Red Team Consulting’s blog republished here with permission. The original article can be found here: https://redteamconsulting.com/2023/06/27/extended-gwac-timelines/

Over the last 3-4 months, I’ve had countless conversations on the current state of affairs for GWACs and multi-award IDIQs. This of course included contracts such as NIH CIO-SP4 and GSA Polaris but also GSA OASIS+, VA T4NG2, and future GWACs such as NASA SEWP VI. These discussions included questions on how agencies are evolving the way they compete requirements, whether the Tiers in Best-in-Class contracts will remain, and why we’re seeing so many challenges in federal contracting. The contractor community at large is consumed with pondering why government procurement continues to face unpredictable timelines and protests.

Part of what drove my conversations about the challenges with GWACs is that many in the GovCon community are convinced you can’t grow without having the relevant GWACs. The fear is that agencies will drive all their work onto these vehicles, leaving those without those contracts without an avenue to serve their customers. That may have been the case a few years ago, but we are seeing a shift due to award timelines taking much longer for most GWACs and multi-award IDIQs.

First a brief history lesson on GWACs and multi-award IDIQs