The General Services Administration (GSA) https://www.gsa.gov, is developing the next- generation Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) also to be known as Polaris the Guiding Star. Polaris will not only guide small businesses through the federal market, but also help GSA customer agencies acquire IT service-based solutions.
In August, GSA hosted a forum to discuss how GSA’s Next Small Business GWAC will provide opportunities for small businesses including underrepresented socio-economic categories. The new GWAC will enable small businesses to provide state-of-the-art IT solutions for federal agencies.
GSA soliciting feedback from industry on the best way to go forward with the GWAC, by exchanging thoughts with industry partners. To do this, GSA has launched the Small Business GWAC Community of Interest (COI).
COI, a web page allows for an exchange of thoughts on topics related to all of GSA’s small business GWACs. The topics to be discussed will be considered as GSA develops a plan to move forward.
GWAC is going to help small businesses find out about the specific technologies that GSA is interested in acquiring such as:
- Artificial intelligence
- Automated technologies
Help is also available to small businesses through GSA’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU). https://gsa.gov/about-us/organization/office-of-smart-and-disadvantaged-business-utilization.
GSA’s OSDBU team is in place to help small businesses better position themselves for available opportunities by providing training and resources to help create a federal marketing plan, and how to identify federal customers through the Federal Procurement Data System. GSA plans to host regular events to keep all stakeholders up-to-date on Telehealth