Rockville, MD- Today, the NIH Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) announced that it has awarded the final group in the CIO-SP3 Small Business ramp on process and released the names of the more than 200 small business contractors who have been added to the Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 3 Small Business (CIO-SP3 Small Business) Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC).  In addition to finalizing the small business group, NITAAC also made two new contract awards under the CIO-SP3 Small Business 8(a) group.

“Small businesses are a vital part of the federal procurement lifecycle,” said Keith Johnson NITAAC CIO-SP3 and CIO-SP3 Small Business lead contracting officer.  “When a small business gets a government contract everyone wins as the small business is often able to quickly create jobs and spur economic growth,” said Johnson.

The CIO-SP3 Small Business ramp-on period is 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 to award the final group in this ramp on,” said Johnson. 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.

To see the complete list of awardees, click here.

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:

NITAAC (NIH Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center) 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.