Why you don't have Networx answers

We don't often talk about what we have to do to go about getting a story. I generally believe that you don't care -- nor should you. You care about the story itself. But the Networx-Treasury TCE case is interesting because there are real questions about the impending Networx contract, and yet we -- you -- don't have answers.

Some background: Literally just before the holiday, Treasury announced that it was going to dump TCE and go with Networx. Treasury was getting all sorts of pressure to go with a governmentwide telecom contract rather than the agency-only route.

Yet from the time Treasury made its announcement that it was killing TCE, GSA officials have deferred all questions -- and there are real questions -- that the agreement with Treasury has raised.

Yet GSA has essentially outsourced discussions about Networx to Treasury -- an agency that doesn't really care about the viability of Networx, when it comes right down to it.

I understand that GSA and Treasury have essentially agreed that Treasury will address questions about TCE. I'm perplexed by such an agreement -- why would one agree not to talk about something that is so vital to the agency.

But more to the point, when it comes down to it,TCE is really a sidebar. The real story is what this means for Networx. Government agencies and potential Networx vendors are interested and concerned about Networx and what the Treasury deal means for Networx. The bottom line is that people have questions about Networx, not TCE, and I don't understand why GSA would not want to be a part of that discussion.

I actually reached out to GSA and urged them to talk about Networx -- to get them to address the questions swirlling around.

They asked me to send them some questions and here is what I sent:

The general questions are about the viability of Networx given the concessions that have been made to Treasury. Is Nexworx still viable for GSA?

Will this essentially set the management fee for this contract? Does this agreement cause any shifting in how the agency proceeds with Networx?

Networx is indeed still viable regardless of our MOA with Treasury and we don't anticipate this agreement affecting anything in our transition process as we work with our federal customers to transition from FTS2001 to Networx. Let me research the management fee question and get back to you.