The General Services Administration (GSA) extended the proposal deadline for its new IT Services contract, Polaris. Proposals for the Small Business (SB) and Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB) competition categories are now due September 9 no later than 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET).
Bidders must submit their proposals electronically via the Polaris Submission Portal. Some bidders have reported difficulties with part of this process involving validating their entity information in SAM.gov. Bidders experiencing SAM.gov delays must notify the Polaris CO no later than Friday, August 19, 2022 via email to Polaris@gsa.gov.
In Amendment 4 to the Polaris Request for Proposals (RFP), GSA updated the scorecard for bidders wanting to claim additional points for Demonstrating Experience with Multiple Federal Government Customers. GSA clarified that Task orders placed against a Multiple Award Blanket Purchase Agreement or a Multiple Award Basic Ordering Agreement are eligible for scoring for this element.
There will be additional ways to bid on Polaris beyond the September deadline. GSA has yet to issue final RFPs for the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) competition pool and the Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) pool. Bidders can compete in multiple pools, and a single project can be used more than once if it’s used in different pools (i.e., WOSB, HUBZone, SB, SDVOSB). However, if a project appears in more than one proposal in the same pool, GSA will reject that project in every proposal where it appears.
Polaris is a Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) with no contract ceiling. GSA’s goal for Polaris is to build on the success of 8(a) STARS III and VETS 2 with a greater emphasis on “emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, automated technology, distributed ledger technology, edge computing, and immersive technology while furthering Administration efforts on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.”
OST Global Solutions is here to help maximize your score on your Polaris bid. We will help you develop a scorecard, perform a gap analysis to ensure that you make the cut-off score, and find ways to help you out-score your competition. We can also assist with submitting your proposal to GSA. No matter how much assistance you require, we’re here to help.
For the latest updates on the Polaris contract, see our Polaris contract page.
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