eKuber Ventures, Inc. (47HAA022Q0093)

B-420877,B-420877.2 Oct 13, 2022 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights eKuber Ventures, Inc. (eKuber), a small disadvantaged business of McLean, Virginia, protests the issuance of a call order to Highlight Technologies, Inc. (Highlight), a small business of Fairfax, Virginia, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. No. 47HAA022Q0093, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA), Office of Public Buildings IT (information technology) Services. The solicitation seeks professional support services for enterprise data analytics shared services (DASS). eKuber challenges the agency's evaluation of its quotation under the technical capability and staffing approach evaluation factors as unreasonable, unequal, and inconsistent with the evaluation criteria. eKuber also challenges the agency's best-value tradeoff analysis. 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: eKuber Ventures, Inc. File: B-420877; B-420877.2 Date: October 13, 2022 Lewis P. Rhodes, Esq., and Orest Jowyk, Esq., McMahon, Welch and Learned LLC, for the protester. Richard D. Kelley, Esq., Bean, Kinney & Korman P.C., for Highlight Technologies, Inc., the intervenor. Shirin E. Ahlhauser, Esq., General Services Administration, for the agency. Sarah T. Zaffina, Esq., and Jennifer D. Westfall-McGrail, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1. Protest challenging agency’s evaluation of the protester’s quotation is denied where the evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the stated evaluation criteria. 2. Protest alleging that the agency engaged in disparate treatment in the evaluation of quotations is denied where the different evaluation results were reasonably based on substantive differences between the quotations. DECISION eKuber Ventures, Inc. (eKuber), a small disadvantaged business of McLean, Virginia, protests the issuance of a call order to Highlight Technologies, Inc. (Highlight), a small business of Fairfax, Virginia, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. No. 47HAA022Q0093, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA), Office of Public Buildings IT (information technology) Services. The solicitation seeks professional support services for enterprise data analytics shared services (DASS). eKuber challenges the agency’s evaluation of its quotation under the technical capability and staffing approach evaluation factors as unreasonable, unequal, and inconsistent with the evaluation criteria. eKuber also challenges the agency’s best‑value tradeoff analysis. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND On May 25, 2022, pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation subpart 8.4, GSA issued the RFQ to all small business holders of Corporate Information Technology Services blanket purchase agreements. Agency Report (AR), Tab 2, RFQ at 1, 5.[1] The RFQ sought quotations to provide professional support services for DASS including “expertise, best practices/standard operating procedures, and resources to manage and operate GSA’s [DASS] capabilities.” Id. at 18. DASS is one of six shared services projects at GSA intended to improve “the delivery of common IT business capabilities in support of GSA’s mission, customers and employees.” Id. at 17. This effort includes support for several GSA data environments, such as its Data to Decisions (D2D) platform, GSA business intelligence and reporting solutions for the operations and maintenance activities of several internal platforms and applications, and the Public Buildings Service (PBS) Data Integration and Repository Management System (PDIRM). Id. at 18‑19. The RFQ contemplated the placement of a single, fixed-price call order on a best-value tradeoff basis for a 1-year base period and two 1-year option periods. Id. at 5, 41. Quotations were to be evaluated based on price and the following three non‑price factors, in descending order of importance: (1) technical capability and understanding of requirements; (2) staffing and composition of the technical team; and (3) past performance. Id. at 7. The non-price evaluation factors, when combined, were significantly more important than price. Id. at 15. The RFQ provided that the agency would assign one of the following adjectival ratings for the technical capability and staffing approach evaluation factors: excellent, good, acceptable, marginal, and unacceptable.[2] Id. at 11‑12. Quotations had to be rated acceptable or higher for each non‑price factor to be eligible for award and evaluated for price. See id. at 9‑10. As relevant here, under the technical capability factor, the solicitation instructed vendors to describe how they would use their proposed resources to support DASS for a number of GSA’s data environments. Id. at 8, 18‑19.