Getting on the list can be difficult. Most states have a 'Statewide
Contract' which means negotiating with the state purchasing folks. They
often demand special concessions (you can never charge us more than you
charge any other customer), access to internal sales information (so
they know that they are getting 'the best price'), and generally make
the process difficult. They are very tough negotiators and often make
their initial demands totally unreasonable so that you just give up.
Some things that can help: Be a HUB (Historically Underutilized
Business, usually women or minority owned with bonus points for being
both), work with (subcontract to) someone who is already on both the
approved vendors list and on the statewide contract, and finally have a
bunch of contract lawyers and negotiators to handle the purchasing
department. This being government you will also tend to get good mileage
out of lobbyists (who generally are not cheap) and/or friendly
politicians (who should be freely accessible, but lately have in the
news for not being so freely accessible).
Good luck!
Rich
Bill McGonigle wrote:
On Jan 10, 2006, at 08:48, Python wrote:
However, I suspect another
issue is the RFP process commonly used for government purchases. Many
open source projects have no sales or marketing arm to deal with an RFP.
Does anyone know if that really is an obstacle to getting open source to
be considered in government?
This may be a catch-22. I've considered applying for the approved
vendors list (there's a real name for that) but was told open source
solutions aren't usually considered so I didn't.
-Bill
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