Webinar: Cost Efficiency under Negotiated Performance-Based Contracts and Benchmarking – Are there gains through Competitive Tendering in the absence of an Incumbent Public Monopolist?
This document provides an overview of a webinar discussing evidence from Australia on the cost efficiency of negotiated performance-based contracts (NPBCs) versus competitive tendering (CT) for bus services. The following key points are made:
- Analysis of Australian data found median net cost per km was lower under NPBCs ($4.97/km) than CT ($5.12/km), indicating NPBCs can achieve similar or better cost efficiency outcomes than CT.
- Properly implemented benchmarking under NPBCs, which includes performance targets to improve cost efficiency over time, has the potential to achieve equal or greater gains than CT.
- The claimed cost savings from moving to CT in Sydney
This presentation by Elisabetta Iossa. Professor of Economics at "Tor Vergata" University of Rome, was made during the discussion “Competition-for-the-market” held at the 18th meeting of the OECD Global Forum on Competition on 6 December 2019. More papers and presentations on the topic can be found at oe.cd/cmkt.
The challenges of cross-border participation in CRMsLeonardo ENERGY
CRMs are tools set up to remunerate directly generation (or demand side management) capacity.
In the European Union several member states are implementing markets for CRMs, in a rather uncoordinated manner. In an integrated energy market framework, this poses several challenges to both the electricity market design and the treatment of cross border capacity.
Scope of this webinar is to review the challenges and opportunities posed by the opening of CRMs to external participation. External participation is defined; three different models of external participation are specified and the pro and cons of cross-border participation to CRMs are compared.
In a bumper edition of Public Matters, we cover:
• the OFT’s recent report into the supply of ICT to the public sector
• further analysis of the new public procurement directive
• a new case on ineffectiveness
• the latest state aid developments, an analysis of PFI savings, case law developments on consultation obligations and recent developments on information sharing.
A concession can be defined as a system through which a public authority grants specific rights to an organization (private or semi-public) to build, rehabilitate, maintain and operate an infrastructure for a given period. The BOT model (Build-Operate-Transfer) is a type of concession and should not be differentiated. Variations on the BOT include the BOOT (Build-Own-Operate-Transfer) and BOO (Build-Own-Operate). This brief addresses issues like the various concession mechanisms, the shadow toll principle and commercial & financial risks ppp’s involved in the transport sector. A section is also provided on emerging PPP telematics in transport sector.
The Politics of Road Reform: The challenges ahead for road pricing and provisionUniversity of Canberra
Presentation at the book launch of de Percy, M. and Wanna, J. (2018). Road Pricing and Provision: Changed Traffic Conditions Ahead. Canberra: ANU Press, Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Canberra, ACT, 4 September 2018.
This presentation by Elisabetta Iossa. Professor of Economics at "Tor Vergata" University of Rome, was made during the discussion “Competition-for-the-market” held at the 18th meeting of the OECD Global Forum on Competition on 6 December 2019. More papers and presentations on the topic can be found at oe.cd/cmkt.
The challenges of cross-border participation in CRMsLeonardo ENERGY
CRMs are tools set up to remunerate directly generation (or demand side management) capacity.
In the European Union several member states are implementing markets for CRMs, in a rather uncoordinated manner. In an integrated energy market framework, this poses several challenges to both the electricity market design and the treatment of cross border capacity.
Scope of this webinar is to review the challenges and opportunities posed by the opening of CRMs to external participation. External participation is defined; three different models of external participation are specified and the pro and cons of cross-border participation to CRMs are compared.
In a bumper edition of Public Matters, we cover:
• the OFT’s recent report into the supply of ICT to the public sector
• further analysis of the new public procurement directive
• a new case on ineffectiveness
• the latest state aid developments, an analysis of PFI savings, case law developments on consultation obligations and recent developments on information sharing.
A concession can be defined as a system through which a public authority grants specific rights to an organization (private or semi-public) to build, rehabilitate, maintain and operate an infrastructure for a given period. The BOT model (Build-Operate-Transfer) is a type of concession and should not be differentiated. Variations on the BOT include the BOOT (Build-Own-Operate-Transfer) and BOO (Build-Own-Operate). This brief addresses issues like the various concession mechanisms, the shadow toll principle and commercial & financial risks ppp’s involved in the transport sector. A section is also provided on emerging PPP telematics in transport sector.
The Politics of Road Reform: The challenges ahead for road pricing and provisionUniversity of Canberra
Presentation at the book launch of de Percy, M. and Wanna, J. (2018). Road Pricing and Provision: Changed Traffic Conditions Ahead. Canberra: ANU Press, Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Canberra, ACT, 4 September 2018.
Benchmarking municipal public transport operators in the netherlandsEric Trel
Trel, E. and D.M. van de Velde (2008), “Benchmarking municipal public transport operators in the Netherlands”, European Transport Conference, October 2008. This paper presents the results of a study conducted to benchmark the performances of the municipally-owned public transport operators of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague in the Netherlands. The study, commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Transport, compares the performances of the operators in terms of quality and efficiency and their steps towards more ‘market conformity’.
