The General Services Administration has selected 557 small businesses as second phase awardees on the potential $50 billion 8(a) Streamlined Technology Acquisition Resource for Services III governmentwide contract for information technology services.
GSA said Thursday the award of the 8(a) STARS III GWAC’s second cohort to underserved and disadvantaged businesses further advances efforts to increase federal agencies’ access to artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, blockchain and other emerging technologies and enable agencies to implement supply chain risk management practices and meet their sustainability goals.
Sonny Hashmi, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said the latest award marks another step in pushing GSA’s commitment to supporting and delivering modern IT platforms to federal agencies.
“Small businesses are the backbone of this nation’s economy. I’m proud of our partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration to create and sustain growth opportunities for socioeconomically disadvantaged companies in the federal IT space,” added Hashmi, a previous Wash100 Award winner.
The agency expects to issue all awardees notices to proceed within the next 30 days and plans to award the third and final cohort later in fiscal year 2022.
“Since their inception in 1997, more than $20 billion has been awarded through GSA’s 8(a) GWACs, with more than 2,000 8(a) industry partners gaining new access to the federal IT marketplace through this program,” said Laura Stanton, GSA’s assistant commissioner for the office of IT category.
In June 2021, GSA announced the selection of 426 small businesses as initial cohort of awardees on the 8(a) STARS III GWAC.
