GSA  received over 4,500 questions on its most recent Alliant 3 draft RFP.  It will take some time for GSA to address each issue.  GSA leaders should use that time to not only respond to questions but develop a sound Alliant 3 small business strategy.  The agency’s current plan to issue one, unified RFP for businesses of all sizes comes with substantial risk.  NIH’s NITAAC organization used the same approach for the CIOSP IV contract, only to be mired for years with hundreds of protests – so far – and no end in sight.  That can’t happen with the Alliant program, one that has driven billions of dollars in IT purchases and has become one of the most popular IT acquisition methods. GSA’s OASIS+ team initially considered the same approach, but wisely broke that program into multiple RFP’s, with one for each small business designation in addition to an “unrestricted” RFP.  This was done, at least in part, due to concerns expressed by both industry and government stakeholders that a unified approach would result in significant delays.  GSA’s IT team had planned to make POLARIS small business IT awards by now, but a protest decision at the Court of Federal Claims means that the agency has to go back to square one.  Now, all of the action, both proposals and protests, have only one place to go:  the main Alliant 3 RFP.  That is not a good place to be. GSA should strongly consider the OASIS+ approach and create multiple RFP’s for different small business classifications.  Not only does such an approach ensure positive small business participation, but it reduces the chances that an Alliant 3 unrestricted RFP will face multi-year delays.  Time is short for the agency to address this critical area, but not addressing it now creates the real risk of even more significant time delays later.