Marketing & Management Information, Inc., B-283399.2; B-283399.3, November 30, 1999

Marketing & Management Information, Inc., B-283399.2; B-283399.3, November 30, 1999 TITLE: Marketing & Management Information, Inc., B-283399.2; B-283399.3, November 30, 1999 BNUMBER: B-283399.2; B-283399.3 DATE: November 30, 1999 ********************************************************************** Marketing & Management Information, Inc., B-283399.2; B-283399.3, November 30, 1999 Decision Matter of: Marketing & Management Information, Inc. File: B-283399.2; B-283399.3 Date: November 30, 1999 Ira E. Hoffman, Esq., and Brian T. Scher, Esq., Grayson and Associates, for the protester. Rexford T. Bragaw III, Esq., Defense Commissary Agency, for the agency. Susan K. McAuliffe, Esq., and Christine S. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest challenging agency decision not to set aside procurement for small business concerns is sustained where decision was based on insufficient efforts to ascertain small business capability to perform the contract. DECISION Marketing & Management Information, Inc. (MMI) protests the decision of the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) to issue request for proposals (RFP) No. DECA01-99-R-0069, for subscription access to an information retrieval database, on an unrestricted basis. MMI, a small business, contends that the requirement should be set aside for small business concerns, and that the agency failed to undertake sufficient efforts to ascertain small business interest and capability to perform the contract. We sustain the protest. DeCA operates a worldwide system of commissaries for the resale of groceries and household supplies to military personnel and others. These commissaries are generally equipped with cash register equipment with front-end scanners, similar to those used in commercial grocery operations, to collect data on specific items sold, including information as to the quantity of each item sold, price, and total revenue from the sale. DeCA's commissary sales data is currently available to contractors that enter into a "subscription agreement" with DeCA for the purchase of a 3-year license (at an annual cost of $700,000) for the use of the raw product movement data collected by the commissaries' cash register scanner system. Under the subscription agreement, subscribers may use DeCA's commissary data (which the subscriber processes and places within its respective databases) to produce reports for manufacturers and suppliers of resale products which, for example, track product movement, demand, and prices; the subscriber, however, may not sell or release the actual data. Subscription Agreement para.para. 5, 6; Contracting Officer's Statement of Fact at 1. Having recognized a need to track not only its own product movement, but also similar product movement and trends in the commercial sector, DeCA issued the current RFP for agency access to a single database that contains both DeCA and commercial grocery data which could be manipulated to meet the agency's information and reporting needs. [1] In this regard, the RFP's statement of work (SOW) provides for agency access to the contractor's information retrieval database containing the agency's product movement sales data for commissaries within the continental United States, as well as comparable sales/movement data from commercial grocery stores within the same geographical areas. RFP SOW at 4. The agency's access to the data would allow agency personnel to generate a variety of reports (for example, for market research on product movement, vendor presentation validations, marketing, support initiatives, and other business purposes) based upon specified parameters, such as geographical regions, products, markets, and time periods. Id.; Contracting Officer's Statement of Small Business Set-Aside Determination at 1. DeCA issued the RFP on July 14, 1999, as an unrestricted acquisition. The RFP contemplated the award of a fixed-price contract for a base period (of approximately 1 year) with an 18-month option period. RFP at 1, 3, 20. MMI, a small business that currently has a contract with the agency for other DeCA commissary data requirements, filed a protest with our Office prior to the extended closing date for the receipt of initial proposals challenging the unrestricted nature of the procurement. [2] MMI, which asserts that the procurement should be set aside for small business concerns, contends that the agency failed to make sufficient efforts to solicit small businesses and to assess small business interest in and capability to perform the contract. Contracting officers generally are required to set aside for small business all procurements exceeding $100,000 if there is a reasonable expectation of receiving fair market price offers from at least two responsible small business concerns. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) sect.