Universal service obligation and loyalty effectsMichal
In network industries, a Universal Service Obligation (USO) is often seen as a burden
on an incumbent, which requires compensation for the net cost of such service
provision. This paper estimates the effects of consumer loyalty as an intangible
benefit of USO in the postal sector. In doing so, the agent-based modelling (ABM)
approach is applied, which makes it possible to model the behaviour of boundedly
rational consumers and is thus particularly appropriate for taking into account
intangibles considerations. The analysis shows that loyalty is crucial to whether
the USO uniform pricing constraint results in loss-making or profitability. Under
certain conditions and in the presence of a loyalty parameter, uniform pricing gives
a USO provider an advantage, when the size of the rural area is sufficiently big
and a disadvantage, if its size is too small. This finding is counterintuitive as USO
providers in countries with sparsely populated areas are typically expected to incur
a significant net cost of USO.
Presentation by Peter Brocklebank of LeighFisher.
www.leighfisher.com/meet-leighfisher/consultants/peter-brocklebank
Delivered to postgraduate students at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds
www.its.leeds.ac.uk/courses/masters/itslectureseries
ITS allows support travelers of all classes and to assist in road network management and performance by using systems for information, communication, and control, to provide improved safety and an enhanced traveling experience. The presentation provides highlights on Bahrain ITS Efforts.
Posters summarizing dissertation research projects to date, presented by MA and MSc students at the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS), University of Leeds, May 2014.
on.fb.me/1oSvcMT
www.its.leeds.ac.uk/courses/masters/dissertation
Guest presentation to the Institute for Transport Studies by Keith Buchan, Policy Director of the Transport Planning Society (TPS), 12th November 2014
Keith Buchan outlines what the Transport Planning Society would like to see included in a transport manifesto for the new Government which will be elected in 2015.
Keith Buchan, is the Policy Director of the Transport Planning Society. He has been an Executive Director of Metropolitan Transport Research Unit (MTRU), an independent transport planning consultancy, since 1989. Prior to that he worked for local authorities, including the Greater London Council where he was responsible for implementing the Night and Weekend Lorry Ban. His work has included objectives led assessment, traffic restraint, ‘new generation’ bus priority, demand responsive transport and heavy vehicle studies. Keith recently completed a draft UK strategy to reduce carbon emissions from transport including aviation and shipping. He was a Government adviser for the 1997 national road traffic forecasts (NRTF) that were part of the original NATA in 1998, and is a member of the advisory group now working on the NATA Refresh.
Real-time pricing has been hindered by the misperception that a shift
to RTP will create new types of risks, without creating benefits for
utilities or customers.
During the past two decades, real-time pricing (RTP) has spawned a cottage industry
of experts who continue to wax eloquent on its benefits. RTP can indeed provide
substantial benefits to energy customers and utilities. However, only a handful of utilities
offer such programs, and only a few thousand customers receive RTP service. This
paradox resolves itself once we realize that there are significant barriers to RTP, many of
them having to do with perceptions and not reality.
The overarching barrier to widespread application of RTP is a misperception that a shift
to RTP will create new types of risks for utilities and regulators, without creating
commensurate benefits for either utilities or customers. Both utilities and regulators have
become risk averse in experimentation with new policies, having been burned first in
California and then in the Enron crisis. The challenge is to convince them that no such
failures await them with implementing RTP.
The need for a multi-faceted appraisal framework for major public transport i...Tristan Wiggill
A presentation by transport economist, Andrew Marsay, delivered at the i-Transport UATP Conference and Exhibition held at the Sandton Convention Centre, 20 June 2018.
BELTUG_competition study with notes_websasvangent32
Danielle Jacobs highlighted the results of BELTUG’s own research into the current situation of the business market, clearly demonstrating there is insufficient competition. “Often, organisations do not get more than one or two responses to their RFPs. There is also limited vendor switching,” she explained. “An important shift is necessary. International and national authorities need to consider businesses as a separate market with its own needs. More and more companies are looking for service providers to help them with increased complexity. Integrators (will) have 'preferred' suppliers. Often Belgacom will be one of these. BELTUG fears that there is an increased risk of dependency on Belgacom."
Slides for the JavaOne 2012 session on Java batch for Cost Optimized Efficiency. This session talks about the importance of Java Batch in Enterprise computing and provides a reference architecture, overview of the JSR 352 and the WebSphere Batch solutions.
Benchmarking municipal public transport operators in the netherlandsEric Trel
Trel, E. and D.M. van de Velde (2008), “Benchmarking municipal public transport operators in the Netherlands”, European Transport Conference, October 2008. This paper presents the results of a study conducted to benchmark the performances of the municipally-owned public transport operators of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague in the Netherlands. The study, commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Transport, compares the performances of the operators in terms of quality and efficiency and their steps towards more ‘market conformity’.
Universal service obligation and loyalty effectsMichal
In network industries, a Universal Service Obligation (USO) is often seen as a burden
on an incumbent, which requires compensation for the net cost of such service
provision. This paper estimates the effects of consumer loyalty as an intangible
benefit of USO in the postal sector. In doing so, the agent-based modelling (ABM)
approach is applied, which makes it possible to model the behaviour of boundedly
rational consumers and is thus particularly appropriate for taking into account
intangibles considerations. The analysis shows that loyalty is crucial to whether
the USO uniform pricing constraint results in loss-making or profitability. Under
certain conditions and in the presence of a loyalty parameter, uniform pricing gives
a USO provider an advantage, when the size of the rural area is sufficiently big
and a disadvantage, if its size is too small. This finding is counterintuitive as USO
providers in countries with sparsely populated areas are typically expected to incur
a significant net cost of USO.
