Charles Lyons-Burt
Public Spend Forum, a company that offers data regarding market behaviors and public sector information, has won a five-year, $40 million contract award from the General Services Administration.
The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract tasks Public Spend Forum with utilizing its artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to analyze data about market and supply chain intelligence and demand analysis, among others, for various government entities, the company said Monday.
According to Raj Sharma, CEO and co-founder of PSF, the company’s tools are designed to help small businesses experiencing challenges from an inability to decipher trends in commerce and trade, as well as boost federal market awareness.
“We’re excited to apply our datasets, algorithms and service solutions to help create market visibility and access that enables government and emerging/diverse companies to come together without friction,” Sharma continued.
The GSA contract is put forward under Phase III of the Small Business Innovation Research Program and PSF’s work is a result of research efforts funded by a number of organizations, including the Air Force Installation Contracting Center; Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center; and Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense.
With the latter institutions’ support, PSF created its platform via honing AI algorithms that yield demand/supply matching of public procurement opportunities, established individuated market requirement listings powered by AI clustering approaches and initiated a dual visibility for both burgeoning companies into market and government agencies who seek businesses and services to meet their needs.
In addition to the aforementioned services, the contract necessitates that PSF will employ its AI/ML services to supply federal agencies with intelligence on tech scouting — with an emphasis on emerging, diverse and underserved companies – as well as data analysis and reporting and supplier intelligence and tracking.
“By applying Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence across program requirements and industry data, we are using advanced AI-enabled methods to match demand and supply,” said Ben McMartin, PSF managing partner.
PSF’s contract achievement marks the evolution of a small business research endeavor through the AFWERX open topic program to a broadly-applied government service.
