By Light Professional IT Services, LLC

B-417191.3 Dec 04, 2019 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights By Light Professional IT Services, LLC, of Arlington, Virginia, protests the issuance of a task order to NES Associates, LLC, by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) under request for proposals (RFP) No. GSMETI00035.00, issued under DISA's Global Information Grid Services Management Engineering, Transition, and Architecture multiple-award, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract to acquire consolidated implementation support services for the Department of Defense information network. The protester alleges that the agency failed to recognize numerous strengths in the protester's proposal, and that the agency failed to adequately document its best-value tradeoff decision. The protest is denied. View Decision DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This version has been approved for public release. Decision Matter of:  By Light Professional IT Services, LLC File:  B-417191.3 Date:  December 4, 2019 Damien C. Specht, Esq., James Tucker, Esq., and Alissandra Young, Esq., Morrison & Foerster LLP, for the protester. Andrew Shipley, Esq., Chanda L. Brown, Esq., and Philip Beshara, Esq., Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, for NES Associates, LLC, the intervenor. Michelle L. Sabin, Esq., Nati Silva, Esq., and Vera A. Strebel, Esq., Defense Information Systems Agency, for the agency. Michael Willems, Esq., and Edward Goldstein, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1.  Protest alleging that agency failed to acknowledge numerous strengths in protester’s proposal is denied when the agency’s evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the solicitation requirements. 2.  Protest alleging that a best-value tradeoff was inadequately documented is denied when the record reflects that the agency considered the underlying features of the proposals and did not mechanically compare adjectival ratings. DECISION By Light Professional IT Services, LLC, of Arlington, Virginia, protests the issuance of a task order to NES Associates, LLC, by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)  under request for proposals (RFP) No. GSMETI00035.00, issued under DISA’s Global Information Grid Services Management Engineering, Transition, and Architecture multiple-award, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract to acquire consolidated implementation support services for the Department of Defense information network.  The protester alleges that the agency failed to recognize numerous strengths in the protester’s proposal, and that the agency failed to adequately document its best-value tradeoff decision. BACKGROUND The agency issued the RFP on May 4, 2018.  Memorandum of Law (MOL) at 4.  The RFP established two evaluation factors:  (1) technical/management approach; and (2) cost.  Agency Report (AR), Tab 1, RFP, at 4.  The RFP divided the technical/ management approach factor into three equally-weighted subfactors.  Id. at 4‑5.  Under these subfactors the agency would evaluate the extent to which an offeror demonstrated:  (1) a comprehensive approach to analyzing government furnished information (GFI)[1] related to a particular implementation requirement or activity at the designated implementation site to develop an implementation request (IR);  (2) a plan to execute the actions identified in the telecommunications site implementation plan to accomplish the tasks required to bring installed equipment into operational readiness; and (3) a comprehensive management approach that provides the minimally acceptable mix of labor categories and labor hours to meet the requirements of the performance work statement.  Id. The RFP advised offerors that each technical subfactor would be evaluated individually and assigned one of the following adjectival ratings:  (1) blue/outstanding; (2) purple/ good; (3) green/acceptable; (4) yellow/marginal; or (5) red/unacceptable.  AR, Tab 1F, Evaluation Tables.  Relevant to this protest, the RFP provided that, in order to be rated as purple/good the relevant portion of the proposal must, among other things, contain at least one strength, and in order to be rated as blue/outstanding the relevant section of the proposal must contain multiple strengths.[2]  Id.  The RFP contemplated that award would be made on the basis of a tradeoff between technical/management approach and cost, with technical/management approach being more important than cost.  RFP at 4. The agency received proposals from three offerors, including By Light and NES, and following discussions made award to NES on December 6, 2018.  Protest at 3.  On December 17, By Light filed a protest with our Office alleging, among other things, that the agency erred by failing to assign its proposal any strengths and that NES’s total evaluated cost was unrealistically low.  I...