E-commerce in government seems poised to move to a new level as commercial providers persuade agencies to give them a try and GSA works to implement its commercial e-commerce portal mandate.  GSA Schedule, and other IDIQ, contractors are rightly trying to determine what this shift will mean for their federal business.  While head-line grabbing, the impact of commercial systems on government acquisition may be more modest, at least initially, than initial concerns indicate.  The majority of government customers are inherently risk-adverse.  We’ve seen this in the near-glacial adaptation to cloud-based solutions.  It took well over six years to get agencies comfortable with all but the most basic cloud uses, a pace substantially behind their commercial counterparts.  Similarly, anyone who’s heard CIO’s speak in the past 2 years knows that they’re reluctant to embrace substantial change out of concern that senior management won’t support them if attempts at true innovation are made.  In addition to reticence, it’s important to note that the government has long been a net buyer of services, not products.  We’re spending an awful lot of time and energy on the e-commerce project trying to streamline the acquisition process for a minority of government purchases.  While the impact on certain companies may be real, that doesn’t mean that this project will usher in revolutionary change on its own.  Such companies have time, too, to adapt due not only to the above-referenced reticence, but to the time it will take GSA to get any system up and moving.  The bottom line is that while e-commerce will have a role to play in government acquisition, it may not be the center stage part that some envision.