rbt
Senior Member
No-bid Contract?
The real question here is do we want to place a no-bid contract to Accenture for an arbitrary amount or do we want various companies to compete and bid on installation of a fare-payment system which can 1) use a single electronic media card, 2) support fare integration by communication at the backends, 3) reduce staffing, etc.
The reader and fare media does not impact integration. In fact, Presto is installing Open Payment readers for Ottawa and most of the GTA anyway and an Open Payment based reader can handle Presto cards fine (later designs of Presto will fit Open Payment protocols). Fare integration simply requires communication between agency backends for an electronic fare medium.
This is the exact same debate we held when the subway contract to Bombardier was awarded without any bidding. Do we want private industry to compete or do we believe Accenture is the best for the job at any cost they demand?
With the value difference anticipated between Accenture and another software/financial firm for the same functionality; I would demand an open bidding process for the work. Hell, even if we stuck strictly with Presto cards, I would still want TTC to run a bid process for the installation, maintenance, and backend system design work.
The real question here is do we want to place a no-bid contract to Accenture for an arbitrary amount or do we want various companies to compete and bid on installation of a fare-payment system which can 1) use a single electronic media card, 2) support fare integration by communication at the backends, 3) reduce staffing, etc.
The reader and fare media does not impact integration. In fact, Presto is installing Open Payment readers for Ottawa and most of the GTA anyway and an Open Payment based reader can handle Presto cards fine (later designs of Presto will fit Open Payment protocols). Fare integration simply requires communication between agency backends for an electronic fare medium.
This is the exact same debate we held when the subway contract to Bombardier was awarded without any bidding. Do we want private industry to compete or do we believe Accenture is the best for the job at any cost they demand?
With the value difference anticipated between Accenture and another software/financial firm for the same functionality; I would demand an open bidding process for the work. Hell, even if we stuck strictly with Presto cards, I would still want TTC to run a bid process for the installation, maintenance, and backend system design work.