Rationale for Sole-Source Justification:
The rationale for the sole source justification is a significant financial barrier to the institution to change a product that is interwoven into many other systems and has an impact across the college as well as for all our current learners. The estimated costs would be ~$700,000.00 as outlined below.
Cost Efficiency
Switching to a different platform would not only involve substantial initial setup costs but also ongoing costs related to training, support, and potential system incompatibilities. Continuing with Turnitin ensures continuity and cost-effectiveness.
‘Out of the Box’ Integration and Compatibility with LMS
Turnitin is fully integrated with the specific LMS D2L Brightspace that Bow Valley College uses ‘out of the box’. This ensures we can provide a seamless and efficient user experience. Transitioning to a different platform would introduce additional complexity to build new integrations, which would cost resource time, and user experience will be negatively impacted.
Estimated Impact:
Projects of this complexity at the College typically require project budgets in excess of $400,000 OPEX over a 12 month period.
Over 600 faculty will be impacted and require (on average) an estimated 8 hours of training and guidance during the first year, at an estimated impact is > $298,000.00.
An alternate platform may not integrate ‘out of the box to a mid-tier LMS such as D2L Brightspace. Moderate to complex integration design development and test estimated impact is > $120,000, and pulls from limited ITS developer resources fully allocated to key College initiatives.
Given these reasons, we strongly believe that continuing with Turnitin is in the best interest of our institution.
We request an exception to the competitive bid procedure to allow for the sole-source procurement of these tools.
The College is requesting a bid exception for 3 year extension with Turnitin, with an option to renew with a 1 year extension (3+1).
The contract lengths indicated are to intended to align with the College’s recent renewal dates and commitments for the D2L Brightspace LMS. Our most-recent contract with D2L Brightspace will end on March 31, 2028.
