DOI Plans “Vendor Day” for Multivendor Blanket Purchase Agreement for Geo for Next Tuesday

Check your calendar! Reservations for “Vendor Day” to be held in DC on Oct 21 (next Tuesday) are due this Friday, Oct 17. What is Vendor Day, also called an Industry Day Conference? “Information discussed or presented during the Industry Day Conference will have the sole purpose of providing vendors with an overview of the environment and context in which the Geo LoB operates.”

It seems the DOI is on a roll. Last week it announced the organization’s first GIO, now the Geospatial Line of Business (LOB) about which we’ve been hearing for a few years is in action. The idea of the Geospatial LOB is to consolidate geospatial technology use to save money and better serve agencies and thus the nation.

The first order of business is creating a multi-vendor Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) (press release).

“In the works is a multi-vendor Blanket Purchase Agreement - potentially the largest in history - that will provide small, medium, and large government users a common portfolio of geospatial technology options.” I hope that does not imply those “small, medium and large government users” MUST pick from the list. I hope they can choose from vendors off the list or even use open source solutions. That was not clear to me.

So what types of things covered in the BPA? The press release notes these “types of software” are with the scope: “computer aided design, web-based visualization, imagery analysis, geocoding, national and international road networks, and geospatial analytics and modeling.” To my mind then data and perhaps services may also be included.

The suggested benefits of the BPA are listed in the press release. Perhaps I’m reading this wrong but many sound like they moving toward a limited number of commercial solutions that must interoperate.

·      Cost savings and improved efficiency across government;
·      Enhanced alignment with the Federal Enterprise Architecture by enabling access by all agencies to a common set of services and software;
·      Increased access to value-added services such as training, integration services and batch services;
·      More effective partnerships across the vendor community through a single agreement promoting product and service interoperability;
·      Greater opportunities for innovation such as beta testing of new products with established users (more strategic focus); and
·      Easier access to geospatial technology.

The General Services Administration (GSA) has released a Request for Information dated Oct 8, that’s related to the LOB. There you can find the Scope of Work (download page) which details the “types of software” noted above and the length of the Agreement: “A contract vehicle, inclusive of a 12-month Base Period and four (4) 12-month Option Periods, will be used to obtain geospatial products and services, Geographic Information System (GIS) software, and GIS & Computer Aided Design (CAD) software, based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) standards for GIS software, with associated maintenance and services, both domestically (in all fifty states, including the District of Columbia, and recognized territories) and internationally.  The period of performance for this BPA will be five (5) years from date of award.”