The Prospective Group, LLC (1331L521R13OS0006)

B-420377 Mar 07, 2022 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Spatial Front, Inc., of McLean, Virginia, challenges the terms of request for proposals (RFP) No. 1331L521R13OS0006, issued by the Department of Commerce (DOC) to obtain enterprise-wide information technology (IT) services. The solicitation, issued as a total small business set-aside, contemplates the award of multiple indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts, and requires that each offeror hold a top secret facility clearance (TS-FCL) to be eligible for award. Spatial asserts that the solicitation's TS-FCL requirements are "unduly restrictive" and "have an unreasonable impact on small businesses." Protest at 3; Comments at 1. 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: Spatial Front, Inc. File: B-420377 Date: March 7, 2022 Shane J. McCall, Esq., Nicole D. Pottroff, Esq., Christopher S. Coleman, Esq., John L. Holtz, Esq., and Kevin B. Wickliffe, Esq., Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC, for the protester. Ryan Lambrecht, Esq., Department of Commerce, for the agency. Glenn G. Wolcott, Esq., April Y. Shields, Esq., and Christina Sklarew, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest challenging solicitation’s facility clearance requirement is denied where the record supports the agency’s assertion that the requirement is reasonably necessary to meet the agency’s needs. DECISION Spatial Front, Inc., of McLean, Virginia, challenges the terms of request for proposals (RFP) No. 1331L521R13OS0006, issued by the Department of Commerce (DOC) to obtain enterprise-wide information technology (IT) services.[1] The solicitation, issued as a total small business set-aside, contemplates the award of multiple indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts, and requires that each offeror hold a top secret facility clearance (TS-FCL) to be eligible for award. Spatial asserts that the solicitation’s TS-FCL requirements are “unduly restrictive” and “have an unreasonable impact on small businesses.” Protest at 3; Comments at 1. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND On December 10, 2019, DOC’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) issued a technical direction statement (TDS) that discussed, in candid terms, the then-current IT environment at DOC. Among other things, the TDS noted that DOC was operating in a “highly fragmented IT environment that fails to leverage the latest technologies, standardization, best practices and especially economies of scale,” and added that IT solutions were “built in silos, [and] often poorly implemented.”[2] Agency Report (AR), Tab 2, TDS at 2. The TDS added that “[a]s the entity ultimately responsible for the oversight and functioning of IT environments across the Department, the . . . OCIO has fallen short of providing the leadership necessary to effectuate meaningful and rapid transformation,” noting that “decentralization brought on by either historic precedent, inability to innovate, or garden variety fiefdom building and maintenance preclude rapid progress and enable dangerous maintenance of the status quo.” Id. at 19-20. The TDS summarized the results of DOC’s “bureau-centric” IT environment, stating: In Fiscal Year 2020 [DOC’s IT] expenses are estimated at $3.8 Billion and consume about 31% of an estimated $12.2 Billion departmental budget. This percentage is wildly out of line with private sector averages (≤10%). Id. at 2. The TDS concluded by identifying strategies to address the situation, including the migration of legacy platforms to a cloud-based environment with “outsourced activities such as Software-as-a-Service (SAAS) or Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) . . . to provide functionality DOC-Wide.” Id. at 4, 15, 19. Thereafter, the agency conducted market research and created an acquisition plan for the procurement at issue here, see AR, Tab 5, Acquisition Plan; Tab 3, Market Research Report, concluding that a major goal should be to eliminate duplicate services by implementing more centralized IT solutions across both bureau boundaries and security classification boundaries. Id; see also AR, Tab 21 Declaration of Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Office of the Secretary at 1. Among other things, the agency concluded that combining support for both classified and unclassified IT systems “will improve overall process, ensure consistency across systems, and provide significant cost savings.” AR, Tab 21, Declaration of CIO for the Office of the Secretary at 2; COS/MOL at 25.