CONTRACT NOTICE – NATIONAL

1 Authority Details

1.1

Authority Name and Address

1.2

Address from which documentation may be obtained

As in 1.1

1.3

Completed documents must be returned to:

As in 1.1

2 Contract Details

2.1

Title

Telephony & Call Centre Service

2.2

Description of the goods or services required

The Ombudsman is inviting tenders for the provision of Telephony and call centre services tailored to the needs of the office.

The focus of the service will be to provide a telephony service that:

• is easy to navigate for PSOW service users who call us via our telephone lines to enable them to be connected to the relevant PSOW member of staff in a timely manner.

• is of good audio quality and is reliable and stable regarding connection.

• enables PSOW staff to answer calls via a PC softphone system irrespective of whether they are working in PSOW office or working at Home.

• has good management data reporting

• has call centre functionality to enable calls to be directed to appropriate call Queues, and for those calls to be fairly distributed to front line call handlers.

Current set up

Most staff work in a hybrid manner mainly working from home, but also working from our offices in Pencoed Bridgend on a semi-regular basis.

We have approximately 75 staff each with their own direct dial line extension number.

The PSOW receives telephone calls from various service users either

• direct to a case officer or other member of staff via a direct dial number, or

• by calling our main line telephone line which is then routed via a call centre application to nominated call centre staff.

We currently have the following average call volumes per week:

• 100 x Inbound calls to front line telephony staff via the main Queues

• 200 x Inbound calls to direct line extensions

• 200 x Outbound calls

The PSOW call centre application is currently via an on-premise server.

Call centre staff have dedicated SIP telephones both at home and at PSOW offices in Pencoed. All other staff have dedicated handsets at PSOW office only, but calls are routed via a fully softphone online service (Circuit) when they are working from home.

NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Sell2Wales Web Site at https://www.sell2wales.gov.wales/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=126064.

The buyer has indicated that it will accept electronic responses to this notice via the Postbox facility. A user guide is available at https://www.sell2wales.gov.wales/sitehelp/help_guides.aspx.

Suppliers are advised to allow adequate time for uploading documents and to dispatch the electronic response well in advance of the closing time to avoid any last minute problems.

2.3

Notice Coding and Classification

2.4

Total quantity or scope of tender

What we require:

PSOW requires a fully softphone solution to be in place by 30 December 2022 due to the current ‘Circuit’ solution no longer being supported past that date.

It is essential that the successful provider can supply a system / service that;

• Enables calls made to our mainline number (01656 641150 / 0300 7900203) to be routed to a call centre application.

• Nominated Call centre agents (currently less than 10 users and not all staff) to log in or out of the application and be able to answer call centre calls irrespective of whether they are logged in at PSOW premise or at home.

• Call centre application to effectively manage call routing based on standard call centre rules (such as availability / skill level / longest available/ longest since last call).

• Call centre calls are able to be transferred by the call centre staff to non call centre staff.

• Answer phone facility for out of hours / or unanswered calls.

• PSOW control of office hours to enable calls to go to answerphone during office hours (e.g. training / meetings)

• Call centre application to have reporting tools to enable Q and agent management data for :

• Call presented / calls answered / calls missed / calls abandoned / call talk time / call waiting time

• Call centre line manager to be able to monitor calls remotely for training purposes.

• Non call centre staff to be able to log availability to answer direct line or transferred calls via softphone facility (using existing usb headsets)

• All PSOW telephony users to be able to make outgoing calls via softphone solution.

• All telephone calls (inbound and outbound) are to be recorded and stored for a minimum 30 day period, and include a facility to manually flag a call and download audio file before deletion for future reference if needed.

• A front end auto attendant message that enable callers to select language preference, and also select what department they wish to speak to.

• Access to the system be secure (e.g. two factor authentication)

It is also desirable that for the solution:

• Nominated call centre staff are able to use existing sip handset / sip headsets with the solution.

• The application UI can be supplied bilingually.

• The application and data be fully cloud based for business continuity reasons.

• Integrated with Microsoft Teams for availability and log on.

The PSOW’s aim is to have a telephony solution that is reliable, highly accessible, and of good audio quality. It is also imperative that the solution has a robust business continuity aspect to allow for continued operation.

Information and cyber security of the highest priority, and the system must have adequate back up and security measures in place and be hosted in the UK by providers with adequate security standards.

3 Conditions for Participation

3.1

Minimum standards and qualification required

The Ombudsman is inviting tenders for the provision of online telephony services.

This tender is published via Sell2Wales online and also via our websites www.ombudsman.wales / www.omwdsmon.cymru

The deadline for receipt of tender applications is 5pm Friday 12th November with a view to appoint successful tenderer as soon as possible after the deadline date.

The date for live implementation is to be no later than 5pm Friday 30 December 2022.

4 Administrative Information

4.1

Type of Procedure

Single stage

4.2

Reference number attributed to the notice by the contracting authority

TEL1022

4.3

Time Limits

4.5

Language or languages in which tenders or requests to participate can be drawn up

4.6

Tender Submission Postbox

5 Other Information

5.1

Additional Information

(WA Ref:126064)

5.2

Additional Documentation

5.3

Publication date of this notice