1. Principles for Technology Procurement
CalACT, Newport Beach
April 2018
Thomas Craig
General Manager

2. We make transit easier to use.
People want to understand public transportation.  We use the web to make it simple.

3. WHAT IS TRANSIT TECHNOLOGY?
For the purposes of this presentation, transit technology is
any hardware, software, or data that performs automated functions or supports those functions, and isn’t a vehicle.

4. WHAT IS TRANSIT TECHNOLOGY?
“Hardware”—physical technology that does things
“Software”—non-physical technology that does things
“Data”—non-physical technology that hardware and software use to do things
Data is “my expertise”

5. CRITICAL CONCEPTS
Maintenance
Support
Ease of Use
Standards
Modularity

6. CRITICAL CONCEPTS Maintenance
Buses take maintenance. So does hardware. So does software. So does data.
Don’t avoid it—plan for it and set aside time.
Maintenance is both an agency activity and a contractor activity. Define those roles.

7. CRITICAL CONCEPTS Support
Maintenance is nearly impossible without support.
Who will provide the support?
How will they be reached?
When are they available?
What is the guaranteed response time?

8. CRITICAL CONCEPTS Ease of Use
Build staff time into your budget—and count it as an expense when comparing system costs.
Understanding staff time requirements requires research— don’t trust claims.
Get a demo and see it work—Use it.
If you can’t use it, it probably doesn’t work or even exist.

9. CRITICAL CONCEPTS Standards
Standardized data serves as a connection point between systems
Exports/APIs from a system are useless if they’re in a useless format
What warranties are given about integration?
Standards stick around, and support usable life of technology

11. CRITICAL CONCEPTS Modularity
Modularity means technologies that are interchangeable.
This is distinct from the ”all-in-one” approach.
All-in-one means all your eggs in one basket.
Find experts in their field who work with other teams routinely
Define the roles and build internal documentation of who does what, how pieces connect.

12. NON-CRITICAL CONCEPTS
Useful Life
All technology is outdated or obsolete in 2-3 years.
Procuring a system for 10 without building in plans to advance means procuring 7 years of worthless technology.
Plan on change, and pick a system that can change.
Leave adequate contractual flexibility.
Sometimes the technology and you grow together, sometimes you grow apart.
(~3 year max, 1 year extensions, with some exceptions for core tools that *won’t* change)

13. NON-CRITICAL CONCEPTS
Off-the-Shelf
Transit isn’t cookie cutter. Neither is technology.
The more modular and shorter term contract you get, the more off-the-shelf is reasonable.
Off-the-shelf isn’t bad, it just isn’t necessary
Though… If you’re being offered something that is Off-the-shelf and all-in-one, that almost certainly is bad

14. AFFIRMATIONS Fail Fast If you’re going to fail, better now than later
Be willing to give things a shot
Test them out
Let tests fail if that’s what they’re going to do
Give vendors chances—but make sure they show effort

15. Talk with other agencies
AFFIRMATIONS
Talk with other agencies
Don’t copy and paste RFPs
Do look at many other RFPs
Do call references
Don’t sell your vendors to other agencies (even if you have to sell them to the public)

16. Have industry partners you can trust
AFFIRMATIONS
Have industry partners you can trust
This means people you can talk to and are accountable
A mix of vendors, consultants, peers, and government officials
Be willing to pay people
Be OK asking them how they’re paid
If they won’t be blunt with you, don’t listen to them

17. Find Tech-Savvy Sales and Support People
AFFIRMATIONS
Find Tech-Savvy Sales and Support People
They should understand tech (at least a little bit)
They should be able to answer a lot of your questions, in detail
They shouldn’t be able to answer all your questions in detail
Ask about who supports before you buy

18. AFFIRMATIONS Distrust Buzz Words STATE OF THE ART SYNERGY BIG DATA
What are some you’ve heard?
SYNERGY
BIG DATA
State of the art
Big data
Off the shelf
All in one

19. When has tech procurement failed you?
EXAMPLES
When has tech procurement failed you?
if no one volunteers Give the example of (not naming agency)
They asked detailed questions
I gave honest answers, that barely suited their needs
They had an aggressive deadline
They were high pressure
I worked nights and weekends for them, and asked them to do difficult things too
Their management didn’t understand the details of what was being done on the ground
A few months later, they found a system that delivered the core request they had.

20. Principles for Technology Procurement
Thomas Craig
General Manager
ext. 4