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TO: |
Mayor and Members of Council |
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FROM: |
Shiela Birrell, Town Clerk James Allen, Chief Information Officer |
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PREPARED BY: |
Rhonda Bosch - Strategic Initiatives Mark Visser
- Strategic Manager, Corporate
Services |
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DATE OF MEETING: |
Monday, March 21, 2005 |
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SUBJECT: |
RFP #082-R-04 – Town of |
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RECOMMENDATION:
THAT the report dated Monday, March 21, 2005
entitled “RFP #082-R-04 – Town of Markham Parking Software” be received;
AND THAT the contract for the acquisition and
implementation of a Parking Management Software be
awarded to ParkSmart, Inc. in the amount of $198,831.21 inclusive of 8% PST
from the 2005 ITS capital budget.
AND THAT funding be provided from the 2005 ITS
Capital budget account #49-5350-6764-005 ($258,000.00 set aside for this
project).
PURPOSE:
The
purpose of this report is to obtain approval to acquire and implement a Parking
Management System from ParkSmart Inc. within the Corporate Services - Parking
Department.
BACKGROUND:
The Parking Control operations in the Town of
will
only support the aging hardware at a premium support fee of approximately
$12,000(
Since
the system assists in generating and managing annual revenues of over $1
million and is in need of replacement, there is a need to acquire and implement
a new Parking Management System that will improve the processing of parking tickets and
facilitate fact-based decision making,
through better management reporting.
In addition, if
Besides the issues surrounding the age of the
current system and its ongoing support, there are some key limitations. They
are:
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Operates on very old technology (DOS based)
which uses obsolete data storage
techniques making it difficult to integrate with existing corporate information
systems
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Lack of connectivity with existing computer
network thus requiring manual intervention and redundant information storage.
·
Ministry of Transportation Ontario
verification software is not compatible with the Town’s current desktop
standard (Windows XP) as a result, extra manual steps are required to get the
information into a useable format
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Lack of flexibility for the integration of
payment options like Interactive Voice Response(IVR) and on-line
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Multiple third-party software applications
that perform different functions, making it difficult to isolate and fix
problems. With the lack of vendor
support for hardware and software, if the system fails, the Town staff may not
have the expertise to make it operational
again.
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Difficult
to generate ad-hoc reports for decision making
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Requires
part of the business process to be paper-based resulting in additional
administration work, extra paper usage and filing space (See attachment titled
“Parking Management System Process”)
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Lack of
data validation resulting in ticket errors and cancellations (loss in revenue
which is estimated at $15,000 annually)
Given the lack of vendor
support for the Radix system and the limitations as described above, there is a
requirement to replace the current parking management system.
Process undertaken:
To identify an
appropriate solution for the Town’s Parking System requirements, an extensive
investigation was conducted. A project
team comprising CSI, Bylaw (Parking), Finance, and ITS worked together to identify requirements and to draft an RFP for release to the public
The bid was issued in the form of an RFP. The RFP was released on
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Advertised, place
and date |
Electronic Tender
Network (ETN) |
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Bids closed on |
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Number picking up
bid documents |
3 |
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Number responding
to bid |
1 |
One vendor (ParkSmart
Inc.) responded to the RFP. ParkSmart
(est. 1997) is a subsidiary of Coinamatic Canada Inc. (est. 1947) and is 100%
focused on providing parking expertise, services, and systems. The parking system is comprised of AutoCITE
handheld computers, AutoISSUE and AutoPROCESS communications and back office
software, developed by Enforcement Technology (ETEC) out of
OPTIONS/DISCUSSION:
There
are two options that can be considered:
(1) Keep the existing system - The Town could
continue using the existing system and pay the $12,000 (
All
points of failure as identified above would result in extra administration and
a potential for lost revenue due to the time and effort required in keeping the
business operating.
(2) Transition to a new parking
system– Transitioning to a new system will:
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Facilitate quick resolution to issues and
will make system management easier as the Town will only deal with one vendor for software and
hardware related issues as compared to two that exist today. (Savings of
$2000/year on annual maintenance and upgrades for the Ticket Tracer software.)
