Federal Geospatial SmartBuy Expands: Four New Vendors Added
ESRI was the first SmartBuy organization (in any discipline) back in 2004. Efforts began in August 2008 to expand the program. The General Services Administration and the Interior Department today announced blanket purchase agreements worth up to $20 million that run for five years. As of today, agencies can buy:
from Onix Networking Corp.: Google and CubeWerx software
from Imager Software, Inc.: ISC MapDotNet software
from Planet Associates Inc.: Planet Infrastructure Relationship Management software
from Science Applications International Corporation: SAIC GeoRover software
I am not familiar with Planet Associates, but I am familiar with CubeWerx a key OGC player based in Canada (with a US office).
This last sentence of the coverage is disturbing and suggests that open source is still not well understood: “GSA also is looking at several other areas including open source, business intelligence and enterprise backup and recovery services, according to the GSA Web site.”
