Canada - Contact Centre Solution Services IRCC/CRA

Description

NOTICE OF PROPOSED PROCUREMENT (NPP)
Shared Services Canada
Chief Financial Officer and Procurement Branch (CFOPB)
99 Metcalfe Street
Ottawa, Ontario,
K0A 0C3
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Contact Centre Services (CCS), Request for Proposal (RFP) - Government Contact Centre Services (GCCS) – Stream 2: Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) Supply Arrangement (SA)
This requirement is for: Shared Services Canada on behalf of its clients and partners. The initial clients under this requirement are IRCC and CRA with SSC itself. The intent of the RFP is to solicit vendor response for two bid opportunities within this RFP. However, SSC may choose to use the IRCC Contract for some or all of its clients and may use alternative means to provide the same or similar services.
This requirement is open only to those supply arrangement holders under Government Contact Centre Services (GCCS) Supply Arrangement who qualified under the following streams and categories:
Stream 2: Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) Supply Arrangement (SA).
The following SA Holders have been invited to submit a proposal:
- Avaya Canada Corp.
- Bell Canada
- Five9 Inc.
- OnX Canada Inc.
- TTEC Canada Solutions Inc.
Description of the Requirement:
Shared Services Canada has a requirement for Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) a public cloud-based solution that will provide the Government of Canada with the latest CCaaS features that are scalable, flexible and available on demand. With CCaaS, Clients can deliver seamless experiences across multiple channels, including voice, email, chat, video, and social media.
Canada is seeking to leverage Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) Supply Arrangement (SA) following industry best practices. Canada’s objective is to obtain a cloud offering from a Contractor that offers a publicly available solution. It is crucial for Canada to prioritize a solution that has a significant user base, well-established documentation, active user forums, necessary security, appropriate features and reliable support resources. Canada’s focus is on selecting a widely adopted CCaaS solution that demonstrates maturity and proven success. Canada is looking for the Contractor to showcase successful deployments and positive testimonials from other customers.
In this architecture, each Partner operates in a multi-tenant architecture, where multiple tenants share the same software instance and underlying infrastructure. Each tenant is deployed to meet the requirements set by the Partner, and operates independently, meaning the Partner can customize their settings and configurations without affecting other tenants. 
The architecture of the CCaaS must consist at a minimum of the following elements:
(1) Contact centre has a web-based Administrative and Operational Interface that is a web-based portal that allows Canada to manage and configure their contact centre solution. Through the portal, Canada can manage agents, queues, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), reporting, and other features of the CCaaS.
(2) Support multiple inbound and outbound communication channels, including, but not limited to, voice, email, chat / SMS, and social media. Allowing Canada to configure the contact centre to support one or more of these channels, depending on their specific needs.
(3) Provide a set of communication APIs that allow Canada to integrate the CCaaS solution with other software and systems (e.g., CRM, ERP, and WFM tools). APIs will be the primary method for integrating CCaaS with third-party solutions enabling a more seamless and efficient client experience.
(4) Traditional contact centre features such as ACD, IVR, contact routing and queueing, skills-based routing, quality management, and call transfer and conferencing.
(5) Provide an Omnichannel desktop that provides a web-based User desktop interface that allows agents to manage their interactions with Clients.
(6) Provides analytics and reporting tools that will allow Partners to monitor and optimize their contact centre performance. With real-time data and insights, Partners will be able to quickly identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to enhance Client satisfaction.
(7) Advanced capabilities such as chatbots, virtual agents, intelligent routing, and predictive analytics capabilities can help to automate routine tasks, reduce costs, and improve the efficiency of the contact centre.
(8) An ability to scale up or down based on the business demands without requiring hardware up-grades or migrations that could impact Canada’s usage of the CCaaS.
(9) Secure operations by having appropriate security and privacy controls and measures (e.g. encrypting data at rest and in transit) to protect systems and communications from unauthorized access and tampering at the Protected-B (PBMM) level.
(10) Data integrity by having measures to ensure the integrity and accuracy of data stored and transmitted by the CCaaS solution.
(11) Comply with the Government of Canada Accessibility and Official Languages requirements.
(12) Provide uninterrupted, reliable, high-quality data connectivity with sufficient bandwidth and speed to support peak volumes of Agent and Client traffic, without any service disruption.
Level of Security Requirement:
1. The Contractor is to hold a valid Designated Organization Screening (DOS) and obtain approved Document Safeguarding Capability (DSC) at the level of PROTECTED B.
2. The Contractor personnel is to hold a valid personnel security screening at the level of SECRET, or RELIABILITY STATUS, as required.
3. The Contractor personnel with a Privileged User Account is to hold a valid personnel security screening at the level of SECRET.
4. Data residency for electronic data at rest at the level of PROTECTED B or higher must be within the geographic boundaries of Canada.
5. The Contractor must have policies and procedures in place to manage personal information, obtaining appropriate consent for data collection, use, and disclosure, and ensuring that personal information is only used for its intended purpose.
6.  Any Contractor, or third party, providing cloud-based solutions in support of the Contract must be assessed and authorized by Canada, and must comply with the security requirements in the GC Security Control Profile for Cloud-Based GC IT Services of Protected B, Medium Integrity and Medium Availability (PBMM), for the scope of the solution provided.  The contractor must provide evidence, and confirmation to Canada of a completed Cloud Service Provider Information Technology Security assessment (ITSM.50.100), performed by the Client Department, or the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS). For information, guidance, and training to conduct a local IT assessment contact CCCS at contact@cyber.gc.ca.  The Client Department IT Security Authority must perform a Security Assessment and Authorization (SA&A) in accordance with Government of Canada Cloud Security Risk Management Approach and Procedures. Contractors must provide the required information to the IT Security Authority upon request.  Following completion of a Local IT Assessment and SA&A, the Client Department must provide confirmation by email to SPAC.DGSSSIDINUAGE-DOBISSIDCLOUD.PSPC@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca.
Proposed periods for the two (2) Contracts:
The proposed period of the IRCC Contract shall be 5 years with 3 additional 3-year option periods.
IRCC Bid Package 1
Bid Opening Date:
January 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Bid Closing Date:
February 13 2025 at 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST)
The proposed period of CRA Contract shall be 5 years with 1 additional 5-year option period.
CRA Bid Package 2
Bid Opening Date:
January 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Bid Closing Date:
February 21, 2025 at 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Negotiations under Article 512 of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (and the corresponding Articles in the applicable international trade agreements) may be conducted with any Qualified Respondent related to this procurement.
Applicable Trade Agreements:
Canadian Free Trade Agreement;
World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement;
Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement;
Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership;
Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement;
Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and trade Agreement;
Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement;
Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement;
Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement;
Canada-United Kingdom Trade Continuity Agreement;
Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement; and
Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement.
Additional Details:
File Number:  BPM023027
Contracting Authority: Eric Vanasse
Phone Number: 514-607-8519
E-Mail: eric.vanasse@ssc-spc.gc.ca
Solicitation Documents: Request for Proposal (RFP) documents will be issued via email directly from the Contracting Authority to the Qualified Supply Arrangement Holders who are being invited to bid on this requirement.
The Government Contact Centre Services (GCCS) Stream 2: Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) Supply Arrangement is subject to annual refresh cycles. If you wish to find out how you can be a “Qualified SA Holder”, please contact  eric.vanasse@ssc-spc.gc.ca
If a vendor submits an RFSA to become a CCaaS SA holder to participate in this opportunity, due to time constraints, the RFP may not be extended to accommodate the introduction of a potential new SA holder.

Opportunity closing date

13 February 2025

Value of contract

to be confirmed