One of the glaring oversights in the pursuit of better interoperability and technology is the impact on market economics and innovation. NY just secured a contract with Buffalo Computer Graphics for its software to be freely available to NY counties in addition to it being used by NY State. But "free" isn't always best.  

When this occurs, companies like Buffalo Computer Graphics lack market incentive to continuously innovate because NY essentially "owns" or "runs" the market. As such, they do what NY tells them to do because NY is their largest customer in the State. Additionally, NY State is now in a position to dominate user feedback to serve their own interests rather than locals. Simply said, incentives to do better for everyone are lacking in a contract like this. 

It also unduly influences others such as hospitals or universities to purchase Buffalo's technology due to its out of the box compatibility. However, its technology may not be right for everyone. Many of Buffalo's robust features/capabilities are simply not needed by all organizations and may direct attention away from the core capabilities needed.  

While I do not know the contract specifics, I hope at the very least that NY's contract forces Buffalo to easily allow the complete and comprehensive exchange of data and information that can occur within the software to occur with external software systems.    

Ultimately, I believe this is a terrible idea that NY will regret in 5 years when they don't have the budget to upgrade an ENTIRE system given new advances and innovations, leaving everyone worse off in the long run.