“The General Services Administration (GSA) plans to release a final request for proposal (RFP) for its new Polaris small business IT contract by summer 2021.”
“This week’s update to Bloomberg Government’s Top 20 Opportunities, Polaris is a new governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC). It emerged as a replacement for Alliant II Small Business (A2SB), following a protest decision in March 2019 that forced GSA to ditch A2SB awards.”
“Polaris will fill a major gap left by A2SB for agencies to acquire IT service-based solutions from small business that have a range of cutting-edge technologies. Detailed in a March 9 agency announcement, the contract will be divided into three subcategories, or pools, for companies as follows: HUBZone businesses, women-owned small businesses (WOSB), and other small businesses.”
“Contract requirements competed within those pools aim to support governmentwide IT modernization initiatives. To qualify for a Polaris contract award, companies will need experience performing one of seven defined performance areas including: cloud services, cybersecurity, data management, information and communications technologies, IT operations and maintenance, software development, and system design.”
“GSA designed the contract based on feedback from industry following an August 2020 forum and comments solicited through its Small Business GWAC Community of Interest, which it stood up around October 2020. A draft RFP was issued in Dec. 2020.”
“The exact final RFP release date is uncertain and the government provided…” Read the full article here.
Source: Top 20: GSA Plans ‘Summer’ Release for Polaris Final RFP – By Daniel Snyder, March 12, 2021. Bloomberg Government.
