GSA opens second round of bid submissions for multibillion-dollar Polaris solicitation
The General Services Administration opened the latest round of bid submissions for the multibillion-dollar Polaris IT solicitation Friday.
As part of the next round of solicitations, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and businesses that are part of HUBZone pools will be able to submit proposals. They have until Nov. 4 to do so.
Polaris is one of the most keenly anticipated governmentwide IT acquisition vehicles that will allow government agencies to obtain a range of services including cloud platforms, cybersecurity and software development technology. It is expected to run to billions of dollars and has no ceiling.
The opening of the second round comes despite multiple delays to the bid submission deadlines for the solicitation’s first two pools. Following a fifth deadline extension earlier this month, small businesses and woman-owned small businesses have until 4 p.m. on Sept. 23 to submit their proposals.
Commenting on the new submission round, Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Sonny Hashmi said: “GSA places a high level of importance on supporting small and disadvantaged IT service providers as they form relationships and do business with the federal government.” He added: “Polaris will guide small businesses through the federal market, with pathways to grow into our other contracts.”
The recent deadline extension for the solicitation’s first two pools was meant to give prospective offerors more time to submit proposals following the discovery of errors with SAM.gov.
The federal government earlier this year began using non-proprietary 12-character UEI numbers for all entities working with federal government agencies after it moved away from DUNS numbers, which have been used since 1962.
