ASM Research

B-412187 Jan 07, 2016 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights ASM Research, of Fairfax, Virginia, protests the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) issuance of a task order to Booz Allen Hamilton, of McLean, Virginia, under request for task execution plans (RTEP) No. T4-0671, for operation and maintenance support of cloud enclaves and associated environments, as well as the infrastructure software contained within each enclave. ASM asserts that Booz Allen has an unmitigatable organizational conflict of interest (OCI) that renders Booz Allen ineligible to receive the task order. We sustain the protest. We sustain the protest. View Decision 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:  ASM Research File:  B-412187 Date:  January 7, 2016 Bradley D. Wine, Esq., Pablo A. Nichols, Esq., and Sandeep Nandivada, Esq., Morrison & Foerster LLP, for the protester. Rand L. Allen, Esq., Kara M. Sacilotto, Esq., Brian G. Wash, Esq., and George E. Petel, Esq., Wiley Rein LLP, for Booz Allen Hamilton, the intervenor. Frank V. DiNicola, Esq., and John W. Tangalos, Esq., Department of Veterans Affairs, for the agency. Kenneth Kilgour, Esq., and David A. Ashen, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest is sustained where agency failed to reasonably consider a potential conflict of interest that would be created by the awardee evaluating under one task order the performance of third-party mobile applications developed for a cloud environment which would have been developed, implemented, and deployed by the awardee under another task order. DECISION ASM Research, of Fairfax, Virginia, protests the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) issuance of a task order to Booz Allen Hamilton, of McLean, Virginia, under request for task execution plans (RTEP) No. T4-0671, for operation and maintenance support of cloud enclaves and associated environments, as well as the infrastructure software contained within each enclave.  ASM asserts that Booz Allen has an unmitigatable organizational conflict of interest (OCI) that renders Booz Allen ineligible to receive the task order. We sustain the protest. BACKGROUND The RTEP, issued to contract holders under the Transformational Twenty-One Total Technology (T4) multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract program, provided for the issuance of a fixed-price task order, with a 12‑month base period and two 12-month option periods, for Mobile Infrastructure Services (MIS).[1]  The task order was to be issued to the offeror whose proposal represented the best value to the government considering three evaluation factors:  technical, past performance, and price.  The agency is seeking to provide services to veterans through the use of medical mobile devices, and towards that end is arranging for the development and delivery of mobile applications (app).[2]  Contracting Officer’s Statement of Facts (COSF) at 2.  As part of this effort, VA’s Office of Information and Technology partnered with VA’s Connected Health Office (CHO) to establish VA’s MIS platform.  The overall goal of the VA MIS effort is to further the development, production implementation, and use of web hosted and mobile apps, both internally to VA clinicians, and externally directly to veterans.  See MIS Performance Work Statement (PWS) § 1.0, Background.  The MIS platform currently hosts the following four enclaves:  the Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) platform for managing the mobile devices that are provided to home-bound veterans, field clinicians, nurses, and physicians, and utilized by VA staff; the Mobile Application Environment (MAE) for web and mobile app development; the VA Mobile Framework, which is the production environment for web and mobile apps; and the External Cloud Environment (ECE), which operates outside of VA for mobile app demonstrations and software development without the need for connectivity to VA’s network.  The MAE enclave is the focus of this protest. The MIS task order will provide the hosting and maintenance of the infrastructure, platforms, and tools that house the development, testing, and production environments for mobile apps so they can be developed, tested, and released to veterans and their caregivers.  COSF at 2.  The MIS task order contractor will be responsible for providing a cloud hosting platform and its underlying infrastructure, with multiple enclaves and environments, as well as for ensuring the platform is maintained so as to meet service level agreement requirements (such as those concerning availability) set forth in the MIS PWS.  See generally, MIS PWS § 3.0, Scope of Work. Only ASM and Booz Allen submitted proposals in response to the RTEP.  Proposals were evaluated as follows: Factor ASM Boo...