Commerce COMMITS to 51
The Commerce Department has picked 51 companies to take part in a small-business-only IT contract.
Commerce Department officials have picked 51 small businesses to take part in their small-business-only information technology contract, Commerce Information Technology Solutions Next Generation, or COMMITS NexGen.
The contract is structured as planned by Mike Sade, Commerce's director of the office of acquisition management. The awardees are divided into three tiers based on their size. The smallest businesses will compete with one another other in Tier One for awards worth $5 million or less. The largest will go head-to-head for awards of $70 million or more in Tier Three. Those in-between are in Tier Two and eligible for awards between $5 million and $70 million.
A COMMITS vendor can choose to take on larger businesses in competition for a task if the business leaders choose, but larger firms cannot intrude into the lower tiers. Sade and his development team structured the contract that way so it would open the most opportunity possible to start-up firms with few resources.
The contract includes 19 Tier One companies, 24 in Tier Two and eight in Tier Three. Companies must recertify their small-business size every three years.
The contract has an order ceiling of $8 billion during 10 years.
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