| I went to go look at what the GSA and feds do for QB and ran into something new to me. Many companies that license software will offer terms for a special contract and perpetual licensing. But then in the new order[0] “recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) indicates that agencies buy and manage software licenses in a decentralized manner, struggle to create accurate inventories, often purchase unneeded capabilities, and generally do not facilitate better purchasing by sharing pricing or terms and conditions across the Government. Furthermore, most agencies do not have a designated central oversight authority to manage software agreements. This memorandum addresses these and other challenges in information technology And “ Enterprise Software Category Team (ESCT),6 co-managed by the General Services Administration (GSA), the Department of Defense (DoD), and OMB, will
guide the development of Government-wide software license agreements for mandatory agency use, and OMB will encourage or direct use of best-in-class existing software licensing
agreements. This memorandum further requires agencies to develop implementation plans, in accordance with ESCT guidance, to address how agencies will move from their existing agreements to those mandated by the ESCT. Agencies must also justify and obtain ESCT approval to pursue new agreements that overlap or conflict with the ESCT mandated agreements.” It goes on. Perpetual licenses are a good idea to have as an option because the company or product might disappear, or in some cases, as I have seen, a company will refuse to sell a licensed version of something for less than benevolent reasons. We can all appreciate the efficiency of adding more bureaucracy and lawyers (general counsel) and layers of managers (the various committees you now have to wrangle into agreement). It occurred to me though that part of the utility of small group acquisitions is that different organizations can buy what they need or want when they decide to without this mess, and the licensing can be arranged to suit the need of that organization. I think this also damages the small seller or company that makes niche programs. Perhaps my business gets contracts from small specialized government teams and groups because it’s a better option for them than the Microsoft sized competition, and now they have to deal with the additional mess of justifying this purchase in addition to being on the same contract terms and volume purchase agreements with the Microsoft sized companies as say the entire IRS. So, my quickbooks compatible software for managing and displaying old versions’ files used by a dozen people in Navy purchasing is at odds with a license from quickbooks used by IRS to allow examiners access to older versions. My income becomes maintenance fees to QB. (This is hypothetical) [0] https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/legacy_drupal_... |