Jane Edwards
Laura Stanton, a General Services Administration official, said that since 2021, federal agencies have obligated $1 billion on 600 task orders awarded through the 8(a) Streamlined Technology Acquisition Resource for Services III governmentwide contract to 309 small businesses.
Of those small businesses, 177 marked their first GSA orders through the 8(a) STARS III GWAC, Stanton, assistant commissioner for the office of information technology category at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, wrote in a blog post published Thursday.
She said 37 federal agencies have used 8(a) STARS III to acquire IT services, including cybersecurity, emerging technologies, database administration, help desk support, systems integration, customs software and applications development support.
Over 2,656 acquisition professionals from 54 agencies have received procurement authority training on the contract vehicle, according to Stanton.
She noted that GSA announced three cohorts of awardees through 8(a) STARS III.
In June 2021, the agency selected 448 small businesses for the initial cohort and announced 594 awardees for the second cohort in February 2022. In June 2022, GSA picked 70 small companies for the third and final cohort of awardees on the contract.
