Alliant SB bidders can team

GSA Alliant

Companies bidding on Alliant SB, the small business governmentwide contract that will accompany Alliant, can form joint ventures to pool their strengths, said Gregory Boyd, Alliant SB contracting officer.

In response to a question at an Alliant industry meeting today, Boyd said that joint ventures bidding on Alliant SB will be in for the standard Federal Acquisition Regulation treatment, in which they are not disqualified as small businesses when the combined revenues exceed the designated $21 million cutoff.

"So if you had two $20 million businesses, they wouldn't be [counted as earning] $40 million," he said.

General Services Administration officials spoke to a full amphitheater at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., about Alliant and Alliant SB. Officials released draft requests for proposals in late March for both contracts, and plan to issue the final RFPs in early July.

In the interim, officials are seeking comments and questions to help them put the final touches on the contracts. A second industry day will be held in San Diego, Calif., on April 26, and agency officials are also taking written comments.

"We're still listening," said Neal Fox, assistant commissioner for commercial acquisition at GSA's Federal Supply Service. "We haven't locked this down."

Members of the audience said the two contracts, which will replace expiring GWACs for information technology procurement, are going to be important to business. Both contracts run for a base period of five years, and each has one five-year option period. Alliant could be worth up to $50 billion to a pool of about 20 awardees, while Alliant SB has a cap of $15 billion and will go to about 40 companies.

"It's so big and a lot of work is going to be passed through it," said Stacey Liptz, manager of strategic relationships at Learning Systems International in Washington. "It's important to everybody."