In addition, the following
time efficiencies will be realized:
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Process |
Improvements (ParkSmart) |
Annual savings |
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Payment
Application |
Payment applied
directly to parking ticket at the cash office |
200 hours |
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Storage and
Retrieval of tickets |
One-part
tickets. Electronic storage. Retrieval
time is reduced and less physical storage space needed. |
100 hours |
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Ticketing
accuracy |
Reduce voids and
cancelled tickets |
40 hours |
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ParkSmart Annual Time Savings |
340
hours |
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Process |
Efficiencies |
Annual
savings |
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Telephone Calls |
Move phone calls
to the Contact Centre for exemptions |
250 hours |
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Total Annual Time Savings |
590
hours |
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The
time savings created by ParkSmart (as well as other initiatives being
undertaken in the Parking Control Unit) will allow administration staff to
spend a greater amount of time for report generation and analysis. Such analysis will allow for the creation of
work plans and coverage areas so that all areas of the Town are enforced while
identifying “hot spots” to help ensure traffic flow and potentially increase
revenues.
Furthermore, the Parking Department will no longer
handle calls relating to First Attendance over the phone. While potential savings are hard to quantify
at this point in time, it is estimated that it could result in time savings of
250 hours a year.
Compliance with
IT Strategic Plan:
The
IT Strategic Plan recommends that all IT solutions be evaluated against:
a. Guiding Principles
b. Management and Organization
Principle
c. Data Management Principles
d. IT
Solution Delivery Principles
e. User Access Principles
f. Technology Principles
g. Privacy Principles
h. Security Principles
i. System Management Principles
This evaluation process was applied to
the ParkSmart parking software and out of the 29 principles it was determined
that 18 fully comply, 5 partially comply, one did not comply and five
principles were non-applicable for a variety of reason. Overall, the parking software is compliant
with the IT guiding principles.
FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS:
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Item |
Cost |
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Capital cost (includes 3 years of
support fee for hardware and software) |
$198, 831.21 |
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Annual software maintenance
(after Year 3) |
$10,085.04 |
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Annual hardware maintenance
(after Year 3) |
$11,659.68 |
Annual software and hardware
maintenance is included in the initial capital cost for the first three
years. There will be a reduction of
approximately $46,000 of maintenance over the first three years.
See Appendix A for Full Costing
Details.
BUSINESS UNITS CONSULTED AND AFFECTED:
The following business units were consulted:
ATTACHMENTS:
APPENDIX ‘A’ – Cost breakdown for the new
system
APPENDIX ‘B’ – Parking System Management
Process (Current and Future)
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Sheila Birrell – Town Clerk |
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Andy Taylor – Commission Corporate Services |
Q:\Finance and Administration\Finance\SHARED\2005
General Committee Finance\0512 Parking Report to Council - Final.doc
APPENDIX
‘A’ – Cost breakdown for the new system
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# |
Part A. Hardware |
Unit
Price |
Est.
Qty. |
Extended
Price |
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1 |
Handheld/Printer - PER Unit |
$8,106.48 |
6 |
$ 48,638.88 |
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2 |
Charging Unit (Master) |
1,643.75 |
1 |
1,643.75 |
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3 |
Charging Unit (Slave) |
1,389.96 |
1 |
1,389.96 |
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Subtotal Part A |
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$ 51,672.59 |
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Part B. Software |
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Price |
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1 |
Licenses |
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1 |
$ 3,740.04 |
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2 |
Handheld Software |
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1 |
14,313.24 |
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3 |
Back Office Software
w/Manual Ticket Book Entry |
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1 |
54,955.80 |
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4 |
Parking Permit Cross
Reference Module |
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1 |
1,983.96 |
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5 |
Damaged Sign Reporting
Module |
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1 |
1,983.96 |
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6 |
On-line Cashiering Software
Module |
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1 |
10,993.32 |
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7 |
Parking Permit Processing
Module |
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1 |
14,582.16 |
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Subtotal Part B |
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$102,552.48 |
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Part C. Other |
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Price |
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1 |
Installation, Data
Conversion, and Testing of Software (per day) |
$1,080 |
10 |
$ 10,800.00 |
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2 |
Additional Training (per
day) |
$1,080 |
7 |
7,560.00 |
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3 |
Carrying Cases w/straps |
$131.74 |
6 |
790.44 |
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4 |
Car Chargers |
$248.40 |
3 |
745.20 |
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5 |
1-part tickets (per
thousand) |
$94.61 |
50 |
4,730.50 |
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6 |
Legacy Data Conversion |
$19,980 |
1 |
19,980.00 |
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Subtotal Part C |
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$ 44,606.14 |
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Total Part A, B and C |
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$198,831.21 |
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Options |
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Annual Hardware Maintenance
after Year 3 |
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$ 11,659.68 |
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Annual Software Maintenance
after Year 3 |
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$10,085.04 |
APPENDIX
‘B’ – Parking System Management Process (Current and Future)
