Spatial Front, Inc. (12314423Q0085)

B-422058.4,B-422058.5 Dec 06, 2024 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Spatial Front, Inc. (Spatial Front), of Bethesda, Maryland, protests the issuance of a federal supply schedule (FSS) order to Alpha Omega Integration LLC (Alpha Omega), of Vienna, Virginia, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. 12314423Q0085, issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for information technology (IT) services. The protester contends the services required under the RFQ are outside the scope of the labor categories quoted by the awardee. We sustain the protest. View Decision Decision Matter of: Spatial Front, Inc. File: B-422058.4; B-422058.5 Date: December 6, 2024 Jonathan T. Williams, Esq., Katherine B. Burrows, Esq., Eric A. Valle, Esq., and Kelly A. Kirchgasser, Esq., Piliero Mazza PLLC, for the protester. David S. Black, Esq., Gregory R. Hallmark, Esq., Amy L. Fuentes, Esq., and John M. McAdams III, Esq., Holland & Knight LLP, for Alpha Omega Integration LLC, the intervenor. Elin Dugan, Esq., Department of Agriculture, for the agency. Heather Self, Esq., and Peter H. Tran, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest challenging agency’s issuance of a task order to a vendor under its Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contract is sustained where record shows the agency unreasonably determined the solicited services were within the scope of the labor categories quoted by the vendor, and improperly overlooked the quotation’s failure to comply with a material solicitation requirement. DECISION Spatial Front, Inc. (Spatial Front), of Bethesda, Maryland, protests the issuance of a federal supply schedule (FSS)[1] order to Alpha Omega Integration LLC (Alpha Omega), of Vienna, Virginia, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. 12314423Q0085, issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for information technology (IT) services. The protester contends the services required under the RFQ are outside the scope of the labor categories quoted by the awardee. We sustain the protest. BACKGROUND Nature of Solicited Work The USDA implements a variety of conservation-related programs to help private landowners improve the health of farming and ranching lands both to increase operational and production efficiency and to protect natural resources. See generally Agency Report (AR), Exh. 1, RFQ at 2-3.[2] The solicitation sought quotations “to develop, modernize, enhance, and maintain information systems, software applications, web services, and databases that directly or indirectly support conservation technical assistance to implement science-based conservation practices more effectively and efficiently.” Id. at 9-10. Included within the solicitation’s scope are two overarching categories of activities--“Development, Modernization, and Enhancement (DME)” (e.g., automation of application features, development of new application features, etc.) and “Operational and Maintenance (O&M)” (e.g., application maintenance support, application defect resolution, etc.). RFQ at 10. The successful vendor will be required to perform these various IT activities for several different conservation-related IT applications and systems utilized by USDA agencies. Id. To ensure the selected vendor can deliver the full panoply of IT services required to update and maintain USDA’s conservation-related applications and systems, the solicitation required vendors to “provide development teams with cross-functional skills” and “specialized skillsets or subject matter experts” in the following 14 areas “at a minimum”: (1) enterprise content management frameworks; (2) application development; (3) Amazon Web Services cloud expertise; (4) mobile architectures and development; (5) reverse engineering ability; (6) hydrology and hydrological engineering; (7) geospatial architecture, dataflows, and integrations; (8) Esri competency through Esri partnership[3]; (9) ArcGIS JavaScript API expertise[4]; (10) light detection and ranging (LiDAR) expertise[5]; (11) digital elevation model expertise; (12) 3D analysis expertise; (13) land survey expertise; and (14) science-based development, land survey-based development. RFQ at 20. As relevant here, while the solicitation requires provision of routine IT services, such as enterprise content management and cloud-based services, 9 of the 14 required identified skillsets involve some form of mapping, geospatial, or other engineering types of specialized IT expertise. History of Procurement and Protests The current protest marks the fifth time, under two separate solicitations, that Spatial Front--the incumbent provider of the solicited services--has protested the agency’s procurement of IT services in support of USDA’s conservation programs since the procurement effort began approximately 31 months ago.