The organisation
Infrastructure Ontario (IO) is a Government of Ontario crown agency. Its purpose is to build, manage, finance and enhance the value of Ontario public assets. IO has a track record of delivering projects on-budget and on-time whilst meeting high standards for design, quality and health and safety.
The Public Private Partnership (P3) model leverages partnerships within the private sector to expand, modernise and replace Ontario’s aging infrastructure. IO’s approach to project delivery has resulted in new hospitals, transit systems, highways, courthouses, children’s treatment centres and high-performance sport venues — all of which are publicly owned and enrich the quality of life in communities across the province. IO’s P3 approach has garnered international attention and has made Ontario a global leader in infrastructure development. As a result, more than 50 international jurisdictions have visited Ontario to learn about the success of the P3 model. IO’s P3 projects have won awards from world-renowned organisations such as the American Institute of Architects, the International Academy for Design & Health and The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships.
Key facts
- 110 projects worth a capital cost of $47.23 billion have been brought to market
- 60 projects worth more than $20 billion in capital cost are complete
- 57 projects are in the planning, procurement and construction phase
The challenge
IO was looking to work towards a more robust and efficient process for managing their market engagement and procurement activities to operate more effectively with an ever-increasing number of projects.
The solution
IO explored several options within the market before signing a contract with Commerce Decisions to support their industry engagement, electronic bid submission and the rigorous evaluation of proponent submissions using the AWARD® software suite.
Infrastructure Ontario piloted AWARD® on a number of projects before committing to AWARD® across all P3 procurements and initiating a corporate agreement.
A case study – Finch West LRT Project
| Project value | Sets of documents | Users | Requests for Information | Evaluators | Submissions |
| $2.5bn | 501 | 112 | 5 | 20 | 3 |
In February 2016, IO and Metrolinx released a Request for Proposal (RFP) to companies shortlisted to design, build, finance and maintain the Finch West Light Rail Transit (LRT) project.
The 11 km, 18-stop line is to extend from Finch West Station on Line 1 Yonge–University to the North Campus of Humber College. The line is forecast to carry about 14.6 million passengers a year/40,000 a day by 2031 and is scheduled for completion in 2023, with an estimated cost of $2.5 billion.
The challenges
- Large disparate team of evaluators (including advisors in Texas, USA)
- International bidders/consortia
- Large volumes of submitted documentation to manage
The solution
AWARD® provided IO with a single environment in which the whole procurement phase could be managed. It allowed the procurement process to be robustly administered by the procurement team – controlling all communications and enforcing IO’s governance policies whilst maintaining a full audit record of all activities and communications.
“On the Finch West LRT Project we experienced a 15% increase in project efficiency, saving approximately one day of work each week. Considering we engaged over 100 participants in this exercise, this was a significant saving. All of the stakeholders involved (including the proponents and external advisors) were highly complementary of the new process. This gave us the confidence to extend the use of AWARD® more widely in our P3 procurement process.” Michael Inch, Vice President of Procurement, Infrastructure Ontario
“AWARD® offered significant visibility of the process and quickly enabled a detailed analysis of the results in a way which wasn’t previously possible.”
The value added by Commerce Decisions
Strong communication and a clear understanding of IO’s objectives has resulted in the development of an excellent partnership between Commerce Decisions and IO. As a result of this collaboration and a detailed insight into IO’s requirements, a number of new product features have been implemented into the AWARD® software. These developments have not only benefited IO’s procurement projects and processes but also others in the AWARD® customer base.
The Commerce Decisions team helped ensure there was a smooth implementation of AWARD® into the organisation, enabling swift take up and acceptance internally by both IO and its partners, and externally by the P3 bidder community.
Observed benefits and outcomes
IO expects to realise further efficiencies as they continue to use the AWARD® software for additional infrastructure projects, including the largest rail procurement project in the province’s history.
Following the use and implementation of AWARD®, IO now looks to Commerce Decisions as a technology innovator, supporting them in their evolutionary initiatives in this market and in further streamlining their P3 engagement process. IO continues to map its processes and procedures into AWARD® to ensure a rigorous, robust and transparent procurement structure is applied throughout their programmes.
“We’re delighted by how our implementation of AWARD® has been executed by the Commerce Decisions team. The support and flexibility Commerce Decisions offered to meet our requirements has been a real credit to the company.”David Ho, Executive Vice President, Procurement and Programme Management, Infrastructure Ontario
“We’re seeing real and measurable benefits beyond those expected and hope to roll out AWARD® across a wider range of procurements over the coming months.”
About AWARD®
AWARD® delivers intuitive and robust assessments with a strong audit trail; supporting a diverse range of applications including construction programmes, transport and defence systems, IT outsourcing, collaborative frameworks and multi-lot projects.
The AWARD® software has been proven to significantly reduce risk, cost and time to contract, and has successfully supported over $520 billion procurements globally, including over 75 P3 projects.
*Please note all currencies are in Canadian Dollars.
