Staff Report #5
June 27, 2018
To All Commissioners
Re: IT Update
Recommendation
That the report be NOTED and FILED.
Background
Smart Card Implementation
Month-end processes and online systems continue to run much more smoothly than in the early months of the Smart Card system. The vendor has delivered on multiple issues including:
- new reporting that allows LTC to better cross-reference web purchases with customer records
- fixes to positive list (e.g. – 12 and under fobs) record keeping and more descriptive onboard display for Operators
- making stored value available in the test environment and test web portal, including threshold revaluing
- the addition of on-demand web receipts / purchase history for customers
The above items have been tested by LTC and are confirmed to be working. However, issues that stand in the way of implementing stored value still exist. An early June meeting with the vendor revealed that they had not met the May 31, 2018 deadline that they had proposed on a couple of key issues. LTC had not received any indication that obstacles had been encountered or that a further delay was to be expected. The discovery of a bug within the core system (instead of an expected investigation and simple configuration change) has resulted in further delays. Most of the issues critical to launching stored value have been addressed, but this particular issue (relating to automatic renewal of passes) and some remaining reporting deficiencies continue to stand in the way.
Despite the delays, the relationship to and responsiveness of the vendor’s teams continue to improve and progress is being made. At time of writing, the critical issues remaining are scheduled for a compressed/concurrent run of testing (LTC) and Quality Assurance (vendor) in the very near future.
Google Transit Real-time Data Feed
The work surrounding the provision of a Google Transit real-time data feed has progressed well. The feed from LTC’s internal systems has been established and is undergoing validation by Google. Some issues with the feed have been identified and are being ironed out by the vendor. The fine-tuning of the feed and the back and forth with Google is an expected part of the process. It is difficult to forecast a go-live date given Google sets the pace of this activity and long waits are not uncommon.
As soon as the feeds are validated and go live in Google Maps, the feed locations will be published for use by the general public / third party developers as well.
Recommended by:
Patrick Cormier, Manager of Information Services
Concurred in by:
Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager