Qwest Government Services, Inc. d/b/a CenturyLink QGS

B-416658.4,B-416658.5 Jun 17, 2019 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Qwest Government Services, Inc. d/b/a CenturyLink QGS (CenturyLink), of Arlington, Virginia, protests the award of a contract to AOC Connect, LLC (AOC), a small business of Chantilly, Virginia, under request for proposals (RFP) No. 030ADV18R0186, issued by the Library of Congress for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) enabled multi-path wide area network (WAN) services. The protester contends that the Library misevaluated proposals, engaged in unequal and misleading discussions, and failed to make a reasonable best-value tradeoff decision. We deny 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:  Qwest Government Services, Inc. d/b/a CenturyLink QGS File:  B-416658.4; B-416658.5 Date:  June 17, 2019 Shelly L. Ewald, Esq. and Emily Brown, Esq., Watt, Tieder, Hoffar & Fitzgerald, LLP, for the protester. David B. Dempsey, Esq. and James L. D’Agostino, Esq., Dempsey Fontana, PLLC, for AOC Connect, LLC, the intervenor. Emily Vartanian, Esq., Library of Congress, for the agency. Charmaine A. Stevenson, Esq., and Laura Eyester, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1. Protest challenging agency’s evaluation of proposals and selection decision is denied where the record shows that both were reasonable and consistent with the terms of the solicitation. 2. Protest that discussions were misleading and unequal is denied where the protester has not demonstrated that it was prejudiced as a result. DECISION Qwest Government Services, Inc. d/b/a CenturyLink QGS (CenturyLink), of Arlington, Virginia, protests the award of a contract to AOC Connect, LLC (AOC), a small business of Chantilly, Virginia, under request for proposals (RFP) No. 030ADV18R0186, issued by the Library of Congress for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) enabled multi-path wide area network (WAN) services.  The protester contends that the Library misevaluated proposals, engaged in unequal and misleading discussions, and failed to make a reasonable best-value tradeoff decision. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND The RFP was initially issued on March 15, 2018, using the commercial item procedures of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 12, to modernize the Library’s data center operations by providing long-haul telecommunications network connectivity between a new computing facility (referred to as DC4) and three existing Library data centers (referred to as DC1, DC2, and DC3).[1]  Agency Report (AR), Att. 3, RFP, at 5-6.  AOC filed a protest challenging the agency’s initial decision to award the contract to CenturyLink, which our Office sustained.  AOC Connect, LLC, B-416658, B-416658.2, Nov. 8, 2018, 2018 CPD ¶ 384 at 2, B-416658.3, Feb. 12, 2019, 2019 CPD ¶ 79.  On December 13, the Library issued a revised solicitation to CenturyLink and AOC, and advised that the prior award would be terminated, a new award made, and that the revised solicitation “incorporate[d] the answers from previously posted Questions and Answers (‘Q&A’s) into [s]ection C, ‘Statement of Work’, to clarify the performance requirements and also include[] minor revisions reflecting changed business needs since the time of the original solicitation issuance (March 15, 2018).”[2]  AR, Att. 3, RFP and Amendments, Cover Email, Dec. 13, 2018.  As revised, the RFP required offerors to submit a primary proposal addressing the minimum requirement--the network connection between DC2 and DC4.  RFP at 8.  Offerors could also submit an alternate proposal addressing desirable network connections between DC4 and DC3, DC3 and DC2, DC1 and DC3.  Id.  The solicitation provided information about the agency’s existing network, and the Library’s “preferred solution” with respect to the minimum requirement, explained as follows: [Minimum Requirement:]  Resilient network connection between DC2 and DC4 that should failover or switchover automatically. [Preferred Solution:]  The Library seeks a multi-path WAN solution.  This type of solution has been referred to as “active-active” or “[s]oftware [d]efined WAN technologies with multi-path capabilities”.  The preferred solution will provide reliable connectivity between sites even if there are unexpected outages in any single path between sites. . . .  The Library refers to all these capabilities as multi-path WAN. Id.