Agency Improperly Accepted Alternative Solution Where Solicitation Called for Industry-Standard Hardware Configurations; GAO B-414406, Innovation Associates, Inc.

Protest alleging the awardee failed to meet several of the solicitation’s minimum requirements and was therefore ineligible for award is sustained, where the protester did not demonstrate its ability to access required digital images stored on another vendor’s proprietary system, and where the agency accepted an alternative method for meeting a portion of the requirement, despite using industry standards terms in the solicitation, which referred to specific, higher-priced hardware configurations.