The General Services Administration has dropped its solicitation for the Alliant 2 Small Business contract vehicle and announced plans to implement a new approach to its governmentwide acquisition contracts for small businesses to meet the federal government’s evolving information technology needs and security threats.
“GSA is committed to finding ways for our GWACs to reflect the current IT marketplace so that we can maximize the opportunities for small and women-owned, HUBzone, service-disabled veteran-owned, and 8(a) small businesses to contract with the government for cybersecurity, emerging technology, and IT supply chain risk management needs,” Laura Stanton, acting assistant commissioner at GSA’s office of IT category, said in a statement published Thursday.
“We are working to expand the number of master contract awards to highly qualified small businesses on our GWACs, while focusing on technology requirements that support our customer agencies for future mission success.”
GSA issued a draft request for proposals for the 8(a) Streamlined Technology Application Resource for Services III contract in August and announced Thursday that it will release later in July a solicitation for the 8(a) STARS III vehicle as part of the new strategy for the GWAC program. The final RFP will focus more on emerging technologies, supply chain security and work outside of the continental U.S.
GSA encouraged federal agencies seeking to procure IT services to consider using other contract vehicles for small businesses during the transition such as VETS 2, Multiple Award Schedule – Information Technology and 8(a) STARS II, which now has a ceiling value of $22B.
