The General Services Administration (GSA) has announced the next round of bid submissions for its multibillion-dollar Polaris contract.
The second round of bids comes despite multiple delays to the bid submission deadlines for the solicitation’s first two pools.
The solicitation is specifically for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB) and Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone). They have until Nov. 4 to submit their proposals. Small businesses and women-owned small businesses (WSOB) have until 4 p.m. on Oct. 7th to submit their proposals
“GSA places a high level of importance on supporting small and disadvantaged IT service providers as they form relationships and do business with the Federal government,” Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Sonny Hashmi said in a press release. “Polaris will guide small businesses through the Federal market, with pathways to grow into our other contracts.”
Polaris is GSA’s new small business-focused governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC) vehicle, which aims to build equity in Federal procurement. It will allow government agencies to obtain a range of services – cloud platforms, cybersecurity, and software development technology – and it’s expected to run to billions of dollars and has no ceiling.
In addition, Polaris is the first GWAC vehicle of its kind to feature four different pools of industry partners: small business, WSOB, HUBZone, and SDVOSB.
“Emerging technologies are key enablers for a more efficient government. GSA will bring innovative small and socioeconomic small businesses into the contract so Federal agencies can tap into their expertise to drive IT modernization and improve service delivery,” said Laura Stanton, the assistant commissioner for the GSA Office of Information Technology Category.
