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PPEA: A way for Virginia to discriminate against small businesses?

The other day, I saw a solicitation on eVA for a product that we sell.  Seeing an opportunity, I prepared a proposal for said product and the associated services.  I decided to hand deliver this proposal.  I was fortunate enough to be able to hand my proposal to the local County Administrator.  After some small talk, he asked me if I had my $5,000.00 check?  I was confused!?!  What was he talking about???

It was at this point that he informed me that the County was only accepting proposals that complied with the PPEA procedures adopted by the County.  So, I started my research…

  • PPEA is the Public-Private Educational Facilities Infrastructure Act of 2002. It is outlined here:  https://dgs.virginia.gov/PPEA/tabid/62/Default.aspx
  • PPEA allows Counties to establish their own Purchasing Policy implementing PPEA.
  • This PPEA Purchasing Policy can include a “Proposal Review Fee.”
  • This particular PPEA Purchasing Policy says: “the County will require an initial processing fee of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) with an additional proposal fee of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00) to be charged should the project proceed beyond the initial review. The initial processing fee shall be submitted with the initial proposal or competing proposal. The County will refund any portion of fees paid in excess of its direct costs which include, but are not limited to, all staff costs, outside consultants, financial advisors, engineers and attorney’s fees associated with evaluating the proposal. In the event either the initial processing fee of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) or the additional proposal fee of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00) is insufficient to cover all of the direct costs incurred by the County, the proposer shall pay such additional direct costs incurred by the County in reviewing the proposal.”
  • It is not uncommon for these PPEA Proposal Review Fees to reach $50,000. Here are some examples:  (I wish I was able to charge $50,000 to read every proposal that comes across my desk.)
    1. http://resources.dhrm.virginia.gov/rfps/ppea/emails.pdf
    2. http://www.vita.virginia.gov/itpartnership/default.aspx?id=445
    3. http://www.rrha.org/2009/html/11pdfs/Summary.pdf

So, Counties (and State Agencies & Institutions) in Virginia apparently have the right to charge businesses $5,000 to $50,000 (or more?) just to read their proposals for products and/or services.  In my example above:

  • A big manufacturer paid a County $5,000 to read their ~$2,500,000 proposal
  • the County was unable to read a local small business’ $777,000 proposal

In summary, it looks like PPEA is a mechanism for Virginia to discriminate against small businesses.  And, I have a hard time seeing how the County is going to benefit by purchasing a solution that is ~$1,700,000 more expensive, but included a $5,000 initial processing fee.

(some of) the power of Radio over IP

Lately, in the lab, we have been tinkering with Radio Over IP Gateways.  Since we love standards, we spent a significant amount of time with Icom America’s VE-PG3, because it “speaks” the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

Just like most other Radio Over IP Gateways in the marketplace, the VE-PG3 can connect two or more radio sites over an IP network.  In this configuration, received radio audio is bridged to opposing radio sites of the network.  This bridge mode can connect dispersed radio sites over the network and can provide cross band, cross category communication.

This technology is already in use by the Virginia State Police.  They call it COMLINC (Commonwealth’s Link to Interoperable Communications).  It enables adjoining jurisdictions totally different radio systems (such as Hanover County’s 800 MHz system and Powhatan County’s VHF system) to be connected.  This is how they are going to catch you if you go speeding from Hanover into Powhatan!

I believe that we will see this technology being used even more in the near future.  One example I can think of is Virginia’s electric cooperatives.  If Northern Neck Electric Cooperative (IDAS on 153MHz) needs to talk to Rappahanock Electric Cooperative (TaitNet MPT 1327 on 217MHz), this is a great way to make it happen.

But, going beyond connecting two or more radio sites is where the VE-PG3 really starts to shine, because it can convert radio audio into SIP.

These were some of the immediate benefits that we were able to see in the lab:

  1. Eliminate EXPENSIVE virtual radio/dispatcher software on PCs by using any SIP softphone/hard phone. (Hint, here are 20 FREE SIP Softphones.)
  2. Use a SIP softphone on any device (think Android, iPhone, etc.) to talk to your radios.
  3. Use a SIP Trunk to talk to your radios. Anyone with any phone can call a telephone number and talk to your radios.
  4. Use all of the features of Asterisk on your radio system. Imagine the literally endless possibilities:
  • Get Call Detail Records for all of your radio traffic
  • Record all of your radio traffic
  • (Conference Bridging.) Bridge any mix of any number of PCs, Androids, iPhones, analog phones, radio systems, paging systems, etc.

If you couldn’t tell, we are excited to see standards coming to the Radio over IP marketplace.

If you are looking to take advantage of Radio over IP, please contact us at (804) 625-4233 or sales AT richmondrf DOT com.