The wait is over! Two of the most sought-after and anticipated IT contract vehicles have made awards to vendors.
The General Services Administration made its first set of awards under the Alliant 3 governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC) to 43 vendors.
Meanwhile, the State Department finalized a total of 48 awards across all five functional areas of its EVOLVE indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract program.
Vendors have been waiting on word about awards for both programs with bated breath.
GSA released the Alliant 3 solicitation in June 2024, hoping to get an award in place to replace the current Alliant 2 GWAC, which expires in June 2028. Through the GWAC, agencies will have access to a host of IT services, including systems engineering, cloud services, cybersecurity, data solutions, software development, and other emerging technology-related support.
Alliant 2, which has a contract ceiling of $82.8 billion, has been popular with agencies spending more than $46 billion through 825 task orders since 2018.
Agencies have taken to Alliant 2 so much that GSA increased its ceiling to $75 billion from $50 billion in 2022, and had to increase it again to $82.5 billion in December 2024.
“Alliant 3 embodies GSA’s commitment to delivering smarter buying for the federal enterprise by simplifying how agencies access critical IT services through a single, governmentwide contract,” said Larry Hale, the assistant commissioner for GSA’s Office of Information Technology Category (ITC) in the Federal Acquisition Service, in a statement. “It enables agencies to adopt modern technologies more quickly, strengthen performance and security, and deliver measurable results for the American taxpayer.”
State has been pursuing EVOLVE, which is a seven-year contract with a $10 billion ceiling, since December 2022. Through the contract, vendors will provide State with an assortment of IT services, including enterprise IT, digital modernization, telecommunications, cloud, application development, infrastructure and end-user support services. State initially made awards in 2025, but unsuccessful bidders protested. The Government Accountability Office dismissed the last remaining protest in early January.
Mike Derrios, the former State Department senior procurement executive and now executive director of the Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University, said in December that EVOLVE was a surprise in how much progress it made in 2025.
“The request for proposals was issued three years ago in December 2022, and given the sheer complexity of the technical program and contract structure, a two-step advisory down select process associated with the highest number of proposals State has ever managed at one time, along with the ambitious size of the award pools, the fact that the department was able to start making contract awards this summer was a tremendous accomplishment,” Derrios said.
More Alliant 3 awards on tap
While it seems like EVOLVE is ready to move forward, GSA said it will continue to make awards under Alliant 3 in the coming months.
“GSA appreciates the robust competition for the Alliant 3 GWAC. There were 133 proposals received in response to the solicitation. After review and evaluation in accordance with the criteria established in the solicitation, GSA has determined to make phase one contract awards to 43 offerors that are eligible for award. Offerors not selected for phase one contract award remain eligible for further award phases until all 76 awards (plus ties) are complete,” GSA wrote on its Interact site. “Please note, no offeror is eliminated from award consideration. GSA intends to proceed in phases as offerors are eligible for award. If you do not receive an award notification with this phase, please understand that your proposal is still under consideration and you have not been eliminated from competition. You will be notified of the status of your offer during a later award phase. Debriefing letters will be provided once all award phases are completed.”
The competition for remaining spots will be tight, however.
“Those 90 companies are competing for 33 remaining slots. This staggered or phased award approach allows the contract to get up and running instead of getting mired in the Court of Federal Claims. If any of the remaining companies eventually protests, their protests would not block Alliant 3 because it will already be operational,” wrote Brian Friel, co-founder of BD Squared, which helps firms win spots on contract vehicles, on LinkedIn.
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