The U.S. General Services Administration announced the ceiling of its 8(a) Streamlined Technology Application Resource for Services (STARS) II contract has been raised by $7 billion, to $22 billion.
8(a) STARS II is a small business set-aside Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) that provides flexible access to customized IT services and IT-services-based solutions from a large, diverse pool of 8(a) industry partners. It allows for long-term planning of large-scale program requirements while strengthening opportunities for 8(a) small businesses. Agencies that use the 8(a) STARS II GWAC can buy from 787 industry partners.
“By raising the 8(a) STARS II ceiling, GSA continues to ensure that we meet the needs of our federal agency customers,” said GSA Administrator Emily Murphy. “As agency demand for IT products and services has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, GSA is proud that STARS II will remain available to help agencies deliver world class IT services.”
8(a) STARS II’s contract ceiling increase demonstrates GSA’s sustained commitment to supporting the federal acquisition community by providing direct access to small business industry partners as those small businesses work to recover from the effects of COVID-19. As the third-generation 8(a) set-aside GWAC, STARS II has supported more than 50 federal agencies and provided opportunities for over 1,000 8(a) firms since 2011.
“The 8(a) STARS II GWAC has exceeded all of our expectations. We’ve raised the contract’s ceiling more than once to accommodate demand. As we move into this contract’s fourth generation we can say for certain that this program is a huge success. A significant number of prior 8(a) STARS program participants have grown their businesses so much that we now see them thriving with the big companies on GSA’s Alliant 2 GWAC,” said GSA Acting Assistant Commissioner, Office of Information Technology Category, Laura Stanton.
All 787 8(a) STARS II industry partners remain on the contract and new task orders may be placed against the 8(a) STARS II GWAC through August 30, 2021, and work can continue on those new orders through June 30, 2022.
For more information please visit www.gsa.gov/8stars2
