Zolon PCS, LLC (28321320Q00000011)

B-418626.8 Apr 05, 2021 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Zolon PCS, LLC,1 of Ashburn, Virginia, protests the establishment of blanket purchase agreements (BPAs) with five vendors2 under request for quotations (RFQ) No. 28321320Q00000011, issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA) for information technology support services. The protester challenges various aspects of the agency's evaluation and award decision. We deny the protest. View Decision DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. The entire decision has been approved for public release. Decision Matter of:  Zolon PCS, LLC File:  B-418626.8 Date:  April 5, 2021 J. Patrick McMahon, Esq., and William T. Welch, Esq., McMahon, Welch and Learned LLC, for the protester. Katherine B. Burrows, Esq., Isaias “Cy” Alba, IV, Esq., and Christine C. Fries, Esq., Piliero Mazza PLLC, for swiftINTEL JV; Eric S. Crusius, Esq., Amy L. Fuentes, Esq., and Kelsey M. Hayes, Esq., Holland & Knight LLP, for IT Concepts, Inc., the intervenors. Alice M. Somers, Esq., Dorothy M. Guy, Esq., and Virginia A. Pizza, Esq., Social Security Administration, for the agency. April Y. Shields, Esq., and Christina Sklarew, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest challenging the agency’s evaluation and best-value tradeoff decision is denied where the evaluation of the protester’s quotation was reasonable, including under the past performance evaluation factor, and dismissed to the extent the protester contends that the agency failed to assess risk in the awardees’ lower-priced quotations. DECISION Zolon PCS, LLC,[1] of Ashburn, Virginia, protests the establishment of blanket purchase agreements (BPAs) with five vendors[2] under request for quotations (RFQ) No. 28321320Q00000011, issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA) for information technology support services.  The protester challenges various aspects of the agency’s evaluation and award decision. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND On January 16, 2020, the agency issued the RFQ as a small business set-aside under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 8.4 to vendors holding General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) Information Technology contracts.  AR, exh. 1, RFQ.[3]  The RFQ contemplated the establishment of multiple-award BPAs to acquire systems information technology support for the agency’s mainframe, distributed, and telecommunications environments.  Id. at 66.  Among other things, the contractor would be required to provide expertise, technical knowledge, information technology support personnel, and other related resources necessary to support all information technology engineering and infrastructure support services.  Id. The RFQ contemplated the establishment of multiple-award BPAs under which fixed-price, time-and-materials, or labor-hour call orders would be issued.  RFQ at 7.  The term of the anticipated BPA would include a 1-year base period, nine 1-year option periods, and an optional 6-month extension, for a total possible performance period of 126 months.  Id. at 6. The RFQ established a two-phase process; only phase 2 is relevant to this protest.[4]  In phase 2, the agency would consider two non-price factors, listed in descending order of importance:  detailed experience and past performance.  RFQ at 61-62.  The RFQ provided for award on a best-value tradeoff basis, in which the two non-price factors considered in phase 2, combined, were significantly more important than price, and in which the agency could consider award to other than the lowest-priced vendor or other than the highest technically rated vendor.  Id. at 59-60. With regard to past performance, the RFQ included, as an attachment, a past performance questionnaire that vendors were instructed to complete and send to references for three prior projects; those references were then to complete and submit the past performance questionnaires to the agency.  RFQ at 57.  The RFQ advised that the agency’s evaluation “will consist of a subjective assessment of the offeror’s demonstrated success in the performance of previous and/or ongoing relevant projects,” and that the evaluation “will be based on information received from the [p]ast [p]erformance [q]uestionnaires and other sources of information available to SSA (such as PPIRS [past performance information retrieval system]) that indicates the offeror has performed other contracts of a similar scope, size, and complexity to these requirements.”  Id. at 61.  The RFQ also explained that the agency “will evaluate how well the offeror has performed” and “how satisfied the client is/was with the offeror[’]s performance[,] and use this information to determine SSA’s confidence in the offeror[’]s ability to perform under this BPA.”[5]  Id.