FGDC Announces SmartBuy RFQ

The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) has released a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for vendors to become part of a SmartBuy agreement, under the Geospatial Line of Business (GLoB), to provide geospatial technology to government agencies.

The SmartBuy agreement is to be a multi-vendor Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) covering a broad spectrum of government agencies and technologies.

[To] provide small, medium, and large government users a common portfolio of geospatial technology options. Types of software within the scope of the RFQ include computer aided design, web-based visualization, imagery analysis, geo-coding, national and international road networks, and geospatial analytics and modeling.

NSGIC members are watching this process closely, since this agreement will be open to state, tribal, and local governments. While some states have already established "enterprise level" agreements with some geospatial vendors, the new SmartBuy agreement promises to open up more technologies and to help increase the use and sharing of geospatial tools and data among more levels of government.