Presentation by Peter Brocklebank of LeighFisher.
www.leighfisher.com/meet-leighfisher/consultants/peter-brocklebank
Delivered to postgraduate students at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds
www.its.leeds.ac.uk/courses/masters/itslectureseries
ITS allows support travelers of all classes and to assist in road network management and performance by using systems for information, communication, and control, to provide improved safety and an enhanced traveling experience. The presentation provides highlights on Bahrain ITS Efforts.
Posters summarizing dissertation research projects to date, presented by MA and MSc students at the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS), University of Leeds, May 2014.
on.fb.me/1oSvcMT
www.its.leeds.ac.uk/courses/masters/dissertation
Guest presentation to the Institute for Transport Studies by Keith Buchan, Policy Director of the Transport Planning Society (TPS), 12th November 2014
Keith Buchan outlines what the Transport Planning Society would like to see included in a transport manifesto for the new Government which will be elected in 2015.
Keith Buchan, is the Policy Director of the Transport Planning Society. He has been an Executive Director of Metropolitan Transport Research Unit (MTRU), an independent transport planning consultancy, since 1989. Prior to that he worked for local authorities, including the Greater London Council where he was responsible for implementing the Night and Weekend Lorry Ban. His work has included objectives led assessment, traffic restraint, ‘new generation’ bus priority, demand responsive transport and heavy vehicle studies. Keith recently completed a draft UK strategy to reduce carbon emissions from transport including aviation and shipping. He was a Government adviser for the 1997 national road traffic forecasts (NRTF) that were part of the original NATA in 1998, and is a member of the advisory group now working on the NATA Refresh.
Real-time pricing has been hindered by the misperception that a shift
to RTP will create new types of risks, without creating benefits for
utilities or customers.
During the past two decades, real-time pricing (RTP) has spawned a cottage industry
of experts who continue to wax eloquent on its benefits. RTP can indeed provide
substantial benefits to energy customers and utilities. However, only a handful of utilities
offer such programs, and only a few thousand customers receive RTP service. This
paradox resolves itself once we realize that there are significant barriers to RTP, many of
them having to do with perceptions and not reality.
The overarching barrier to widespread application of RTP is a misperception that a shift
to RTP will create new types of risks for utilities and regulators, without creating
commensurate benefits for either utilities or customers. Both utilities and regulators have
become risk averse in experimentation with new policies, having been burned first in
California and then in the Enron crisis. The challenge is to convince them that no such
failures await them with implementing RTP.
The need for a multi-faceted appraisal framework for major public transport i...Tristan Wiggill
A presentation by transport economist, Andrew Marsay, delivered at the i-Transport UATP Conference and Exhibition held at the Sandton Convention Centre, 20 June 2018.
BELTUG_competition study with notes_websasvangent32
Danielle Jacobs highlighted the results of BELTUG’s own research into the current situation of the business market, clearly demonstrating there is insufficient competition. “Often, organisations do not get more than one or two responses to their RFPs. There is also limited vendor switching,” she explained. “An important shift is necessary. International and national authorities need to consider businesses as a separate market with its own needs. More and more companies are looking for service providers to help them with increased complexity. Integrators (will) have 'preferred' suppliers. Often Belgacom will be one of these. BELTUG fears that there is an increased risk of dependency on Belgacom."
Slides for the JavaOne 2012 session on Java batch for Cost Optimized Efficiency. This session talks about the importance of Java Batch in Enterprise computing and provides a reference architecture, overview of the JSR 352 and the WebSphere Batch solutions.
Java EE 7 Batch processing in the Real WorldRoberto Cortez
This talk will explore one of the newest API for Java EE 7, the JSR 352, Batch Applications for the Java Platform. Batch processing is found in nearly every industry when you need to execute a non-interactive, bulk-oriented and long running operation task. A few examples are: financial transactions, billing, inventory management, report generation and so on. The JSR 352 specifies a common set of requirements that every batch application usually needs like: checkpointing, parallelization, splitting and logging. It also provides you with a job specification language and several interfaces that allow you to implement your business logic and interact with the batch container. We are going to live code a real life example batch application, starting with a simple task and then evolve it using the advanced API's until we have a full parallel and checkpointing reader-processor-writer batch. By the end of the session, attendees should be able to understand the use cases of the JSR 352, when to apply it and how to develop a full Java EE Batch Application.
Similar to Webinar: Cost Efficiency under Negotiated Performance-Based Contracts and Benchmarking – Are there gains through Competitive Tendering in the absence of an Incumbent Public Monopolist?
Competition in the Provision of Local Transportation Services– Graham Currie ...OECDCompetitionDivis
This presentation by Graham Currie (Professor, Monash University) was made during the discussion “Competition and Regulation in the Provision of Local Transportation Services” held for competition authorities officials on 20 June 2022. More materials on the topic can be found at http://oe.cd/crplts. This presentation was uploaded with the author’s consent.
Snapshot of Canadian Local Procurement & Implications for CETA Part 1Genevieve Tran
Non-Federal procurement accounts for 85% of all spending by government in Canada (=almost $250 bn). So, trade agreements like CETA necessarily affect the ability of cities and provinces to use procurement strategically (they are required to open up to competition with trading partners over certain $ thresholds). However, that means that local governments do have some leeway to be strategic. Many people are concerned with the restrictions trade agreements like CETA pose on a city's ability to self-determine its socio-economy through government spending. But, first, are we even using the levels of control we have? Part 1 identifies what our leeway is / has long been under WTO and NAFTA and if it's even being used. Part 2 will find out how strategic procurement is (not) being used by Canada and its trading partners.
