Finance / Payroll System

Notice is hereby given that METRO Regional Transit Authority (METRO) is requesting proposals from qualified firms to provide a modern, integrated Finance, Payroll and optional Human Resource Information (HRIS) system. METRO operates a fleet of approximately 127 fixed-route vehicles providing essential mobility services throughout Summit County, Ohio. This procurement represents a critical strategic investment to modernize the agency's operational backbone, enhance service quality for its riders and vendors, and improve efficiency for its staff.
This initiative is driven by METRO’s strategic goals to improve service quality and cost-effectiveness, implement innovative service approaches, and emerge as a recognized regional mobility provider. The agency's current technology ecosystem, which has evolved over many years, is now a significant barrier to achieving these goals. The existing systems have created operational challenges that impact staff productivity, data accuracy, and the overall customer experience.

The finance and payroll modules are hampered by a combination of outdated software architecture as well as significant performance and usability issues. The current environment is characterized by:
Manual Workarounds: A lack of seamless, automated integration between disparate software platforms (e.g., scheduling, dispatch, payroll, maintenance) necessitates extensive manual data transfers, re-keying of information, and paper-based processes, leading to operational inefficiencies and data latency.

Data Integrity Challenges: Inconsistent reporting, a lack of transparency into data calculations, and difficulty accessing underlying data have undermined the agency's trust in its own systems. This prevents METRO from leveraging its data effectively for planning, performance monitoring, and decision-making.

Poor System Performance and User Experience: Staff across multiple departments find the current system interfaces to be slow, unintuitive, and unreliable. This impacts adoption, necessitates extensive workarounds, and leads to frustration.

Functionality Gaps: The current system lacks key features considered standard in the modern transit industry, such as an employee portal for self-service and automated operator timekeeping for payroll.