Fort Collins violated the software development agreement – BizWest

FORT COLLINS – A lawsuit to recover payments the City of Fort Collins made to a utility billing software vendor has been transferred to Denver U.S. District Court, and a counterclaim from the software company is claiming at least $ 6.3 million in damages.

Fort Collins contracted with Open International LLC and Open Investments LLC in 2018 to create new billing software for the city’s new Broadband Connection utility and to replace the city’s existing utility billing software.

The contract was for $ 7.3 million. By the time the city ended the deal, it had spent $ 8.6 million and did not have a fully functioning billing system. The city filed a complaint on July 2, 2021, claiming that Open broke its contract with the city and demanded reimbursement of all amounts paid so far.

Open International argued in its response and counterclaim that the breaches of contract resulted from Fort Collins’ inability to properly manage the installation of the software, the inability to assign enough qualified people to the project, and a revolving door of chefs. project. He said Fort Collins officials admitted him to his city council.

“The city has promised to cooperate and provide adequate personnel,” the counterclaim said. “But the city has not kept its promises. … It failed to allocate the right staff, missing up to 10 critical IT and customer connection specialists at one point.

Open also argued in the counterclaim that the city “added completely new, irrelevant features to the project which the city said inserted a” significant amount of complexity “to which Open had not consented.”

Open International also said in its counterclaim that the city’s lawsuit “tainted Open’s otherwise excellent reputation.”

The counterclaim seeks the dismissal of the city’s lawsuit and the award of damages “in an amount to be proven at trial, but not less than $ 6.3 million …”

The city, in its response to the counterclaim, said “the city has fulfilled its obligations and Open has materially violated the parties’ agreements.”

A hearing date has not been set.

City of Fort Collins v. Open International LLC was originally filed under number 2021cv30475 in Larimer County District Court. He has since been transferred to US District Court in Denver and his new case number is 21cv02063.