To: Kevin Gibbs – Executive Director of Delivery
Councillor John Harrison – Executive Member for Culture, Delivery and Public Protection
20th September 2021
Contract Award Report: Cloud- Hosted (Multi-Channel) Contact Centre System
1 Purpose of Report
1.1 To seek approval to award the contract for the provision of a Cloud-hosted, multi-channel contact centre system.
2. Recommendation(s)
2.1 That the contract for the Cloud-hosted Contact Centre System is awarded to Tenderer A.
3 Reasons for Recommendation
3.1 Having conducted a mini competition under Lot 4 of the Crown Commercial Services RM3808 Network Services 2 Framework, Tenderer A was the only provider to meet the Council’s specification. In doing so, Tenderer A, scored highly on the quality score.
3.2 The tendered cost of the contract (over five years) is detailed in the Confidential Annex.
Alternative Options Considered
4.1 The migration of all BFC’s software applications to secure servers in the Cloud is a major objective of the Digital and ICT Strategy 2020 - 2024. This programme of work will ensure that BFC is only using secure and flexible cloud-based systems and moving away from an on-premise “data centre”, going forward.
4.2 A related initiative, to upgrade the accommodation and ICT systems for the Emergency Duty Service provides an additional driver to introduce a multi-channel, contact centre system to support the (24 x 7 x 365) operational provision of this crucial service. Contact centre software is already deployed at BFC and it works well. No other technology options were considered appropriate.
5 Supporting Information
5.1 The Strategic Procurement Plan was approved by the Director of Delivery (and the Executive Member for Culture, Delivery and Public Protection 1st July 2021.
5.2 A high level specification of requirements was produced by members of the project team. A set of questions for which further clarification was sought was also produced, to be completed by prospective suppliers.
5.3 The project team used the Crown Commercial Services Framework: RM3808 Network Services 2, Lot 4 for Inbound Telephony to invite potential suppliers to bid for this project.
5.4 It is essential that the Contact Centre system can work with a TEAMS based telephone system and be integrated with BFC’s Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) in use in Customer Services and other services. Strict quality criteria were applied to the ITQ to ensure the Council received a qualitative response.
5.5 The procurement process enabled prospective suppliers to ask questions based on the requirements specification. Clarification questions were received, and answers provided back to potential suppliers.
6. THE EVALUATION PROCESS
6.1 The evaluation team / project team was drawn from the Customer Services function, the Emergency Duty service, Digital and ICT Services and were guided through the process by a member of the Corporate Procurement team. The evaluation team used the appropriate scoring model for a procurement of this type, e.g.
a) 60% of the marks are related to the Total / Whole Life Cost of the service (including implementation services).
b) 40% of the marks are related to quality criteria based on;
7. Consultation and Other Considerations
Legal Advice
7.1 Legal are satisfied that this contract award will be compliant with the Council’s Contract Standing Orders and in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (“PCR 2015”). Advice will be given on the terms of the call-off contract to ensure that this complies with the overarching Framework Agreement and the PCR 2015.
Financial Advice
7.2 The one-off cost to implement this project will be funded from the ‘ICT Transformation Reserve’. This reserve was created to help manage the implementation of the ICT Strategy which sees a move from a Capital to a Revenue based funding model. Currently there is no budget provision for the additional £45k annual software licence fee and this will need to be reported as a future pressure on the department’s revenue budget. Any expenditure in the current financial year will also be covered by the ‘ICT Transformation Reserve’.
Procurement Advice
7.3 Contained within the Confidential Annex.
Equalities Impact Assessment
7.4 An Initial Equalities Screening Record Form has been completed for this requirement. The screening determined that a full Equality Impact Assessment was not required.
Strategic Risk Management Issues
7.5 The Contact Centre upgrade is in line with the Digital and ICT Strategy 2020 - 2024 which is driving the migration from an on-premise data centre to more secure and flexible Cloud based hosting (and the provision of software as a service where appropriate). The proposed procurement would provide the following benefits to mitigate the strategic risk of Cyber-attack:
a) improved security protection afforded by a purpose built (third party) data centre, accessed via the Cloud, with the required security credentials to minimise the cyber risk.
b) extending a robust, digital contact centre capability to the Emergency Duty Service should reduce the risk of downtime or disruption to this critical service, provided on behalf of the Council and partner authorities.
Climate Change Implications
7.6 The recommendations in Section 2 above are expected to reduce emissions of CO2 as the council will no longer be operating a contact centre, running on servers based in Time Square. The data processing is being transferred to a pre-existing data centre operated by Tenderer A, and resources such as power and cooling are shared.
Background Papers
Strategic Procurement Plan – Contact Centre Upgrade (1st July 2021)
Digital and ICT Strategy 2020 - 2024
Contact for further information
Ken Connolly - ICT Project Manager Lead
01344 351797
ken.connolly@bracknell-forest.gov.uk