Enterprise License Agreements: Good Practice or Recipe for Disaster

As public sector budgets get smaller, many organizations have tried to consolidate and standardize on technologies to achieve savings. The movement has led many state government entities to consider adopting enterprise license agreements (ELAs) .

Is pursuing an ELA with a vendor a practical way of saving money or a recipe for disaster by locking yourself into a particular technology? I am curious to hear the thoughts of my fellow public sector members.

Thanks!