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GSA imagines a new small-business GWAC
$126.3 billion
is the aggregate value of the prime contracts on Washington Technology’s 2020 Top 100
The General Services Administration gave the public a look at its next step in developing the new small-business governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC) that will eventually replace the canceled Alliant 2 Small Business contract.
The new vehicle will emphasize Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) and woman-owned set-asides for small companies and streamline the processes for pricing and submitting contracts. It will also offer a source for emerging artificial intelligence, machine learning, as-a- service, cloud, edge computing and cybersecurity technologies, according to GSA officials.
They have asked industry leaders for input on how to maximize technol- ogies, simplify processes and ensure the ease of use of the new vehicle. In a webcast in late August, they gave an overview of how they envision the next-generation small-business contract developing in the coming months.
A draft solicitation will likely be issued by the end of the year, said Lee
Tittle, program lead for small-business GWACs in GSA’s Office of IT Category. To accommodate industry input and disseminate information on the effort, GSA opened a new category on its Interact online community.
Carlton Shufflebarger, the office’s acting executive director of IT services, said the new vehicle will focus on HUBZone and woman- owned firms because they don’t have their own vehicles, unlike other small companies and veteran-owned small businesses as defined by the Small Business Administration.
GSA officials want the new vehi- cle to offer a streamlined source of emerging technologies from small- business innovators, said Allen Hill, the agency’s acting deputy assistant commissioner for category manage- ment. They would also like the new vehicle to provide a more coherent growth path for small businesses as their size and the scope of their offer- ings increase, he added.
Furthermore, GSA is considering implementing new approaches to pricing and introducing operational
techniques that will streamline applica- tion processes under the contract, said Alex Wrisinger, a contracting officer for IT services contracting operations in the Office of IT Category. Those changes seek to make it easier for companies to prepare bid responses, which can be a challenge for firms that are new to government contracting, he added.
Officials are also considering using a new authority that would allow them to negotiate pricing at the ordering level under the GWAC rather than at the contract level. The change is arcane, but it would allow for more realistic pricing for IT services in response to task orders and more accurately reflect agency customers’ needs. GSA issued a notice asking about changes to order-level competition rules in August.
The next-generation contract fol- lows GSA’s cancellation of its Alliant 2 Small Business contract in July, after it had endured a year of protests at the Government Accountability Office and in federal court.
— Mark Rockwell
FCW CALENDAR
9/25Acquisition
Mary Davie, NASA’s
deputy associate administrator for mission support transformation, is among the speakers at a
Virtual Power Breakfast on doing business with NASA.
Online
WashingtonTechnology.com/NASA
10/6IT modernization Rep. Gerry Connolly
(D-Va.), USDA CIO Gary Washington and Defense Digital Service Deputy Director Katie Olson are among the speakers at FCW’s IT Modernization Summit. Online
FCW.com/Modernization
10/8Innovation USCIS’ Courtney
Winship, HHS’ John O’Grady and the Air Force’s Marc Vandeveer are presenters at the final Federal 100 Virtual Winner Showcase.
Online
Fed100.com
September/October 2020 FCW.COM 3