What happened
Ontario Northland's procurement required buyer ownership of asset information while separately specifying how that information had to remain usable outside the application. Requirements included open, non-proprietary formats, portable asset-register and GIS representations, export capability and explicit handover provisions. For an optional cloud platform, the procurement also required exports during the contract and at exit, a complete handover package, and protections against proprietary restrictions that would prevent migration to another platform.
Why it matters
Legal ownership answers who has rights to the information. It does not necessarily answer whether the organization can obtain that information in a form another system can understand and use. A technically successful export can still leave the buyer dependent on the old environment if important structure, relationships or meaning are lost.
What a buyer should do
Before signing, define what must happen to operational information during the relationship and when it ends. Specify what can be exported, in what format, what structure and relationships must be preserved, what documentation accompanies it, when exports can be requested, what the handover costs, and what the provider must delete or relinquish afterward.
Treat ownership, exportability and portability as separate requirements—and define exit while you still have negotiating leverage.