GSA unveils 2 batches of ‘apparently profitable’ Polaris bidders

The General Services Administration has made two new rounds of alternatives for firms it has deemed as apparently profitable offerors for Polaris, a government-wide IT contract automobile reserved for small companies.

Those two phrases “apparently successful” are crucial because GSA’s unveiling of these two lists opens the window for protests over whether companies on them are small businesses or not.

It is also important to note that GSA is taking a phased approach to making awards for Polaris across different socioeconomic categories of small businesses. GSA is continuing to evaluate proposals and no one has been eliminated from the competition yet.

GSA made those reminders to Polaris bidders on Thursday when it unveiled 27 apparently successful offerors for the service-disabled/veteran-owned pool, along with 32 for the HUBZone pool.

Polaris’ pool for women-owned small businesses remains in source selection mode, while the general small business pool remains the subject of an active protest case at the Court of Federal Claims that started in February.

GSA set up Polaris as a 10-year vehicle for agencies to acquire emerging technologies and IT solutions in areas such as artificial intelligence, automation, immersive technology, distributed ledger technology and edge computing.