This presentation by Jenny M. Lewis was made at the workshop on Competition in Publicly Funded Markets (28 February 2019). Find out more at http://www.oecd.org/daf/competition/workshop-on-competition-in-publicly-funded-markets.htm
Strengthen outcome based capital project deliveryBob Prieto
Over the course of my career I have looked at a number of underperforming mega-projects. In every instance there was a common element of underperformance, the lack of clarity around the strategic business outcomes to be accomplished. Conversely, some of the best performing projects exhibited high clarity of recognized and shared outcomes.
This paper looks at the imperative to continue the shift to outcomes based contracts versus more traditional output based contracting forms. This shift is discussed from the perspective of the engineering and construction industry in the United States but draws upon the experience in other countries and other sectors.
Infrastructure whether financed through traditional methods or PPPs relies on funding sources to repay financing, whether debt, equity, or a combination. All infrastructure investments ultimately depend on either user fees, government tax revenues, or a combination of both. Transport has a great impact on economic growth and poverty alleviation.
Therefore, community and political support for greater investment of government tax revenues or the imposition of user fees is critical to expanding investment in public infrastructure. The challenge is for PPPs to demonstrate overall cost savings and efficiencies that outweigh the lower-cost financing advantage of traditional procurement.
Creation of Infrastructure has economics both of scale and scope (i.e., minimum size of facilities, inelastic adjustment of capacity to demand, long term project completion, etc..
Sesión 6: La experiencia de Trinidad y TobagoIndotel RD
• Metodología y modelo de costos desarrollado
• Estrategia de precios y desafios
Seminario sobre los aspectos económicos y financieros de las telecomunicaciones para los países Miembros del Grupo Regional de la Comisión de Estudio 3 para América Latina y El Caribe (SG3RG-LAC)
Charging Ahead | Making Road User Pricing WorkTexxi Global
Making Road User Charging Work in the UK
Similar to Webinar: Cost Efficiency under Negotiated Performance-Based Contracts and Benchmarking – Are there gains through Competitive Tendering in the absence of an Incumbent Public Monopolist? (20)
Resumen:
In recent decades, the main focus in public transport operations has been increasing its speed. Increasing speed not only allows for faster trips, but also a higher frequency with the same fleet, thus reducing waiting times and crowdedness inside the vehicles. This interest in speed has ignored a second key dimension in level of service: reliability. In this article, we provide a full range of impacts of an unreliable public transport service. We demonstrate how regularising headway could improve level of service beyond the gains of simply increasing the operational speed. Regular headways positively affect comfort, reliability, travel and wait time, operational costs, and even some urban impacts of bus services. Thus, the focus for public transport agencies and operators should be redirected to reliability. This is fundamental for making public transport an attractive travel alternative and therefore must become a core goal for urban sustainability.
Gabriel Oliveira - BRT in Brazil: state of the practice as from the BRT Stand...BRTCoE
Presented by Gabriel Oliveira, Gabriel Oliveira, ITDP Brazil Public Transport Coordinator, on September 20th, 11:30 Brasilia Time Zone.
Complete title: BRT in Brazil: state of the practice as from the BRT Standard & challenges for operations and integration
Summary:
Between 2004 and 2014, the total extension of BRT systems almost quadrupled worldwide, rising from about 700 km to 2,600 km (ITDP, 2014). In an effort to monitor and guarantee an standard quality of service across systems, the Institute of Transport and Development Policy (ITDP) has consolidated, along with BRT planning experts and practitioners, a project and operations evaluation tool: the BRT Standard. The tool is divided in seven categories and 42 quantitative metrics that allow further comprehension of BRT state of the practice. It has been used to evaluate more than a hundred corridors in over 60 cities around the world.
In Brazil, where the concept has first been developed between the 70’s and 90’s, a second wave of BRT expansion in the last decade summed up more than 250 km built in nine cities and metropolitan regions, an increase of about 150%. In this presentation we aim to assess the state of the practice in sixteen operational Brazilian BRT corridors, drawing out the common challenges faced in their implementation and operations, the best practices identified and the main improvement points. The assessment is based in an exploratory and explanatory analysis of their BRT Standard scoring, where we highlight the case that stand out in each particular category or metric of the tool.
Scoring reveals good performance in basic BRT infrastructure elements (such as segregated bus lanes that are typically median aligned, off-board fare collection, level boarding and bus priority at intersections) and in service planning. Performance in categories such as station design, infrastructure sustainability and branding/information communications present greater variance depending on the corridor context.
However, the main challenges appear on the access and integration category, where system design and connection with the surrounding urban environment and active modes present flaws, and on operational issues, such as overcrowding and inadequate maintenance. This webinar will present the opportunity for participants to debate on these operational and integration challenges and how can they be overcome.
In a broader manner, this study also aspires to influence for more evidence-based policy and decision-making on urban transit investments, not only in the Brazilian context, but also in other contexts where BRT is steadily growing.
