Datastream Systems, Inc., B-291653, January 24, 2003

B-291653 Jan 24, 2003 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights DIGEST Protest that contracting agency improperly relaxed solicitation's technical requirement that a computerized maintenance management system be web-based by accepting for award a system that requires the use of a software "plug-in" program (which was not included in the awardee's proposal) in order to be fully web-based is denied where the protester has not established competitive prejudice as a result of the waiver. Are the primary target for an enterprise CMMS for the region. /1/ The agency anticipates that such a system will help it manage its building assets in a consistent and effective manner. The RFQ advised vendors that GSA was primarily concerned with fulfilling its needs for customer service calls or work orders. View Decision Datastream Systems, Inc., B-291653, January 24, 2003 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION Datastream Systems, Inc. protests the award of a contract to MRO Software, Inc. under request for quotations (RFQ) No. WPI-20021, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) to procure a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to manage buildings in the Washington, D.C. area. Datastream argues that MRO's proposal failed to meet the solicitation's technical requirements, and that GSA relaxed those requirements solely for MRO. We deny the protest. GSA's National Capital Region (NCR) issued this solicitation on July 23, 2002 to procure, on a pilot basis, a CMMS to manage its more than 680 buildings in the Washington, D.C. area. The NCR's government-owned and -managed assets--fewer than 200 of these buildings--are the primary target for an enterprise CMMS for the region. /1/ The agency anticipates that such a system will help it manage its building assets in a consistent and effective manner. RFQ Statement of Work (SOW) at 3. The RFQ advised vendors that GSA was primarily concerned with fulfilling its needs for customer service calls or work orders, preventive maintenance, inspections of work performed and of cleaning contractors, and minor repair tracking. Id. at 2. The system was required to be a mature product that would let GSA accomplish these tasks while providing any supporting capability needed to support these functions, such as inventory management, systems administration, and warranty tracking. Id. The system was also required to be "tailorable" to end-users, such as customers, show managers and technicians, call center personnel, managers of multiple buildings, service center managers, and headquarters program managers and upper management. In addition, an administrative function was to be handled by a program or functional lead and by information technology support personnel. Id. NCR envisioned rolling the product out to a subset of its buildings--a pilot population--in order to test its full capability and to receive an assessment of the project. If, after the pilot phase, GSA decided to proceed to the second phase of the project, it planned to negotiate a contract modification with the contractor. Id. at 3. The selected product was to meet various environmental requirements listed in the solicitation. Among other things, the product should be "web-architected"; the application had to be "compatible with all current GSA standard systems software"; and the product had to use an "Oracle back-end database (GSA Standard)." Id. at 1. Vendors were required to submit technical proposals addressing how they could meet the project's objectives; to demonstrate satisfactory performance of their web-architected products through multiple installations within the public and private sector; and to submit at least five references. Id. at 3. Once GSA established that a vendor's proposal complied with the SOW's criteria, each proposal was to be evaluated based on the following criteria, "with the first being more important than the next": technical merit of the product, technical merit of the proposal, cost, and time to implement. July 29, 2002 RFQ Questions and Answers (Q&A) No. 10. Award was to be made on a "best value" basis. July 31, 2002 Q&A at 1. The July 29 Q&A included the following exchange: Q: Please confirm that the term "web-architected" is to be interpreted as the ability for a user to access the CMMS system from a web browser such as Internet Explorer V5.5 or above. If so, this definition is commonly referred to as "web-enabled" rather [than] "web-architected." The term "web-architected" is generally defined as an application that requires zero footprint on the [user's] desktop computer and requires no middleware such as PL/SQL or similar plug-ins on the client. A: GSA defines web-architected to allow the download of a plug-in and [require] an Internet Explorer browser front-end. July 29, 2002 Q&A No. 7. A "plug-in" is an auxiliary software program that works with a major software package to enhance its capability. TechEncyclopedia, >.