After a concerted media and fax campaign aimed at the Conservative government, Ottawa agreed last month to delay the final version of its new tender – officially called a standing offer – which was supposed to be finished this month.
Instead, another proposed version will be released in September, after which it will ask for vendor and VAR reaction.
Public Works said the deadline is being extended because it is “contemplating changes designed to increase access” of bidders.
At the same time, release of the first version of a proposed standing offer for servers, desktops and laptops appears to have been pushed behind schedule.
But the president of the Canadian IT Providers Assoc-iation, a reseller and vendor lobby group, isn’t sure how deep the changes in the printer standing offer will go.
“They did not say what kind of changes they will incorporate,” said Herman Yeh, who is also president of Ottawa VAR Northern Micro.
On the other hand, he acknowledged that “all the indications are that they are trying to see what the industry is trying to propose. But what they are saying very clearly is ‘Don’t just come in to complain about it but come up with some solution.’”
The new tender rules are part of Public Works’ goal of squeezing out $2.5 billion in purchasing savings for all commodities the government buys over the next five years.
Ottawa uses the standing offer process to compile a list of eligible suppliers departments can buy from. In the new tender for printers, the association says the proposed rules will pit successful vendors against each other.
Public Works officials noted the current system allows losing vendors to submit new bids. But Yeh’s association says the proposed system will create reverse auctions that will slice profits from suppliers.
“We don’t question the intention of saving taxpayers money,” said Yeh. “But the way they are doing it just doesn’t work.”
His association has 31 members, including national VARs such as Xwave and Metafore. Industry members include Samsung, Viewsonic, Tech Data, Ingram Micro, Supercom, 3COM, HP, Apple, Targus and Toshiba.
Before the printer delay was announced Public Works had signalled that while it wanted to hear from the industry it wouldn’t tear apart the proposed standing offer.
“It is possible we may need to make modifications,” Marshall Moffat, director general of the department’s Office of Small and Medium Enterprises said in an interview, “but we’re not considering at this point that wholesale change will be required.”
