EMC, Canon say good-bye to GSA

Two more household names in the government information technology market have walked away from the General Services Administration.

Canon USA Inc. and EMC Corp. have both dropped their GSA schedules, joining Sun Microsystems Inc. as major companies that couldn't reach an agreement with GSA.

Canon submitted three proposals to GSA, all of which were rejected, company spokesman Mike DeMeo said.

"GSA demanded unreasonable prices," he said. "As a result we couldn't continue." Canon's Schedule 70 contract expired Oct. 31.

EMC officials released a short statement that the contract with GSA expired June 30 according to its terms.

"EMC has numerous other contracts and programs it has established directly with government agencies and EMC business partners to provide our U.S. government customers with EMC solutions," a company spokesman said in an e-mail.

The spokesman added that EMC will continue to serve its U.S. government customers through business partners and other contract vehicles as it has done in the past.

Likewise from Canon ? the lack of a GSA schedule will not influence the company's ability to sell to the government or the way it works with resellers, DeMeo said.

Canon's saga with GSA began in April when it first submitted an offer to continue its schedule contract. The company underwent a pre-award audit, but was not contacted by GSA until Sept. 18 to begin negotiations, DeMeo said.

Because Canon would not agree to GSA's pricing demands, the company withdrew its proposal on Oct. 30, he said.

Another complaint from the company is that it has never received a completed audit report from GSA, DeMeo said.

In fiscal 2006, EMC pulled in $51.3 million in sales through the Schedule 70 and $28.7 million in fiscal 2007. Canon also had $68.1 million in fiscal 2006 and $58.7 million in 2007, according to GSA data compiled by research firm Federal Sources Inc.

DeMeo said he could not say how much business the company did through the schedule versus through resellers and other partners. The company doesn't disclose that information.

Despite the problems with the latest rounds of negotiations, DeMeo said the company remains optimistic about eventually resolving the issue. While not currently in talks with GSA, "I know we would love to talk as soon as possible," he said.