Savantage Financial Services, Inc., B-292046; B-292046.2, June 11, 2003

Savantage Financial Services, Inc., B-292046; B-292046.2, June 11, 2003 TITLE: Savantage Financial Services, Inc., B-292046; B-292046.2, June 11, 2003 BNUMBER: B-292046; B-292046.2 DATE: June 11, 2003 ********************************************************************** Savantage Financial Services, Inc., B-292046; B-292046.2, June 11, 2003 DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This redacted version has been approved for public release. Decision Matter of: Savantage Financial Services, Inc. File: B-292046; B-292046.2 Date: June 11, 2003 Stephen S. Kaye, Esq., and William E. Olson, Esq., Bryan Cave, for the protester. John R. Caterini, Esq., and Barry C. Hansen, Esq., Department of Justice; Thedlus L. Thompson, Esq., General Services Administration; and David L. King, Esq., and John W. Klein, Esq., Small Business Administration, for the agencies. Henry J. Gorczycki, Esq., Guy R. Pietrovito, Esq., and James A. Spangenberg, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1. A protester may challenge an agency's decision not to provide the protester with a solicitation for a purchase under the Federal Supply Schedule, where this decision was based upon the agency's determination, pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation S: 8.404(b)(3) (which applies to orders expected to exceed the maximum order threshold), that the protester did not appear to offer best value, as determined by the agency from market information obtained from schedule vendors and product demonstrations; GAO will review the reasonableness of the agency's determination. 2. Agency decision not to provide the protester with a solicitation for an acquisition of a unified financial management system under the Federal Supply Schedule program was reasonable, where, in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation S: 8.404(b)(3), the agency reasonably determined that the protester did not appear to offer best value (price and other factors considered) when compared to schedule vendors that were provided with the solicitation. DECISION Savantage Financial Services, Inc. protests the decision of the Department of Justice (DOJ) not to provide the firm with request for quotations (RFQ) No. JUJMD-03-0240, which sought quotes from Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) vendors for software and services for a unified financial management system (UFMS). We deny the protest. In 2001, DOJ decided to replace the seven different financial management systems that it currently uses with one UFMS. The agency decided that this system should be a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) product certified by the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP) as meeting core federal accounting and systems security requirements.[1] DOJ also decided to acquire this system under an FSS contract pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 8.4. There are seven JFMIP-certified vendors (including Savantage) of financial management software systems on the applicable FSS. The maximum order threshold for this schedule is $500,000; the government estimate of this order is $[DELETED]. Agency Report at 1, Tab 22, UFMS White Paper, at 1. In November 2002, DOJ asked all seven JFMIP-certified vendors to complete a market survey describing their products. The survey, which was approximately 100 pages in length, stated that the agency planned to acquire *a core commercial off‑the-shelf (COTS) financial management product(s),* and that [t]he implementation approach for UFMS is to minimize any customization to the base COTS product to support DOJ specific unique business processes. Agency Report, Tab 1, Market Survey, at 1, 3. Vendors were asked to indicate whether their products could provide each of these features without customization or, if customization would be required, whether the required level of effort would be low (1 week or less), medium (between 1 and 4 weeks) or high (more than 4 weeks ). Id. at 17. Each vendor was also requested to identify clients who had purchased or were operating the vendors' federal sector products. Id. at 11. DOJ also asked each vendor to provide a demonstration of its software system. Agency Report, Tab 18, Vendor Demonstrations Agenda, at 1. The request for demonstrations stated the following objectives for the demonstrations: . Understand your product's position in the federal government market and commitment and plans for re‑certification testing with the JFMIP . Obtain an overview of the basic operations of your software package and identify your product's key market discriminators . Observe basic navigational and ease of use qualities .