Heather Allen - Why do we need to consider how women move in urban transport ...BRTCoE
Heather has 25 years of international experience and is a highly-regarded expert in sustainable transport, gender and climate change. She has worked for both public and private sectors including UITP (the International Association of Public Transport), Transport Research Laboratory, FIA Foundation, European Commission, several MDBs banks and SLoCaT (Sustainable Low Carbon Transport partnership). As Senior Manager for Sustainable Development with the UITP she led the association’s work with many international agencies on climate change, the UITP diversity initiative and with public transport agency members in more than 50 countries in respect to the UITP Sustainable Development Charter. She also set up a number of strategic partnerships with major international agencies such as the United Nations Environment Programme. she was the Programme Director for Sustainable Transport with the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory’s (TRL) Sustainable Transport Group, a leader in providing impartial world-class research and consultancy for all aspects of transport. Whilst with TRL, she provided technical advisory services for a variety of international and European projects. Her European work includes serving as a member of the jury for the European Mobility Week award for 4 years and the interim impact evaluations for the Horizon 2020 research programme for the European Commission (Shift2Rail and Societal Change).
More recently, she has been working on gender and sustainable transport with UN Women, FIA Foundation and CAF. She has just concluded the Ella se mueve segura, a study investigating women’s personal security concerns when they use public transport in three Latin American cities (Buenos Aires, Argentina, Quito, Ecuador, and Santiago, Chile). She will present the findings from this study and also her work in updating the GIZ Urban Transport and Gender module of the SUTO series.
Heather brings a wealth of knowledge in international best practice and a strong international network. In addition, she is a member of a number of transport sector Committees and Institutions, for example: Fellow of the UK Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transportation (CLIT), Member of Transport Research Board (TRB) Committee (USA National Academy of Science) for Developing Countries and the TRB Special Task Force for Climate Change and is an observer on Women in Transport committee. She remains an TRL associate, is a Trustee for the Walk 21 charity and is currently Chair of Transport Training Initiative (TTI) a German charity to increase access to training on transport for the developing world especially across Africa.
Camila Balbontin - Do preferences for BRT and LRT change as a voter, citizen,...BRTCoE
Camila Balbontin is a Postgraduate Research Fellow at the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) of University of Sydney. In February 2018, she completed her PhD under the supervision of Professor David Hensher where she focused on integrating decision heuristics and behavioural refinements into travel choice models. She was awarded the ITLS prize for Research Excellence in Transport or Logistics 2017. Camila also holds a bachelor degree in the field of Civil Engineering with a diploma in Industrial Engineering and in Transportation and Logistics from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She did her MSc degree at the same university under the supervision of Professor Juan de Dios Ortúzar. Her MSc thesis estimated the valuation of households and neighbourhood attributes in the centre of Santiago.
As a Postgraduate Research Fellow, her main focus is choice modelling and travel behaviour. She is currently working on projects related to the BRT Centre of Excellence, business location decisions, hybrid modelling, value uplift, among others.
Working Paper - http://sydney.edu.au/business/itls/research/publications/working_papers
Every month in the Webinar series a member of our team or invited expert, presents either recent research results or a city case study. The presentations are done online allowing people anywhere to participate and ask questions in real-time. The series address issues relevant to researchers and practitioners and is open to everyone using our news website. About 800 subscribers get the announcement directly, you can also sign up for free here.
Juan Carlos Muñoz - Connected and automated buses. An opportunity to bring re...BRTCoE
Connected and automated trains have been successfully built for decades. And connected and automated cars are promising to become a reality in our streets in the next decade. What about buses? What are the benefits of having buses connected and automated too? This talk will analyse some of these benefits focusing on the prospect of avoiding bus bunching and the impact this may have in the level of service of bus users.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
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Generative AI Deep Dive: Advancing from Proof of Concept to ProductionAggregage
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Threats to mobile devices are more prevalent and increasing in scope and complexity. Users of mobile devices desire to take full advantage of the features
available on those devices, but many of the features provide convenience and capability but sacrifice security. This best practices guide outlines steps the users can take to better protect personal devices and information.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
Sudheer Mechineni, Head of Application Frameworks, Standard Chartered Bank
Discover how Standard Chartered Bank harnessed the power of Neo4j to transform complex data access challenges into a dynamic, scalable graph database solution. This keynote will cover their journey from initial adoption to deploying a fully automated, enterprise-grade causal cluster, highlighting key strategies for modelling organisational changes and ensuring robust disaster recovery. Learn how these innovations have not only enhanced Standard Chartered Bank’s data infrastructure but also positioned them as pioneers in the banking sector’s adoption of graph technology.
Unlocking Productivity: Leveraging the Potential of Copilot in Microsoft 365, a presentation by Christoforos Vlachos, Senior Solutions Manager – Modern Workplace, Uni Systems
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
SAP Sapphire 2024 - ASUG301 building better apps with SAP Fiori.pdfPeter Spielvogel
Building better applications for business users with SAP Fiori.
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UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 5DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 5. In this session, we will cover CI/CD with devops.
Topics covered:
CI/CD with in UiPath
End-to-end overview of CI/CD pipeline with Azure devops
Speaker:
Lyndsey Byblow, Test Suite Sales Engineer @ UiPath, Inc.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Elevating Tactical DDD Patterns Through Object CalisthenicsDorra BARTAGUIZ
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Pushing the limits of ePRTC: 100ns holdover for 100 daysAdtran
At WSTS 2024, Alon Stern explored the topic of parametric holdover and explained how recent research findings can be implemented in real-world PNT networks to achieve 100 nanoseconds of accuracy for up to 100 days.
