals and surveyors might be negatively affected by the contract’s definitions of products and services”
That one sparked concern and action by the Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS) and others . They formally protested the language in the Scope of Work (SOW) with the General Services Administration (GSA), claiming it lumped products and services (mapping and surveying, which are covered under other laws). The SOW was updated to remove such references. and the lead on the BPA stated firmly that the contract is only for products and will not impact contracts for services. Still, as Kass Green, current president of ASPRS points out, the line between the two is still fuzzy: “There is a lot of debate in our community on whether ortho-corrected imagery is a service or a product.”
Matthew Leopard, chairman of the Geospatial Common Services Work Group that is working with GSA and the Office of Management and Budget on the new contract vehicle suggests the BPA will raise all boats, including those of surveyors and mappers: “The mapping community will have a greater opportunity because we will be expanding the use of geospatial tools to make them mainstream.”
