Replacement of Corporate Telephony and Contact Centre Environment

Link Group is seeking to appoint a suitably qualified supplier to provide, implement and support a modern, secure and resilient corporate telephony and Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) solution. The contract will include cloud telephony, omnichannel contact handling, intelligent routing, workforce management, call recording, quality management, reporting and analytics, PCI-compliant payment handling, integration capabilities, migration, implementation, training and ongoing support. The solution will support customer-facing and colleague-facing services across Link Group and will be delivered through a phased approach.

Link Group is seeking to appoint a suitably qualified and experienced supplier to provide, implement, migrate, configure and support a modern, secure, resilient and scalable corporate telephony and Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) solution.

The procurement will deliver a group-wide, cloud-based platform supporting customer-facing and colleague-facing services. The future solution must provide an integrated, journey-led and omnichannel contact management capability, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI), automation and advanced analytics as fundamental components of the target platform.

The scope includes corporate telephony; voice, email, webchat and digital contact channels; intelligent, intent-led and skills-based routing; IVR, queues, callbacks and voicemail; workforce management; interaction recording; quality management; PCI-compliant payment handling; operational reporting and analytics; integrations; migration; implementation; training; service management and ongoing support.

The solution must provide advanced AI and interaction analytics capabilities including speech-to-text transcription, conversational and speech analytics, automated interaction categorisation and summarisation, customer intent and topic identification, sentiment analysis and the ability to identify changes in sentiment throughout an interaction. Link Group also requires the ability to identify trends, emerging issues, repeat contact, customer effort, vulnerability indicators, service quality concerns and potential compliance issues across interactions and customer journeys.

AI capabilities should support colleagues through real-time or context-sensitive guidance, knowledge recommendations, automated summaries, suggested actions and other appropriate forms of advisor assistance. The platform must also support automated quality management and analytics across interactions, reducing reliance on small manually selected samples and enabling supervisors to identify opportunities for coaching, improvement and intervention.

The solution should support conversational AI and appropriate customer self-service while enabling effective transfer to a human adviser, with relevant customer context and interaction history retained.

AI and automated capabilities must be subject to appropriate governance, security, auditability and human oversight. Suppliers will be expected to explain how AI services operate, how customer information is processed and protected, and how accuracy, privacy, bias, transparency, data residency and regulatory requirements are addressed.

The platform must integrate with Link Group's existing and evolving technology landscape, including Microsoft 365, business applications, customer and housing systems, knowledge services, payment services and data/reporting platforms, using appropriate APIs and integration services.

Delivery will be phased, allowing Link Group to establish core telephony and CCaaS capabilities while progressively developing its omnichannel, automation, AI and analytics capabilities. The successful supplier will provide implementation, configuration, integration, migration, testing, training and transition services and ongoing operational and technical support.

Bidders must clearly identify where functionality is native to the proposed platform, provided through third parties, separately licensed or consumption-based, or dependent upon future product development or roadmap delivery.

Tenderers should note that all communication relating to this procurement, including clarification questions and tender submissions, must be undertaken through Public Contracts Scotland/PCS-Tender in accordance with the procurement documents.

Link Group reserves the right not to award a contract as a result of this procurement process and will not be liable for any costs incurred by tenderers in participating in the process.

Tenderers should ensure they review all procurement documents and any subsequent clarifications or amendments issued during the procurement process.

The contract will be subject to Scots law.

Link Group reserves the right to require the successful tenderer to provide the supporting evidence necessary to verify statements and declarations made during the procurement process.