GSA pulls back on next Alliant contract

The General Services Administration has given companies its first look at the next iteration of the government-wide Alliant technology solution and service contracting tool.

In a draft call for proposals released Thursday, the GSA said the window for questions and comments about Alliant 3 would be open until January. June 6, 2023.

Alliant is the flagship tool operated by the GSA for federal agencies to acquire solutions and services, which the draft request for proposal calls “all possible aspects of IT services.”

Page 12 of the draft RFP contains a complete list of example technology areas that the GSA has prioritized.

The release comes nearly two months after the GSA announced it would increase the cap on the current Alliant 2 contract from $50 billion to $75 billion. GSA needs enough runway to transition to version 3 and meet the needs of other agencies.

According to GSA’s own forecasts at the time, the Alliant 2 order book in Year 6 of the contract would reach $65 billion.

By now, one may have noticed that the 10-year Alliant 3 vehicle is not given a dollar value that represents the highest value.

There is no cap until the ongoing review and approval process.

The GSA has also gone down the path of Polaris, its government-wide contract tool for IT solutions reserved for small businesses (now under protest), with no clear cap; the next iteration of the OASIS Professional Services tool is still in pre-solicitation.

There is a section in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act that authorizes the construction of contract vehicles in a way that shifts pricing from the master contract level to individual task orders.

The Alliant 3 is also the latest example where cost and pricing information was not a factor in evaluating ride-on proposals, as is the case with Polaris, which is now protesting. This type of competition will take place at the task order level.

Self-scoring will be how GSA evaluates bids to win an Alliant 3 seat, for which the agency intends to make at least 60 awards, taking into account the possibility of tied scores.

In the event of a tie at 60th place, all proposers with the same score will be rewarded. If a tie score occurs anywhere else before 60th, GSA will give an example as one bidder gets 39th and the second gets slot number 40.

That means when all is said and done, including any post-award protests, there could be more than 60 awards.

Alliant 3 has also set a goal of subcontracting 50 percent of the funding to small businesses. Page 69 of the draft RFP provides additional benchmarks for various socioeconomic categories of small businesses.

GSA’s broad timeline for future steps has been set for February 2023, as it will set a release date for the final tender after a thorough review of questions and comments.

In any event, the GSA will not issue a final request for proposals until May 2023.

Concurrent with the release of the draft RFP, the GSA released a video that provides a high-level explanation of Alliant 3’s plans and goals.

Click here to watch the video with this password – 72eE*!xp



Source link