Cloud Alliance, Inc. (B-422884)

You should not care.

Category: Technical evaluation, source selection

Date: 11 December 2024

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-422884

Cloud Alliance, Inc., an 8(a) small business, protested the establishment of a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) with Cherokee Nation Systems Solutions, LLC (CNSS), under RFQ #1305M224Q0046 issued by the NOAA for IT support services. The protest focused on the agency's evaluation of quotations under nonprice factors and the source selection decision. The key grounds for the protest were the agency's alleged failure to adhere to its stated evaluation criteria and the assertion that the source selection decision was unreasonable given the higher price of the awardee.

GAO found that the agency’s evaluation was reasonable and supported by the record. The agency documented benefits that justified the higher price of the selected vendor, which Cloud Alliance contested. The protest was denied. GAO concluded that the agency acted within its discretion and followed proper procedures in the evaluation process, reaffirming that it defers to the agency's judgments when they are reasonable.

Digest

1. Protester’s various challenges to the agency’s evaluation of quotations under nonprice factors are denied where the record reasonably supports the agency’s evaluation judgments and conclusions.
2. Protest challenging the agency’s source selection decision is denied where the benefits documented by the agency reasonably justified the awardee’s higher price and where the underlying evaluation was reasonable.