Elizabeth Leigh
Government contracting analyst Chris Dixon believes there is potential as well as risk for technology vendors working with consortium-based buyers and they must include several factors in their risk assessments, he writes in a column published Saturday by the Washington Post.
Dixon, a senior manager at Deltek, writes state and local governments buy as a consortium when the units themselves initiate to procure through the “ground-up” method; or when a policy or funding body requires or gives incentive to such a consortium via the “top down” method.
Ground-up groups tend to involve a slower sales cycle and be less stable, while the top-down group could still bring technical challenges for the vendor, Dixon explained.
He recommends technology vendors factor into their business plans how consortiums could dissolve, authority of federal and state governments over lower jurisdictions, form contingency plans if consortiums break up and develop individual relationships with consortium members.
