It’s no surprise that the single largest consumer of video surveillance products is the US Federal government. When you consider the tens of thousands of facilities they manage. The “target” they represent and the governments mandate to provide a safe and secure work environment for the millions of citizens who work in these facilities. This consumption of electronic security and surveillance equipment makes sense.
So how are these systems purchased? Ten years ago it was an arduous process, taking weeks to write a bid specification, weeks to receive bids from contractors and weeks to process the purchase through the painfully slow purchasing departments. There is still a fair amount of this process in place today. But clearly there is a trend towards streamlined purchasing throughout the government. An example is US Marine Sergeants in Baghdad who purchased multiple video surveillance systems for local police departs with government credit cards.
The government has recognized the need for faster, more efficient purchasing processes. One exceptional effort the government should be proud of is the GSA Advantage program. This program screens suppliers. It ranks their performance. It evaluates the products offered, negotiates a low “Fair” price. And then allows any purchasing agent for federal and even local governments to purchase directly without having to go through the old painfully slow purchasing process. In other words the bidding and screening process is performed once. Instead of every time a purchase is needed.
Because this process is performed only once every few years it requires an extensive screening process. There are several stages to the screening. The government utilizes several independent tools to evaluate a potential supplier. These tools include the SBA Small Business Administration, ORCA and independent customer surveys.
To maintain a high level of performance from the suppliers the government requires a performance form completed by the purchasing agent for each purchase. These reports are complied and a performance rating is generated which is continually updated and monitored. This rating is calculated as a percentile. For example a 92 percentile rating means the company performed better than 92 out of every 100 government suppliers. Examples are Halliburton is rated at a 67 percentile and ATK Systems is rated at a 78 percentile.
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