Trigent Solutions, Inc. (36C10B21Q0171)

B-419801 Aug 06, 2021 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Trigent Solutions, Inc., a small business of Chantilly, Virginia, protests the terms of request for quotations (RFQ) No. 36C10B21Q0171, issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), to procure an integrated commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution implemented as a common operating platform to support the agency's operational decision-making capability. Trigent contends that several terms of the RFQ are ambiguous and unduly restrict competition. We deny the protest. View Decision 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:  Trigent Solutions, Inc. File:  B-419801 Date:  August 6, 2021 William A. Shook, Esq., Law Offices of William A. Shook PLLC, for the protester. Mellany Alio, Esq., and Frank V. DiNicola, Esq., Department of Veterans Affairs, for the agency. Uri R. Yoo, Esq., and Evan C. Williams, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1.  Protest that solicitation for commercial services lacks information needed to prepare quotations is denied where the solicitation provided sufficiently detailed information to allow vendors to compete intelligently and on a relatively equal basis with respect to the solicitation requirement for services to support the proposed software solution. 2.  Protest that agency failed to provide adequate time to prepare quotations is denied because, even though amendments were issued in the days before quotations were due, those amendments provided answers to vendors’ questions that did not materially change the solicitation requirements, and thus, agency’s decision not to extend the due date for quotations did not adversely affect the competition. 3.  Protest that solicitation terms unduly restrict competition and result in a de facto brand name sole-source procurement is denied where the record shows that the terms of the solicitation are reasonably necessary to meet the agency’s needs and the agency reasonably established its acquisition approach based on market research. DECISION Trigent Solutions, Inc., a small business of Chantilly, Virginia, protests the terms of request for quotations (RFQ) No. 36C10B21Q0171, issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), to procure an integrated commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software‑as‑a‑service (SaaS) solution implemented as a common operating platform to support the agency’s operational decision‑making capability.  Trigent contends that several terms of the RFQ are ambiguous and unduly restrict competition. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND On April 2, 2021, the agency issued the RFQ, using the Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) procedures of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 8.4, to the holders of the multiple-award schedule contract under Schedule 70 (Information Technology (IT)) for special item numbers (SIN) 54151S (IT Professional Services) and 518210C (Cloud and Cloud-Related IT Professional Services).[1]  RFQ at 52.[2]  The RFQ contemplates the issuance of a fixed-price task order with a 1-year base period and three 1-year options.  Id. at 7, 17, 54.  The solicitation seeks to acquire an integrated SaaS[3] solution to be implemented on a common operating platform to support the VA’s operational decision‑making capability.  Id. at 12. The solicitation describes the requirement as a COTS product with related services to include “software licenses, cloud hosting, and implementation support (including installation, integration, configuration, testing, and deployment) necessary to replicate the data environment.”  Id.  The solicitation also requires the vendor to provide commercially available virtual training/workshops on a weekly schedule for up to 20 agency personnel, addressing user needs, for the life of the contract.  Id.  The RFQ provides a list of salient characteristics of the SaaS solution that include capabilities to:  ingest and analyze unstructured and disaggregated data from a wide variety of sources and formats; provide operational decisional support to the VA and its stakeholders; create a comprehensive analytics framework that associates data to questions and decisions to rapidly expand data utility; promote architectural interoperability through open data architecture; maintain data origin and reproducibility of all integrated data sources; allow VA individuals or VA data teams to create and use workflows; and provide proven granular security control for data owners to easily control all downstream use of originating data and conform to VA security policies.  Id.