The City of Montreal will change its basic IT system again in 2023, just four years after migrating its thousands of employees to its current platform. A turnaround that will cost millions of dollars.
Posted at 1:51 p.m.
Updated at 2:07 p.m.
The city’s executive committee chose Microsoft to provide the basic office automation solution (email, videoconferencing, word processing, tabulator, etc.) to city officials. Google has been supplying it since 2019.
The new contract, worth $27 million over three years, is significantly more expensive than the previous one, but includes the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), unlike the previous one. Another contract will have to be awarded to an IT firm to manage this new migration.
“The transition will take place gradually during the year 2023”, indicates the City’s IT department in an email to employees and obtained by The Press. ” As during the migration to the Google suite, we will inform you and accompany you at each stage. »
Last January, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of Montreal had determined that the analysis of the tender of the computer firm Onix (which provides the Google suite in Montreal) violated the contractual rules. The company would have failed to guarantee price stability over several years, contrary to what was provided for in the call for tenders.
Last June, the city council approved a renewal of the Onix/Google contract for two years.
Three months later, last Wednesday, the executive committee of Valérie Plante chose to adopt Microsoft as a supplier. As Montreal goes through a framework agreement already negotiated by the Government of Quebec, it does not have to go back to a call for tenders.
According to a municipal document whose The Press obtained a copy, the Microsoft solution will cost the City of Montreal $121 million over the next 10 years. Keeping the suite of Google tools would have cost between 73 and 105 million for the same period, depending on the extent of the discounts granted.
“A fiasco”, says the opposition
In a telephone interview, the boss of Onix for Canada said he was “extremely disappointed” with the turn of events. He denounces the awarding of the contract by mutual agreement.
“The correct thing to do would have been to go back to competitive bidding so that all suppliers could participate. The City would have had the best product at the lowest cost,” said Jeff Telford. “We have no intention of taking the legal route. »
The Mayor’s office welcomed the decision to adopt a new IT supplier.
“Since the pandemic, our world has changed, as have our digital needs in the age of hybrid mode,” argued press officer Marikym Gaudreault. “The renewal of our office solution was coming to an end and the city carried out an exhaustive analysis of its needs and the solutions on the market. That’s why we’re going to migrate to Microsoft Office 365 in two years. Our systems must be compatible with those of other institutions and levels of government, it was not a must at the time, now the reality is quite different. »
The Microsoft computer system is used by the vast majority of public and parapublic organizations in Quebec, which could lead to accounting problems: Word or Excel documents sent by a ministry, for example, could not be easily modified. Onix asserts that the two environments are compatible and that the civil servants simply should have been better trained.
She clarified that the two contracts (Onix/Google or Microsoft) would overlap for the next 2 years to ensure a proper transition.
On the side of the official opposition at City Hall, we denounce a “fiasco”. In their opinion, the awarding of the contract to Onix/Google was mishandled, which led to its cancellation.
“It’s totally incompetent. We had warned the administration, ”said the elected Abdelhaq Sari. “I am very concerned about the management of the management of taxpayers’ money by this municipal administration. I am very worried. »