B-310794, S4, Inc., February 12, 2008

B-310794 Feb 12, 2008 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights S4, Inc. protests the issuance of a task order to CLR Group Ltd. under request for quotations (RFQ) No. FA4452-07-Q-A088, issued by the Department of the Air Force for information technology (IT) and related services in support of Air Mobility Command's (AMC) global air mobility missions. S4 asserts that the selection determination was flawed and inadequately documented. We deny the protest. View Decision B-310794, S4, Inc., February 12, 2008 Decision Matter of: S4, Inc. File: B-310794 Date: February 12, 2008 John Goss for the protester. Raymond LaBenne for CLR Group Ltd., an intervenor. Maj. John G. Terra, Department of the Air Force, for the agency. Jacqueline Maeder, Esq., and John M. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest that agency improperly issued task order to vendor quoting higher price than protester's is denied where evaluation was on –best value— basis and record shows agency considered relative strengths of vendors' quotations in finding that technical superiority of successful vendor's quotation outweighed protester's lower price. DECISION S4, Inc. protests the issuance of a task order to CLR Group Ltd. under request for quotations (RFQ) No. FA4452-07-Q-A088, issued by the Department of the Air Force for information technology (IT) and related services in support of Air Mobility Command's (AMC) global air mobility missions. S4 asserts that the selection determination was flawed and inadequately documented.[1] We deny the protest. The RFQ, issued on September 20, 2007 as a small business set-aside to holders of General Services Administration Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts for IT services, provided for the issuance of a time-and-materials, labor-hour type task order for a base year with two option years for a broad array of IT services. A task order was to be issued to the vendor whose quotation was evaluated as the –best value— to the government, considering technical evaluation factors--past performance and mission capability (comprised of two subfactors--staffing and technical approach) and price. RFQ at 2; attach. 2, at 1. The technical factors were of equal importance and the subfactors under mission capability were of equal importance. Past performance and mission capability, combined, were significantly more important than price. RFQ, attach. 2, at 1. The evaluation under the mission capability factor (representing the evaluators' views as to the vendor's ability to meet performance or capability requirements) was expressed with color/adjectival ratings--blue/exceptional, green/acceptable, yellow/marginal, and red/unacceptable. Risk (high, moderate, or low) associated with a vendor's proposed approach, weaknesses in the proposed approach, and weaknesses in the quotation itself was assessed under the mission capability subfactors. Past performance was rated in terms of relevance--very relevant, relevant, somewhat relevant, and not relevant, id. at 1-3--and the past performance evaluation was expressed in terms of confidence (high, significant, satisfactory, unknown, little, and no), representing the evaluators' assessment of the probability of successful performance. Four quotations, including S4's and CLR's, were received and evaluated. [2] On October 12, initial evaluation notices were issued, along with a request for revised quotations. Revised quotations were received by October 15. Agency Report (AR), Tab 12, Final Best Value Determination, at 5. S4's quotation, low priced at $5,679,076.02, was found to have two strengths and no deficiencies, and was rated green/acceptable/low risk under the staffing subfactor, blue/exceptional/low risk under the technical subfactor, and very relevant/significant confidence under past performance. CLR's quotation, priced at $6,035,372.20, was found to have five strengths and no deficiencies, and was rated identically to S4's--green/acceptable/low risk for staffing, blue/exceptional/low risk for technical, and very relevant/significant confidence for past performance. The source selection authority (SSA) considered the relative strengths and benefits of the two quotations, and determined that CLR's quotation was sufficiently technically superior to S4's that it was the best value, notwithstanding its higher price. The agency thus issued a task order to CLR. Noting that –the solicitation did not specify that if technical quotations were rated equal, consideration would also be given to (the) number of strengths,— S4 asserts that, given that its and CLR's quotations received the same evaluation ratings, selection of CLR at a higher price could not be the best value, consistent with the solicitation. Protester's Comments at 1.