Small Business Gets a Slice of Alliant GWAC In an about-face following protests from the small business community, GSA will set aside a portion of its $65 billion Alliant governmentwide acquisition contract for small IT firms. Under a plan announced Feb. 11, there will be two contracts: Alliant, an unrestricted competition, and Alliant Small Business, a set-aside. Up to 40 awards will be made under the small-business vehicle, but they will be limited to two functional areas, information systems engineering and systems operation and maintenance. The contract will have a ceiling of $15 billion over 10 years, according to the website www.gsa.gov/alliant. That is 23% of the two GWACs’ total value, equal to the small business goal set by Congress. GSA’s acquisition plan for Alliant came under fire last year after the agency said there would be no set-asides and small firms would have to form teams to compete, because of the scope of the contract. (SAA, 4/16/2004) Small-business advocates, including SBA, pressed for changes in the plan. “Consistent with our ‘Get It Right’ initiative to achieve excellence in federal acquisitions, we have worked with stakeholders to develop the best approach,” GSA Administrator Stephen Perry said. “This is an important win for small business that will help to advance President Bush’s small-business agenda, as it relates to federal procurement,” said SBA Administrator Hector Barreto. “The dual tracks will give small business prime contractors their own contract vehicle, and will go along way toward helping federal agencies achieve their small business contracting goals.” The unrestricted Alliant contract sets a small business subcontracting goal of 50%: 6% for small disadvantaged businesses, 5% for woman-owned businesses and 3% each for HUBZone and service-disabled veteran owned businesses, according to agency documents. About 20 awards in eight functional areas are anticipated under that contract. GSA plans to submit its business case to the Office of Management and Budget and to issue draft RFP’s for the two contracts next month. Pre-solicitation conferences are tentatively set for April 18 in Washington and April 26 in San Diego. Final RFPs will be issued around July, and awards will be made in mid-2006, the agency said. The Alliant contracts replace several other GWACs, which will be allowed to expire. GSA’s Small Business GWAC Center in Kansas City, MO, will manage the Alliant Small Business procurement. It also runs the 8(a) and HUBZone GWACs and is developing a GWAC for service-disabled veteran owned businesses. The Enterprise GWAC Center in San Diego will manage the unrestricted procurement. To see GSA’s PowerPoint presentation on the contracts, go to www.gsa.gov/alliant, click on “Press Release” on the left side of the screen and scroll down to the bottom of the document.