The General Services Administration has released requests for proposals for Historically Underutilized Business Zone and service-disabled veteran-owned small business pools of the Polaris governmentwide acquisition contract for information technology products and services.
GSA said Friday it will accept proposals through Nov. 4 for SDVOSB and HUBZone pools of Polaris, which supports a January 2021 executive order that promotes racial equity for underserved communities.
The Polaris GWAC SDVOSB and HUBZone pools are multiple-award, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts that seek to provide customized IT services across emerging technology areas, including artificial intelligence, automation technology, distributed ledger technology, advanced and quantum computing, edge computing and immersive technology.
The two pools also encompass performance areas such as cybersecurity, cloud services, data management, information and communications technologies, IT operations and maintenance, system design and software development.
“Polaris will guide small businesses through the federal market, with pathways to grow into our other contracts,” said Sonny Hashmi, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service and a previous Wash100 Award winner.
GSA said the contract’s key features include increased competition at the task order level; expanded opportunities for small disadvantaged businesses to participate; on-ramps; award of the GWAC without a contract ceiling; and a technical refresh clause that can be activated to meet customers’ needs.
In June, GSA reissued a solicitation for the small business pool of Polaris after integrating changes to submission requirements for relevant experience concerning mentor-protege arrangements and joint ventures.
In March, the agency initially released the RFPs for small business and women-owned small business pools but decided to pause the solicitations in April to pave the way for a review following receipt of feedback regarding the evaluation of joint ventures under the contract.
