1 Key Lesson from Identical (or Fraternal?) Triplets.

If you are a small business selling IT to the FedGov, there is a 70% probability that you have heard about GSA’s Polaris GWAC; a 10 year, $$B IDIQ Small Business Set Aside (SBSA) for the US Government to procure “all things IT”.

If you have been in the industry at least a few years, there are two other contracts that will come to mind when you review Polaris’ details:

• NASA’s SEWP (Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement) and,
• Army’s CHESS (Computer Hardware Enterprise Software Solution)

They may not be identical triplets, but for sure they are “fraternal’, and there is one lesson to learn from the latter that definitely seems to apply to Polaris. Let’s dive in!

Let’s set a quick baseline (very high level) to compare these three:

While all three contract vehicles are multiple-year, billion-dollar size contracts that sell “IT”, the immediate differences that surface are between Polaris, and the other two; SEWP and CHESS. Specifically, Polaris is a Small Business Set Aside where services will be procured via solicitations, and the other two are Full and Open where services or goods are procured using a catalog.

Those minor differences aside, there is one major overriding commonality trait that all three vehicles share - they were created to consolidate or harmonize the procurement process of IT. Said differently - they were used to steer the business through a single contract vehicle; to the benefit of the government, providers, and end customers. 

You may not recall, but the debut of CHESS and SEWP was followed by a “strong” preference to steer all IT purchases through those vehicles. Not quite “shoehorning”, but there were solicitations that were stripped of IT components in order to move certain elements through either CHESS or SEWP depending on the customer. Once that tendency was established, and the purchasing “muscle memory” of the customer was developed, the substantial business found its way to CHESS and SEWP.

THE LESSON TO LEARN

And so that is the lesson to learn - qualifying early on Polaris AND having the project management office (PMO) team that will keep finding and steering the business through your Polaris “Prime slot” will make all the difference in your success. Once you get your “Prime seat”, making it easy for your BD team to find, and your Sales Operations and Contracts team to process opportunities will make all the difference between an excellent and no ROI at all.

Those companies that are prepared for “post-award” - are the ones that will experience the best growth.  Is your company ready for bidding and for what comes next?

If you are interested in pursuing the Polaris GWAC IDIQ, here are some recommendations for you:

1. Download our eligibility checklist here
2. Download our self-assessment and gathering project documentation
3. Sign up here for our Polaris newsletter and get alerts on the contract as they happen.
4. Sign up for updates from the GSA Small Business Community of Interest
5. Verify your WOSB cert is in order or make updates at https://beta.certify.sba.gov

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