Information Management Resources, Inc. (1331L520R13OS0002)

B-418848 Aug 24, 2020 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Information Management Resources, Inc. (IMRI), of Aliso Viejo, California, a small business, protests the issuance of a task order to Alliant SB CTA, LLC, of Omaha, Nebraska, also a small business, under task order proposal request (TOPR) No. 1331-L520R13-OS-0002, issued by the Department of Commerce for national security solutions and services (NS3) operations support services for the agency's Office of the Chief Information Officer, in Washington, D.C. We deny the protest. View Decision Decision Matter of:  Information Management Resources, Inc. File:  B-418848 Date:  August 24, 2020 Maronya Moultrie, Esq., and Brenda J. Taylor, Information Management Resources, Inc., for the protester. Laurel Hockey, Esq., Daniel J. Strouse, Esq., and John J. O’Brien, Esq., Cordatis, LLP, for Alliant SB CTA, LLC, the intervenor. Edward Weber, Esq., Department of Commerce, for the agency. Paul N. Wengert, Esq., and Tania Calhoun, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest that agency misevaluated the protester’s proposal as unacceptable is denied where the record shows that the evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the solicitation.   DECISION   Information Management Resources, Inc. (IMRI), of Aliso Viejo, California, a small business, protests the issuance of a task order to Alliant SB CTA, LLC, of Omaha, Nebraska, also a small business, under task order proposal request (TOPR) No. 1331‑L520R13‑OS‑0002, issued by the Department of Commerce for national security solutions and services (NS3) operations support services for the agency’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, in Washington, D.C.[1]  We deny the protest. BACKGROUND The TOPR, issued December 20, 2019, was posted on the General Services Administration’s (GSA) e-Buy acquisition portal, and is described by Commerce as a Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 16.5 task order competition among 70 vendors under the GSA’s Veterans Technology Services 2 (VETS2) governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC).  Req. for Dismissal at 2; Contracting Officer’s Statement (COS) at 2.  The TOPR contemplated the issuance of a single task order for a base year and four option years.  Commerce characterizes the task order at issue as another ordering vehicle--a “blanket task order,” in Commerce’s terminology--under which the agency plans to issue fixed-priced orders for services and supplies during a 5-year ordering period.[2]  Memorandum of Law (MOL) at 2; Req. for Dismissal at 2.  The TOPR’s performance work statement (PWS) described the scope as providing qualified personnel to assist in 11 tasks:  program management, network administration, system administration, service desk support, risk management framework services, public key infrastructure (PKI) certificate administration and management, security engineering, database administration, storage area network administration, technical writing, and information technology infrastructure library (ITIL)/ information technology service management transformation.  AR, Tab 5a, Finalized PWS, at 3. Award would be made to the firm whose proposal provided the best value as evaluated under three factors:  technical, past performance, and price.  The technical factor was more important than the past performance factor, and those two factors, when combined, were approximately equal to price.  TOPR at 9-10.  Under the technical factor, offerors were to submit a detailed approach to meeting all stated requirements in the TOPR, including “fully discuss[ing] how the contract requirements will be met and the means used to accomplish them.”  AR, Tab 5, TOPR amend. 3, at 7.  The TOPR listed five topics to be assessed in the evaluation, two of which are relevant here.  One was the “[e]xtent to which the offeror provides information on how the project is to be organized, staffed, and managed that demonstrates the offeror’s understanding and effective management of important events or tasks,” and another was the extent to which the offeror addressed its experience and knowledge in the planning, design, execution and management of similar work.  Id. at 10.  Corresponding to the task areas, the TOPR identified the areas of experience and knowledge to be assessed as:  network administration, systems administration, service desk support, risk management framework services, information assurance management, PKI certificate administration and management, security engineering, database administration, technical writing, and ITIL transformation.  Id.