A firm protested its exclusion from competition for the award of a contract by the Department of Energy (DOE) for a computer based message service. Each of the bidders was permitted to demonstrate technical capability to meet the more than 30 DOE mandatory requirements in a benchmark test. The firm failed to demonstrate one required command. It was notified of its failure to demonstrate a reply ca...

GAO RECOMMENDS THAT PROTESTER BE GIVEN SECOND ATTEMPT TO SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE BENCHMARK BECAUSE RECORD DOES NOT SUPPORT CONCLUSION THAT SOFTWARE WAS INADEQUATE AND MOST CONCLUSIVE METHOD TO DETERMINE CAPABILITY IS BY DEMONSTRATION IN BENCHMARK. THE PROCUREMENT IS ASSIGNED GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION (GSA) CONTROL NO. RW-80-0661 AND IS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH GSA'S TELEPROCESSING SERVICES P...