Rockville, MD, January 26, 2020- Today, the NIH Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) announced that a stop work order that was issued to more than 200 newly ramped on Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 3 Small Business (CIO-SP3 Small Business) Government-Wide Acquisition Contract Holders  in May 2020, has been lifted.  The stop order was lifted after the Government Accountability Office’s successful resolution of a protest.  The impacted contract holders can begin competing for awards as soon as Tuesday, January 26, 2021. 

The CIO-SP3 Small Business ramp-on period was an important mechanism for encouraging competition on the GWAC, providing more opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses, while also improving rates for agency customers.

“We are extremely excited that the protest around the CIO-SP3 Small Business awardees has been resolved and look forward to adding these successful offerors to our Best in Class GWAC,” said Keith Johnson, NITAAC CIO-SP3 and CIO-SP3 Small Business lead contracting officer. “I believe diversity in GWACs and diversity in the contract holder pool is vital to the continued success of the federal government and am pleased that NITAAC can present to the federal government a robust pool of qualified small business contract holders,” Johnson concluded.

NITAAC also announced the Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 4 (CIO-SP4) Request for Proposal will be posted in early March.  CIO-SP4 will replace CIO-SP3 and CIO-SP3 Small Business upon their expiration and will be NITAAC’s flagship IT services vehicle for the next 10 years. The government is currently considering a significant reduction in the number of pages due in the technical proposal.  The proposal submission date will likely be on or about April 30.

About the Ramp On:

The CIO-SP3 Small Business GWAC contains a provision, Article H.14 "Ramp-on Procedure" that reserves the right of the government to announce an Open Season to open the GWAC to small and disadvantaged businesses.

NITAAC began Phase 1 of this process in October 2015. During Phase One, incumbent contract holders that qualified in less than the maximum 10 task areas were given an opportunity to propose in additional task areas. Unlike Phase 1, Phase 2 was an open season that solicited proposals from additional contractors. The Phase 2 Open Season was published in Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps).

The CIO-SP3 Small Business contract is a 10-year Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract that provides small businesses with an opportunity to participate in government requirements. CIO-SP3 Small Business gives government agencies a mechanism to help meet their socioeconomic contracting goals.

For more information, visit https://nitaac.nih.gov/.

About NITAAC:

The NIH Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) is housed within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and is a full service acquisition program that has been designated a federal Executive Agent, authorized by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to administer three Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) for information technology (IT) acquisitions. CIO-SP3, CIO-SP3 Small Business, and CIO-CS can be used by any Federal civilian or Department of Defense (DoD) agency to acquire information technology services, solutions, and commodities from pre-qualified vendors at lower than open market prices in less time than going the traditional full and open route. NITAAC maintains a full service assisted acquisition program and is one of three OMB mandatory sources for laptop and desktop buys through our Government-wide Strategic Solutions (GSS) program.