NIH makes more CIO-SP3 on-ramp awards

The National Institutes of Health has named 20 companies as the intended winners for the HUBzone portion inits on-ramp process for the $20 billion CIO-SP3 Small Business contract for IT services.

"Intended" is the operative word because it is a small business award. NIH had to post its intent to make the awards so that others have the opportunity to challenge whether the companies actually meet the small business threshold.

NIH followed the same process when it made awards to 38 service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses in April. Still to come are on-ramp awards to 8(a) companies and general small businesses.

Companies can challenge the HUBzone (historically underutilized business zone) status and small business size of the winners before the awards are finalized. Challenges can be submitted through 4 p.m. Eastern time on June 20 to ciosp3restricted@mail.nih.gov .

After the awards are official, companies can then file a protest with the Government Accountability Office if they wish to challenge other aspects of the award.

One protest is pending at GAO involving the service-disabled, veteran-owned awards.

The CIO-SP3 contract or Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 3 contract is a governmentwide vehicle that agencies can use to purchase a wide-range of IT services.

NIH established the on-ramp process as a way to encourage competition by bringing on new entrants.

“The CIO-SP3 Small Business ramp-on period is an important mechanism for encouraging competition on the GWAC, providing more opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses, while also improving prices for our agency customers,” said Bridget Gauer, director of the NIH IT Acquisition and Assessment Center, which runs the CIO-SP3 contract.

The winners are:

1. Analytica, LLC

2. Centerpoint, Inc.

3. CompQsoft, Inc

4. Delmock Technologies, Inc

5. Enlightened, Inc

6. FWG Solutions

7. Ideal System Solutions, Inc.

8. Index Analytics, LLC

9. MASAI Technologies Corporation

10. Nester Consulting LLC

11. Paradyme Management , Inc.

12. RELI Group, Inc

13. RightDirection Technology Solutions, LLC

14. SD Solutions, LLC

15. SoftDev Incorporated

16. T-Rex Consulting Corporation

17. Valiant Solutions, LLC

18. VariQ-CV JV

19. Williams Consulting

20. Zip Zap IT Solutions, LLC