The Chicago Transit Board today approved a contract that creates a collection of 13 vendors that are capable of providing operations and maintenance support for the agency’s information technology systems as needs are identified. These vendors were selected to address a range of services from maintaining and upgrading individual pieces of hardware and software to fully-managed service solutions.
Today’s Board action results in the second pool of pre-qualified vendors to be added to the CTA Technology Resource Acquisitions for Programs of Regional Transit (TRANSPORT) program, which is designed to offer a broad range of services and solutions that will be readily available to respond to CTA’s IT needs.
“The addition of these vendors to the TRANSPORT program will help maximize our investment in technologies,” said CTA President Richard L. Rodriguez. “Whether the project involves an upgrade to an existing technology or the implementation of something new, having a qualified pool of vendors to draw from will help keep future technology projects moving forward more quickly and efficiently.”
“Having vendors at the ready is a better use of our financial resources and has proven to be a cost efficient way to do business,” said Chicago Transit Board Chairman Terry Peterson. “CTA has successfully implemented this strategy in the past. It allows us to tap into the talent needed for a defined period of time without taking on a long-term expense.”
In January, the Board approved a group of vendors qualified to provide the CTA with communications infrastructure, engineering design, development, implementation and integration services. Other TRANSPORT categories are currently being negotiated and will include independent testing, validation, verification and evaluation; application engineering and software development; and project management office and support services.
TRANSPORT was competitively bid through a Request for Proposals (RFP) process and is for three years with two one-year-options.
The three-year contract for technology implementation is comprised of 13 vendors. Under the contract, jobs are generated as needed and will be bid on only by the 13 organizations in the vendor pool.
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