FIDO Alliance Osaka Seminar: Passkeys at Amazon.pdf
Webinar: Cost Efficiency under Negotiated Performance-Based Contracts and Benchmarking – Are there gains through Competitive Tendering in the absence of an Incumbent Public Monopolist?
1. Cost Efficiency under Negotiated Performance-Based Contracts and
Benchmarking – Are there gains through Competitive Tendering in
the absence of an Incumbent Public Monopolist?
The Australian Experience and Evidence
Webinar 24 May 2013
Executive Board Member BRT Centre
Professor David A. Hensher FASSA
Founding Director
Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies
The Business School
The University of Sydney
Australia
David.Hensher@sydney.edu.au
http://sydney.edu.au/business/itls
2. Structure of Talk
› Introduction – the Australian Situation Today
› A Brief Overview of Negotiated Performance-Based Contracts
(NPBCs) and Competitive Tendering (CT)
› Approach to Establishing Benchmark (BM) Cost Efficiency
› A Comparative Assessment of NPBC and CT in Australia
› Conclusions and Insights
2
3. The Australian Setting for this Talk
› Metropolitan Sydney has moved, unexpectedly, in late 2012 from NPBCs
to CT (*).
› CT contracts in Adelaide are showing serious signs of patronage decline
and media criticism.
› Bus services in the central areas of Melbourne are going through a
consolidation of contracts into one CT, contract and away from the current
NPBC.
› Perth remains committed to CT.
› Brisbane is staying at present with NPBCs.(but Govt announced possible
CT for Brisbane Buses – the Govt operator on May 12, 2013)
› *However, this does not apply to all private metropolitan operators. Operators who in their 2005 contracts committed to
provide access to assets, including buses and depots, at the end of the contract term, as part of an argument to ‘reduce the
burden on taxpayers’, were given the option to renegotiate the contracts, rather than them being competitively tendered like
other Sydney metropolitan bus contracts. Only two of the 15 contract regions, operated by Veolia Transdev (VT), committed
to this arrangement and on January 16, 2013 VT issued a press release announcing the renewal, through negotiation, of
their two contracts for a further seven (7) years, with a number of service enhancements. This raises some interesting
questions about the rationale and strength of a commitment to CT by the NSW Government.
3
4. The Setting for this Talk
› We assess the extent to which a NPBC with actionable benchmarking
can achieve as good as, or better, improvement in cost efficiency than CT
when incumbents are not public operators.
› We use data that enables links between CT bid prices of successful bids
to NPBC outcomes if benchmarking is actioned, by normalising the data to
enable meaningful comparisons.
› The evidence suggests that
- financial gains from CT do not exist or are very marginal (outside of
the situation of an incumbent public operator).
- the effect of the procurement model is tending, at best, towards a
neutral financial outcome.
- Stakeholders promoting the position that Government chooses to
test the market for value for money through CT appear to be
distorting the real claims of any noticeable benefit to society.
4
5. Introduction
› Global experience shows that serious cost efficiency gains to the funder
will only occur when a public monopoly is put out to tender
- Evidence suggests cost efficiency improvement is a once off windfall
gain, even if it is up to 30 percent .
› Recent action in Sydney to put most private operators out to CT, while
allowing public operators to be exempt, raises many questions about the
virtue of such a strategy in general, and a selective one in particular.
› Evidence suggests subsequent rounds of CT, relative to a starting point of
an incumbent public operator, especially from round three onwards:
- Show little if any cost efficiency gains to the funders, and
- Place service quality at risk, and result in
- Costs of disruption in tendering often exceeding the benefits.
5
6. The Adelaide Experience
› Adelaide, as a city adopting CT, is now experiencing greater discrepancies
in service delivery and public dissatisfaction following early success
- A common experience for cities utilising CT
- Round three has seen a dramatic increase in costs, well above their
projected tender bids.
› The story of Adelaide is documented in a paper at Thredbo12 by Wallis et
al. (2010, 89-98) (with one of the co-authors being the Executive Director
of the PTA at the time) in which they state:
› “A key attribute of competitive tendering …is to secure the provision of
specified services at efficient cost levels. This has proved particularly
effective where services were previously provided by an inefficient
monopoly operator. The arguments for the adoption of competitive
tendering in preference to negotiation with the incumbent operator may be
less clear-cut in other cases.”
› …..
6
7. The Adelaide Experience
› Conclusions of the paper:
- “….[the]assessment against relevant SA Government objectives are that
the NPBC strategy is clearly preferred against the group of ‘quality’
criteria, and also on balance preferred against the group of ‘supplier
market and cost’ criteria. "
- and this position is supported by an assessment against international
differentiating factors.
› Identifies "a strong case for adopting an NPC-based strategy (with CT as
the fallback), rather than CT as the primary strategy.” (page 96)
7
8. What is happening in Sydney?
› The outcome of the first tranche of four contract regions was
announced on November 7, 2012.
- Three (3) of the four contracts remain with incumbents (although with
some variation in contract boundaries)
- One (1) with a new operator entering the Sydney market (who currently
operates under CT procurement management contracts in Adelaide and
Perth).
› Annual savings were announced as $18m per annum,
considerably higher than predicted by analysts and
questionable.
