USA Information Systems, Inc., B-291417, December 30, 2002

B-291417 Dec 30, 2002 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Concerning bundling are not applicable to a solicitation that does not reflect the consolidation of services previously performed under separate smaller contracts. All of the services covered by the solicitation at issue were performed under one predecessor contract. 2. Where it has reasonably determined that a "one stop shop" solution is critical to the agency's national defense mission. USA contends that the procurement is improperly bundled to the disadvantage of small business concerns. USA also states that the brand name or equal format is restrictive of competition. This procurement is for an information retrieval system for AMCOM that offers an entire range of military and commercial documents. View Decision USA Information Systems, Inc., B-291417, December 30, 2002 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION USA Information Systems, Inc., a small business concern, protests the terms of request for quotations (RFQ) No. DAAH03-03-T-0009, issued by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) for a web-based information retrieval system for on-line documentation. USA contends that the procurement is improperly bundled to the disadvantage of small business concerns. USA also states that the brand name or equal format is restrictive of competition, contending that this requirement should be stated in terms of specific performance requirements rather specifying a brand name. We deny the protest. This procurement is for an information retrieval system for AMCOM that offers an entire range of military and commercial documents, logistics/parts database services, and vendor catalogs via on-line capabilities with a Windows application on the World Wide Web using a standard browser. In fiscal years (FY) 2001 and 2002, the agency purchased this requirement on a restricted basis identifying Information Handling Services (IHS), a large business, as the sole-source provider. /1/ Both procurements were synopsized in the Commerce Business Daily (CBD). The CBD notices stated that all responsible sources could submit a response, which would be considered by the agency. USA submitted a response to both notices. In FY 2002, the agency determined that the majority of USA's response was acceptable; in particular, the agency noted that USA's "FLIS PLUS" software, which is USA's equivalent to "Haystack" software, was determined to meet AMCOM's minimum requirements. However, USA did not offer electronic accessibility to certain documents, e.g., Department of Defense (DOD) Adopted Industry Standards and Historical DOD Standards, a full collection of American Society of Mechanical Engineers commercial standards, and a full collection of the Underwriters Laboratory commercial standards; instead, USA offered hardcopy facsimiles and/or next day delivery via courier where electronic availability did not exist. The agency determined that the lack of full Internet service availability made USA's response technically unacceptable. For FY 2003, the agency originally intended to again issue this requirement on a sole-source basis. On August 12, however, before the solicitation was issued, USA filed a request with the agency that the solicitation be issued "without company--specific product names and numbers, using more generic descriptions." Agency Report, Tab G, Letter from USA to Army, Aug. 12, 2002. The agency then decided to compete this requirement on a full and open basis with a statement of work that described the government's minimum needs. The requirement was publicized on the Federal Business Opportunities website on September 10, 2002. On September 12, the present RFQ was issued for the FY 2003 requirement for an information retrieval system on-line with a Windows application on the World Wide Web using a standard browser. The information retrieval system is required to contain "index information" from one website giving access to actual scanned documents. The system is to provide accessibility to over 40,000 active military documents, such as military and federal specifications, standards and handbooks, to allow full-text search capability, cut-and-paste capability, and intra-document links for data integrity. The RFQ provided that all documents are to be downloadable and printable at the desktop on demand. RFQ Statement of Work (SOW) Sec. 2.0. The RFQ stated that the mission of the activity requires the "fast and unrestricted retrieval of information," and that the "weapon system integrity and readiness of our forces must be maintained by an information retrieval system that provides for this expeditious processing." RFQ SOW Sec. 1.0. Amendment No. 3, issued September 25, specified that the system is to be "[IHS] or equal" and "Haystack or equal," and stated (at 2): NOTE: See Statement of Work for a general description of those salient functional and performance characteristics that an "equal" item must meet to be acceptable for award.