GSA gets moving on second batch of Polaris SDVOSB awards
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By
Ross Wilkers
Pending size challenges, this group of 17 companies would join the batch of 27 companies that have been designated official winners.
The General Services Administration has lined up a second batch of service-disabled/veteran-owned small businesses it wants for the Polaris government-wide IT contract.
GSA finalized 23 phase one awards to SDVOSB companies in the fall, then added four more firms to this track of Polaris in December and January. Original apparent awardees DecisionPoint-Agile Defense Joint Venture, Mindven, Paragon-Vertex Joint Venture and Sugarloaf Technologies were left off the final list and subsequently put back on.
In a Tuesday update to Sam.gov, GSA lists 17 SDVOSB companies as apparently successful offerors as part of this track’s second phase of awards. This move opens the window for companies to file protests of whether this group of contractors are, in fact, small businesses or not.
That notice also reiterates what GSA has told industry all along, in that no companies are eliminated from the competition as the agency continues to evaluate bids via its phased approach.
GSA received 251 proposals for the SDVOSB pool.
Polaris is a 10-year vehicle that covers emerging technologies and IT solutions in areas such as artificial intelligence, automation, immersive technology, distributed ledger technology and edge computing.