GOVERNMENT-owned ferry operator David MacBrayne has said it can now press ahead with building a new ticketing system after winning £1.2 million in damages from the IT company that had originally been tasked with the job.
The firm, which operates CalMac Ferries, had hoped to have a new ticketing system in place for winter 2015 as part of a business modernisation project put in place to help it retain the contract for the Clyde and Hebrides service.
In August 2014 it hired London firm Atos IT Services to implement the new ticketing system, but the project was suspended a year later after a number of “milestones” were missed.
Although the two sides attempted to resolve the issue through mediation the ticketing project was abandoned completely in the middle of 2016 and David MacBrayne launched proceedings in the Court of Session to recover the money it had already spent on it.
In a ruling handed down yesterday Court of Session judge Lord Doherty said that as Atos had breached the terms of its contract with David MacBrayne the ferry operator was entitled to be repaid the £1.2m it had “wasted” on the project.
Read More: Ferry operator CalMac warns of delays and breakdowns as fleet is so old
A spokesman for David MacBrayne said the ruling vindicated its decision to abandon the ticketing project part way through.
“We are delighted that the court agreed with our view that Atos IT failed to deliver on the contract we entered into with them, and the £1.2m compensation awarded plus costs is vindication of the course of action we chose to take,” he said.
Lord Doherty rejected a counterclaim that Atos filed against David MacBrayne in a bid to recover the £3.3 million it said it would have earned had the project completed.
While Atos had alleged that David MacBrayne was to blame for the delays to the project, Lord Doherty said that argument “smacked very much of being a retrospective attempt to deflect blame for its failures to achieve [agreed] milestones”.
As the case was heard in the Outer House of the Court of Session it is possible that Atos could appeal it to the Inner House, although it is not clear whether it intends to do that. A further hearing has been scheduled for the next few weeks to establish costs and Atos will have 21 days after that in which to lodge an appeal.
An Atos spokesman said: “We are disappointed by the judgement, but as this is still a commercial matter that is under due legal process, we cannot comment further.”
Despite the fact the case could be appealed by Atos, the David MacBrayne spokesman said the firm is now focused on finally replacing the Compass ticketing system it has been using for the past 25 years.
“Putting in place a modern, fit for purpose ticketing system is a priority for us and while this unfortunate experience has been a setback, we can now get our plans to improve our ticketing services for customers firmly back on track,” he said.
According to the court judgment David MacBrayne was in 2015 “required to negotiate, and pay a very substantial fee for, a temporary extension of Compass".
That came after the business had slumped to a pre-tax loss of £2.6m in the 2014/15 financial year, with the firm at the time saying that investment in technology had had a major impact on its bottom line.
Read more: UK growth weakest since month after Brexit vote
When announcing the results in 2015 chairman David McGibbon said that “increased investment in developing new technology to improve the customer experience, through more flexible online ticketing and digital platforms” had contributed to the loss.
Despite not having the new ticketing system in place, David MacBrayne, which had faced stiff competition from private company Serco, won the £1 billion tender for the Clyde and Hebrides service, with its new eight-year contract beginning in October last year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel