Protest Denial Decision Posted: IRS Virtualization Modernization Initiative

1. Protest challenging various solicitation requirements as being unnecessary to meet the agency’s needs is denied where the agency has provided reasonable explanations regarding the necessity of the challenged requirements.

2. Protest that “brand name or equal” procurement establishes a sole-source procurement is denied where the solicitation placed vendors on notice that either the named product or an “equal” product would be considered in the agency’s evaluation. Further, protester’s subsequent assertion, following the solicitation closing date and receipt of the agency report responding to its protest, that the solicitation fails to adequately describe the salient characteristics associated with particular brand name products is dismissed as untimely where the alleged defect was apparent from the face of the solicitation.

DECISION

FCN, Inc., of Rockville, Maryland, protests the terms of request for quotations (RFQ) No. 2032H5-26-Q-0011, issued by the Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as a competitive small business set-aside to contractors holding indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) government-wide acquisition contract. The solicitation was issued as a “brand name or equal” procurement pursuant to the agency’s “virtualization modernization initiative,” and contemplates issuance of a single task order to support the agency’s “transition from the current [platform] to an alternative scalable enterprise platform.” Agency Report (AR), Exh. D.1.2, Performance Work Statement (PWS) at 1.[1] FCN protests that the terms of the solicitation are “unduly restrictive” in that they reflect requirements that are “not necessary” to meet the agency’s actual needs, and further complains that the solicitation requires use of particular Nutanix products and thereby creates a “de facto sole source procurement.” Protest at 3, 5-8.

We deny the protest in part and dismiss it in part.