BPAs are fast and easy to create, and they allow agencies to negotiate prices well below the already reduced schedule prices. BPAs have won plaudits and some raspberries. Smart negotiators who really know what they want can use purchasing history to get great deals using BPAs. But less canny agency buyers risk being had, some observers say, because of FSS' laissez faire approach to BPAs. Downsizing in agency contracting offices has left purchasing decisions increasingly in the hands of program staffers less familiar with how to use various purchasing vehicles, including the schedules, he argues.
Somebody has to be the dad.
Naivete leads program managers to make mistakes, especially when buying from the booming information technology schedule, such as failing to specify the results sought when purchasing IT services. You're supposed to have goals and objectives. You should hire people to do something. Mather would like to see FSS do more handholding on the schedules. For example, he'd like to see FSS help customers recognize that they will need to buy installation services in addition to purchasing hardware and software for IT systems, or that the underlying contracts negotiated by FSS may not provide for special needs such as overseas delivery.