- reported savings is ~20c/km (given average of $5.20/km), but before we
identify the Benchmarked NPBC figure.
8
9. My Position on Sydney
› If NSW Government proceeded with NPBCs with an effective
benchmarking process (already developed), then we could
have expected
- a cost efficient outcome ($per km)
- in the sense of delivering lower costs per km than currently,
- providing all the right incentives to deliver continuous improvement
through a trusting partnership (as is NPBC with Veolia Transdev (VT))
- with arms length commercial obligations.
9
10. My Position on Sydney
› Sydney foregoes the opportunity to implement benchmarking
reform under NPBC (except with VT) that could have
demonstrated
- how cost efficiency gains could have been achieved without placing
service levels at risk (at least as a counterfactual)
- without the relatively higher administrative costs of the tendering
process.
› Consequently, the announcement of an $18m savings in the
first tranche, even if not linked to a specific transfer of a
service from public to a private operator, may be illusory when
benchmarked against achievable outcomes under NPBCs.
› A ‘level playing field’ comparison needs to be undertaken,
which is the basis of this presentation.
10
11. A Brief Overview of NPBCs and CT
› Australian bus contracts have pioneered NPBCs, founded on
trusting partnerships:
- Contracts are re-negotiated with existing operators, subject to meeting
certain conditions
- The offer of the opportunity to work closely with efficient incumbents to
grow trust and build patronage where possible (mindful of the realities of
the market for public transport services) (Wallis et al (2009).
› Melbourne and Sydney until late 2012 are examples of this
approach.
11
12. A Brief Overview of NPBCs and CT
› NPBCs reduces uncertainty where a very efficient incumbent
operator can still lose the right to provide services, provided
provisions to guard against regulatory capture are in place.
› NPBCs can achieve transparency and accountability if four
conditions are in place (Hensher and Stanley 2008):
- Performance benchmarking subject to independent verification to
ensure efficient and effective performance.
- An open book approach to costs, independently audited
- Operators with high costs must justify their numbers or face a cut in
remuneration.
- Operators with low costs have the opportunity to argue for an increase.
- The appointment of a probity auditor to oversee the negotiation
process.
- Public disclosure of the contract.
12
13. A Brief Overview of NPBCs and CT
› Tendering gives rise to:
- real and observed risk of incumbents tending to not commit to longer
term investment in the industry (both physical and human resources)
- a negative impact of building and maintaining a trusting partnership
- high transactions (including transitional) costs every time re-tendering is
put in place.
13
14. Benchmarking Framework
› Adoption of a “balance scorecard”
approach
- Efficiency and service quality must be
considered together
- Doing things right and doing the right
things
› Greater emphasis on data collection
by the regulator / third parties to
ensure data reliability (e.g. on time
running)
› Options for setting benchmarks
- Performance against others (industry)
- Performance overtime (self)
- Hard targets/thresholds
- Directional trends (e.g. “stable or
improving”)
Lowest
Highest
Worsening Improving
Benchmarking Framework
Performanceagainstothers(Industry)
Performance over time (self)
15. Benchmarking cost efficiency under NPBC
› For comparative measures of operator performance, we must
distinguish those influences
- under the control of the operator,
- under the control of government (or the regulator),
- determined by other (e.g., market) forces.
› Separating out the sources of control is a grey area, and must
depend on a ‘reasonable amount of influence’.
› Controlling or standardising for influences not under the
control of each operator enables
- A comparison of operator performance of operators in their operating
environment, and
- A comparison of CT and NPBC applications in a single context.
15
16. Benchmarking Normalisations
› Normalising the Cost Efficiency KPI for three adjustment
factors beyond the control of operators which have a
material cost impact:
- Average speed. Slower average peak speed will typically increase
driving time and operating costs (e.g., traffic congestion and/or an
inefficient on-board fare payment system )
- Spread of operating hours. A higher ratio of timetabled operating
hours during periods when penalty rates of labour pay apply (e.g.,
weekends and early in the morning on weekdays (e.g., before 7 am)),
will typically increase operating costs.
- Average bus utilisation. A higher number of annual service kilometres
per peak bus, because of higher timetabled route frequencies, will
typically lower unit costs through diluting fixed costs.
16
17. Comparative Assessment of NPBC and CT in
Australia
› Data comprises
- 35 NPBCs with none currently benchmarked by the regulator
- 11 CT contracts.
› CT contracts are
- Management contracts
- Analysis has added additional cost items to make them comparable with
NPBC (e.g., buses and depot support)
› All data relates to the 2011 financial year.
› All current public operators (who have not to date been
subject to CT) are excluded.
17
18. Comparative Assessment of NPBC and CT in
Australia ($2011)
18
Procurement Gross Cost (GC) Net Cost (NC) GC-NC
Mean NPBC 4.61 5.45 -0.84
Mean CT 4.55 5.11 -0.56
Median NPBC 4.70 4.97 -0.73
Median CT 4.28 5.12 -0.63
Mean –All private operators 4.60 5.39 -0.63
Median –All private operators 4.59 5.08 -0.63
Results
› The average gross cost per km of the NPBC’s without
benchmarking is $4.61/km, and the mean under CT is
$4.55/km.
› The median values are $4.70 for NPBC and $4.28 for CT.
