Editor's note:This story was updated at 10:27 a.m. Oct. 3. Please go to Corrections & Clarifications to see what has changed.

The General Services Administration’s three-year saga to award a contract to revamp the Federal Business Opportunities Web site took another turn Sept. 28 when the agency gave Symplicity the deal for the third time.

Despite two successful protests of the previous awards to Symplicity, GSA re-evaluated the same proposals that four companies — Aquilent, Devis, Information Sciences Corp. (ISC) and Symplicity — submitted in June 2005 and decided once again to award Symplicity a $17 million contract for three base years and five one-year options.

“Award of the FedBizOpps contract is a significant milestone,” Teresa Sorrenti, GSA’s director of acquisition systems, said in a press release. “It will further our mission to provide common, shared services to our customers and their suppliers in the federal acquisition community. I look forward to working with our new industry partner to continue to offer procurement opportunities in a transparent manner, using efficient, effective technology.”

"GSA awarded the FedBizOpps contract to the company that submitted the most competitive bid, providing the ability to manage the FedBizOpps Web site to provide the greatest service to its users at the most effective use of taxpayer dollars," GSA spokesman Brian Fillpot said. "An earlier awarding of this contract had been contested, and GSA is confident that it complied with the directions set forth in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims' decision. Based on the court's direction, the contracting officer reconsidered the competitive range determination, taking into consideration the prices of the proposals, and a new source selection authority was appointed to review existing evaluation documentation, and provide an independent award decision, based on best value to the government."

“We are very excited about the award and look forward to deploying a best-of-breed procurement system for the government,” a Symplicity spokesman said.