B-298282; B-298282.2, Intercon Associates, Inc., August 10, 2006

B-298282; B-298282.2, Intercon Associates, Inc., August 10, 2006 TITLE: B-298282; B-298282.2, Intercon Associates, Inc., August 10, 2006 BNUMBER: B-298282; B-298282.2 DATE: August 10, 2006 **************************************************************** B-298282; B-298282.2, Intercon Associates, Inc., August 10, 2006 DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This redacted version has been approved for public release. Decision Matter of: Intercon Associates, Inc. File: B-298282; B-298282.2 Date: August 10, 2006 Patrick K. O'Keefe, Esq., and Marianna Lvovsky, Esq., Sidley Austin LLP, for the protester. Richard L. Moorhouse, Esq., David T. Hickey, Esq., and Andrew J. Belofsky, Esq., Greenberg Traurig, LLP, for Information Analysis, Inc., an intervenor. John E. Cornell, Esq., General Services Administration, for the agency. Scott H. Riback, Esq., David A. Ashen, Esq., and John M. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest of agency's evaluation of proposals is sustained where record shows that agency, in evaluating protester's proposal and making its source selection decision, relied upon numerous unreasonable or unsupported evaluated weaknesses regarding the protester's proposal. DECISION Intercon Associates, Inc. protests the General Services Administration's (GSA) award of a contract to Information Analysis, Inc. (IAI), under request for proposals (RFP) No. GS-00V-06PDC0001, for an automated electronic forms system software package, along with software maintenance and support services. Intercon asserts that the agency misevaluated proposals and made an unreasonable source selection decision. We sustain the protest. BACKGROUND The RFP contemplated the award of a fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for a base year with four 1-year options, to provide the agency with a comprehensive electronic forms system to replace and upgrade its existing electronic forms capability. The contemplated system is required to provide full life-cycle services, from the creation of an electronic form to its entry into GSA's forms system; include all associated software necessary to allow forms users to fill out the forms, electronically "sign" the forms, and transmit them back to the government; and allow the government to process the information entered in completed forms. Statement of Work (SOW) at 2. For other than the incumbent contractor (Intercon), the proposed system also is required to convert GSA's existing electronic forms data base from its current format to the offeror's proposed format. Award was to be made on a "best value" basis considering price and the following non-price factors: technical approach, organizational experience and past performance, and key personnel. Technical approach was more important than the other two technical factors, which were equal in importance. RFP at 11-13. The technical factors were more important than price. RFP at 14. The agency received 11 proposals in response to the solicitation and, after conducting an initial evaluation, established a competitive range that included 8 of the proposals. The eight offerors in the competitive range were asked to conduct an operational demonstration of their respective products. After the operational demonstrations were conducted, the agency evaluated the proposals as follows: +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Offeror | IAI | Intercon |Offeror A |Offeror B |Offeror C |Offeror D |Offeror E |Offeror F | |---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------| |Combined | 91.27 |[deleted] |[deleted] |[deleted] |[deleted] |[deleted] |[deleted] |[deleted] | |Technical| | | | | | | | | |Score[1] | | | | | | | | | |---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------| |Total |$2,380,416|$[deleted]|$[deleted]|$[deleted]|$[deleted]|$[deleted]|$[deleted]|$[deleted]| |Price | | | | | | | | | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Agency Report, exh. 112, at 2.