› Is this the basis of preferring CT? Not a good comparison…
- These figures don’t take into account jurisdiction-specific effects
- These figures don’t take into account factors outside the control of the
operator
19. Comparative Assessment of NPBC and CT in
Australia
› When we allow for these effects through normalisation:
- the mean $/km is higher under NPBC than under CT,
- BUT the median, a much more reliable indicator if there exist deviations
from a normal distribution for all contracts, is considerably lower under
NPBC ($4.97/km) than under CT ($5.12/km).
› This is the case for not assuming that CT will ensure greater cost
efficiency than (pre-benchmarked) NPBCs.
19
Procurement Gross Cost (GC) Net Cost (NC) GC-NC
Mean NPBC 4.61 5.45 -0.84
Mean CT 4.55 5.11 -0.56
Median NPBC 4.70 4.97 -0.73
Median CT 4.28 5.12 -0.63
Mean –All private operators 4.60 5.39 -0.63
Median –All private operators 4.59 5.08 -0.63
20. Comparative Assessment of NPBC and CT in
Australia
› The net cost per km distribution is significantly (and positively)
skewed, so the mean is not an appropriate indicator of
performance.
› The median is better suited for skewed distributions - much
more robust and sensible.
› Cost efficiency must be in terms of net cost, hence the robust
and sensible comparator for CT vs. NPBC is the median cost
per km.
› The evidence shows that NPBC’s, even before
benchmarked targets are implemented through the
negotiation process, offers a three percentage (3%)
points gain in cost efficiency.
20
21. Comparative Assessment of NPBC and CT in
Australia
› The estimates of gross and net cost efficiency for each operator in the full
distribution indicate that the outcome in favour of CT is far from definitive.
› 4 operators under NPBC outperform the best CT outcome, and then there are
another 10 NPBC contracts before 2 more CT contracts appear.
21
0.000
2.000
4.000
6.000
8.000
10.000
12.000
14.000
NPBC
NPBC
NPBC
NPBC
CT
NPBC
NPBC
NPBC
CT
NPBC
NPBC
NPBC
NPBC
NPBC
NPBC
NPBC
NPBC
NPBC
NPBC
CT
CT
NPBC
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NPBC
CT
NPBC
NPBC
CT
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NPBC
CT
NPBC
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Totalcostperkm
Comparisonof Gross and Net Cost per Km under NPBC and CT
Gross Cost1011 Net Cost1011
22. Comparative Assessment of NPBC and CT in
Australia
› The mean and median estimates for NPBC thus far are not adjusted for
any sliding scale improvements (over a contracts life), that might be
agreed as targets introduced during the negotiation process.
› If an initial year contract price is in excess of the $4.97/km median net
price (already lower than the median CT price), then a sliding percentage
scale could be applied to make operators achieve the median target level
of cost efficiency say, over a 5 year period.
› For example,
- If an operator under a current contract in yr 2 of a 7 yr contract has a net
cost efficiency of say $5.20/km, (23c/km greater than the $4.97/km)
- then the requirement (to avoid CT) would be an improvement of 23
cents/km. over the remainng five years in order to return to the median
level (before inflation).
› Note this is better than the 20c/km gain through CT.
22
23. Comparative Assessment of NPBC and CT in
Australia
› Outcome:
- Net cost efficiency NPBC $4.97/km
- Against CT median price of $5.12 (and even the
mean price of $5.11)
› Converting back to a gross cost estimate, gives a mean of $4.55/km for
government budgetary purposes.
› However, given that this adjustment will result in a revised overall
benchmark indicator (being based on the median of the improved
outcomes of all operators),
- the mean gross cost of $4.55 (in this example) might be
expected to move, over a five year contract period, to an
annual average closer to $4.35/km. (excl. inflation).
23
24. Conclusions
› Independent of the chosen procurement model some specific
underlying conditions are assumed in the comparisons
presented. In particular, we assume:
- a mature market of competent private operators who are
available to both tender if required, or to purchase through
acquisition an incumbent if the opportunity arises.
- that the regulator has the skills to ensure that all alternative
procurement processes can be undertaken efficiently, and
- that suitable monitoring of performance is in place as a
credible threat to non-compliance with the terms of a
contract.
24
25. Conclusions
› Using data linking CT prices of successful bids to NPBC
outcomes, the evidence suggests that the gains from CT are
illusory (outside of the situation of an incumbent public
operator).
› Although the evidence is drawn from Australia in the context of
four of the major metropolitan areas, we believe that it sends a
strong message about the presumption that competitive
tendering is the way forward.
› Many governments suggest that CT ensures transparency but
the practice of CT does not ensure such a claim is necessarily
valid as details of tender review and assessment are rarely
published, and claims of cost savings cannot be verified.
25
26. Conclusions
› The evidence suggests
- that if an incumbent has built up a strong trusting
partnership with the regulator (with arms length
commercial and legal obligations), and
- is subject to stringent benchmarked obligation,
- then the outcome is likely to deliver (in the long
run) better value for money to society.
26
27. Next Webinar
Benchmark based on field data from six Latin American transit systems:
Comparing travel time, waiting time, access time and their variability.
Bogota, Guadalajara, Lima, Mexico City, Porto Alegre and
Santiago
Friday, June 28th at 11am, US Eastern Daylight Time
Presented by Professor Juan Carlos Muñoz
Director of the Bus Rapid Transit Centre of Excellence
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile