Information Ventures, Inc., No. 3731 (February 1, 1993). Docket No. SIC-92-12-11-146 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION OFFICE OF HEARINGS AND APPEALS WASHINGTON, D.C. SIC APPEAL OF: ) ) Information Ventures, Inc. ) ) Appellant ) ) Solicitation No. ) Docket No. SIC-92-12-11-146 273-92-P-0024 ) Department of Health ) and Human Services ) National Institute of ) Environmental Health Services ) Research Triangle Park, NC ) DIGEST A solicitation for "NIEHS Environmental Health Information Clearinghouse," comprised of services involving research, analysis, and development of a systematic program for the provision of environmental and occupational health information from NIEHS to the general public through telephonic and written responses to the public's telephonic inquiries is more accurately described under SIC code 7379, "Computer Related Services, Not Elsewhere Classified, than under SIC code 7375, "Information Retrieval Services." DECISION February l, 1993 COLE, Administrative Judge, Presiding: Jurisdiction This appeal is decided under the Small Business Act of 1958, 15 U.S.C. 631 et seq., and the regulations codified at 13 CFR Part 121. Issue Whether the Contracting Officer's designation of Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code 7375, "Information Retrieval Services," for this solicitation was in error. Facts On November 16, 1992, the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Environmental Health Services (NIEHS), Research Triangle Park, North Carolina issued the captioned solicitation entitled "NIEHS Environmental Health Information Clearinghouse." Initially proposals were due from offerors by January 5, 1993, which date was extended by Amendment 3 to February 4, 1993. On December 11, 1992, Information Ventures, Inc. (Appellant) timely filed an appeal alleging that this small business set- aside procurement had been incorrectly classified by the Contracting Officer under Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code 7375, "Information Retrieval Services," with a size standard of $14.5 million or less in average annual receipts. 1/ The Appellant asserts that the proper SIC code is either 7379, "Computer Related Services, Not Elsewhere Classified," or 8999, "Services, Not Elsewhere Classified," which have a $14.5 million and $3.5 million size standard, respectively. Amendment 1 to the solicitation states, by way of background: By drawing from its research history and current research portfolio, NIEHS has substantial potential to provide the general public with information needed to better understand the contribution of environmental factors to the burden of disease and disabilities... The purpose of this solicitation is...to develop a systematic program for the provision of environmental information from NIEHS to the general public through telephonic and written responses. Id. at 3. The amended solicitation states that a negotiated level of-effort contract will be awarded, and approximates personnel requirements, as follows: Project Director (2080 hours), Program Analyst (4160 hours), Technical Information Specialist (6240 hours), and Administrative Assistant (2080) hours). Id. at 4. Their respective roles are characterized, in pertinent part, as follows: ...The Project Director shall be responsible for overall management and supervision of the program and must have a broad understanding of environmental public health and toxicological principles...[and]...should have experience in data-base management and evaluation, and supervision of technical employees.... ...The Program Analyst shall be responsible for developing and maintaining a complete listing and description of all environmental and environmental health, toxicological data, poison control, and related telephonic information services in the U.S....[and]... for assisting NIEHS staff in the management and updating of the NIEHS scientific database and implementing and maintaining a system to access this [sic] data bases for use by the contractor in response to public inquiries to the NIEHS information service. ...The technical Information Specialist shall be responsible for maintaining the first line responsibility for responding to public inquiries to the NIEHS information service...[and]...for identifying and accessing all pertinent sources of data necessary to respond fully, accurately, and in a timely manner to such inquiries.... The Administrative Assistant is responsible for providing necessary secretarial and administrative/clerical support to the project personnel...[and]...for the operating if [sic] office automation and telecommunications equipment, including facsimile services. Id. at 4-5. The requirements are described as: Task 1: To identify and provide an assessment of the existing environmental health and toxicologic information systems available to the general public; Task 2: To develop and recommend option to NIEHS to fill gaps in the availability of such information to the general public; Task 3: To establish and maintain a program to provide written and telephonic responses for information requests to NIEHS from the general public, and to continuously document and improve upon the quality, quantity, and effectiveness of the NIEHS public information service; and Final Reports. Id. at 5. In further describing these tasks, the amended solicitation advises, inter alia: Task 1....NIEHS has determined that many sources of environmental and occupational health information currently exist for use by the general public... [including from]...federal, state, and local agencies, ...professional organizations,...industry and industry groups,... environmental advocacy organizations,... medical providers,...private organizations and individual consultants....Environmental health information exists in electronic databases and in a variety of written documents. The contractor shall identify all sources of telephonic environmental and occupational health information of potential utility to the general public...[and]... report...the following:...Name, telephone number, and address of the information system...Sponsor(s) of the information system...Description of the kind(s) of information provided...Hours of operation...Cost to caller...Data about the sponsor's costs and operating method...Number and nature of inquiries per month... [and]...Assessment of the quality of the information provided.... Task 2....NIEHS has a mandate to provide, in a practical format, information from environmental health science research....At present, NIEHS makes every effort to be responsive to requests for information ...[h]owever, there is no systematic effort or program to centralize, assess, or assure the quality of the responses....Consequently, the contractor shall use the data generated in Task l...to identify gaps in the existing environmental health information sources ...[and]...include an evaluation of the scope and quality of the information currently made available to the general public in response to telephone- based environmental emergency response and environmental health information services....The contractor shall, through interviews with the Project Officer and key individuals..., acquire from NIEHS [information regarding] the nature and extent of [completed and ongoing research studies] and scientific expertise available from NIEHS [scientific] staff, NIEHS grantees, and NIEHS research and development contractors. Based on all of the aforementioned information and evaluation, the contractor shall generate realistic options and recommended activities for NIEHS to pursue to fill the gaps identified. [2/] Task 3...[Based on the results of Tasks 1 and 2]...the contractor shall establish, operate and maintain a toll free access number...for provision of environmental health information [on a nationwide basis] to the general public....The contractor shall provide a professional staff of personnel with adequate training and expertise necessary to answer telephone inquiries and to provide accurate and timely response to inquiries related to the practical application of data from NIEHS and NIEHS-sponsored research to environmental public health....[3/] The principal function of the Task 3 effort shall be to provide information about research conducted and supported by NIEHS to the general public...[and since]...NIEHS scientific experts and all data regarding NIEHS and NIEHSsponsored research are at the Institute's [North Carolina] facilities...the contractor must locate its staff... within very close proximity.... A secondary function of the information service is to refer the caller to an appropriate source of information...[where necessary]...to meet the request. ...[T]he contractor shall maintain and continuously update the listing of environmental and occupational health information sources identified in Task l...[and] ...shall continuously record and improve upon the quantity, quality, and effectiveness of the information service and the information provided. Id. at 6-8. These three tasks are to be performed sequentially, with Task 1 due within four months of award, Task 2 within six months of award, and Task 3 involving performance over the following four and one half years. Id. at 9-10. The Appellant argues that the task descriptions and labor estimates demonstrate "...that a substantially greater proportion of the required tasks concern work in areas other than providing on line information retrieval services...on a contract or fee basis." Discussion The regulation governing the designation of the proper SIC code for a procurement is found at 13 CFR 121.902, and provides as follows: (b) The proper SIC code designation for the goods or services being procured is that which best describes the principal purpose of the procurement, giving primary consideration to the industry descriptions in the SIC Manual, the product or service description in the solicitation and attachments thereto, the relative value and importance of each of the components in the procurement (if in fact there is more than one component which makes up the end item being procured) and the function of the goods or services being purchased. Consideration may also be given to previous Government procurement classifications of the same or similar products or services, additional information on the industries and on the product or services procured, and to evaluations on which industry classification would best serve the purposes of the Small Business Act. Generally, a procurement will be classified according to the component which accounts for the greatest percentage of the contract value. A contracting officer must have a good reason to classify a procurement in a way that is inconsistent with this general rule. Here, the Contracting Officer has selected SIC code 7375 "Information Retrieval Services." As described in the SIC Manual, 4/ this industry includes establishments primarily engaged in providing on-line information retrieval services on a contract or fee basis. The information generally involves a range of subjects and is taken from other primary sources. Establishments primarily engaged in performing activities, such as credit reporting, direct mail advertising, stock quotation services, etc., and who also create data bases are classified according to their primary activity. Establishments primarily engaged in collecting data bases from primary sources and reformatting or editing them for distribution through information retrieval services are classified in Industry 7379. The services listed under the foregoing classification are: Data base information services Information services, on-line On-line data base information retrieval services Remote data base information retrieval services The Appellant advocates SIC code 7379, which is described in the SIC Manual as follows: Computer Related Services, Not Elsewhere Classified Establishments primarily engaged in supplying computer related services, not elsewhere classified. Computer consultants operating on a contract or fee basis are classified in this industry. Establishments primarily engaged in producing prepackaged software are classified in Industry 7372; and those engaged in offering data processing courses or training in computer programming and in computer and computer peripheral equipment operations, repair, and maintenance are classified in Industry 8243. Illustrative services under this classification are: Computer consultants; Data base developers; Data processing consultants; Disk and diskette conversion services; Disk and diskette recertification services; Requirements analysis, computer hardware; and Tape recertification services. Alternatively, the Appellant suggests SIC code 8999, described as follows: Services, Not Elsewhere Classified Establishments primarily providing services, not elsewhere classified, such as authors, lecturers, radio commentators, song writers, weather forecasters, writers, and artists working on their own account. Establishments primarily providing commercial art services are classified in Industry 7336. The description of services required of the prospective contractor persuades us that the Contracting Officer's selection is not the most appropriate. Furthermore, we conclude that the Appellant is correct in advocating SIC code 7379. While it is true that the anticipated predominant services appear to be accessing information for dissemination to the public, there is no evidence that "on-line" retrieval services on a contract or fee basis will be involved. In fact, everything in this record reflects a service initiated by the public's telephonic inquiry, using an "800 number," and responded to through telephonic and written means. Furthermore, there are ongoing research, analysis and management aspects to this procurement which are of considerable significance to the successful operation of the clearinghouse services. These tasks are also "computer related." As noted above, the Program Analyst will develop and maintain a complete listing and description of all pertinent telephonic information services in the U.S. and will assist the NIEHS staff in the management and updating of the NIEHS scientific database and in implementing and maintaining a system to access these data bases. The services required appear more closely associated with "...collecting data bases from primary sources and reformatting or editing them for distribution through information retrieval services..." which, as noted by the Appellant, are services described under SIC code 7375 as properly classified under SIC code 7379. Conclusion For the reasons stated above, the solicitation should have been classified under SIC code 7379 - Computer Related Services, Not Elsewhere Classified, with a $14.5 million average annual receipts size standard. The Contracting Officer's designation is REVERSED, and the appeal is GRANTED. This is a final decision of the Small Business Administration. See 13 CFR 121.1720(a), (b), and (c). ____________________________________ Michael S. Cole (Presiding) Administrative Judge ____________________________________ Gloria E. Blazsik (Concurring) Administrative Judge ____________________________________ Jane E. Phillips Concurring) Administrative Judge _______________ 1/ The stated set-aside status and designated SIC code are taken as accurate in light of the Contracting Officer's apparent acquiescence in the Appellant's allegations. 2/ The bracketed words and phrases in this paragraph reflect Amendment 3, dated December 22, 1992, at page 4. 3/ Amendment 3, dated December 22, 1992, states in response to a question that "...it is anticipated that the information system described in the RFP will provide immediate telephonic responses when possible, and will frequently require gathering and/or compiling information; drafting ,written responses; and mailing materials and other appropriate responses." Id. at 5. 4/ Standard Industrial Classification Manual, 1987 Edition, Office of Management and Budget.