Published date: 8 December 2017

Closed early engagement


Closing date: 1 January 1

Contract summary

Industry

  • Contact management software package - 48333000

Location of contract

Any region

Procurement reference

tender_158329/637318

Published date

8 December 2017

Closing date

1 January 1

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

No

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

No


Description

The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to inform the market suppliers of an early market
engagement exercise which the NHSBSA is planning to run related to the development of a delivery and
procurement strategy for the provision of Customer Experience/Contact Management software and services.
The NHSBSA is looking to engage with suppliers who can meet one, or more, or the entire non-exhaustive
list of requirements set out in this notice.

The NHSBSA is a multi-sited, geographically diverse organisation. We provide a broad range
of business services that support the wider NHS.

Further information on our extensive service portfolio can be found at:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/about-us

The NHSBSA is currently supplied with knowledge management and email management
services by Capita Business Services Ltd via a sub-contract with Eptica. Our contract with
Capita expires in December 2018 and we are therefore commencing early market
engagement activities to develop our knowledge and understanding of potential future
solutions, together with identifying which suppliers are operating in the Customer
Experience/Contact Management market.

The business functions within the NHSBSA participating in the early market engagement
activities are set out in the following non-exhaustive list:

• Customer Contact Centre
• HR Shared Services (HRSS)
• Citizen Services
• NHS Pensions
• Finance

Further information related to the early market engagement activities can be found in section
5. Attachments.

Looking ahead beyond of expiry of our current contract with Capita , and aligning to the
NHSBSA's strategic objectives to reduce transaction costs by 50% whilst delivering improved
service and great results for customers, our vision is for our customers to self-serve as much
as possible to the extent that our customer service agents are only required to interact
directly with customers by exception. We envisage our customer service agents to be dealing
with complex and specific enquiries in the main; not enquiries that can be managed by selfserve
functionality.

We would like to consider a move away from an email solution to a more structured, flexible
solution that aligns with our wider objectives on data and customer services. We expect to be
seeking a solution that tracks and categorises all customer contact (inbound and outbound)
and shows the contact history of an individual and must report on contact type, frequency,
demographics and root cause/resolution.

Potential requirements are anticipated to be as follows:

• Knowledge Base/management
• Web chat/Chat bots
• Email management
• Ticketing and problem resolution
• Full end-to-end Customer Experience Management service
• Case Management/Customer Relationship Management

The above is a non-exhaustive list and we are interested in hearing from suppliers that provide services and products over and above that which is listed above but is related to Customer Experience / Contact Management.


More information

Additional text

The NHSBSA market engagement will be set in a number of stages:

1. NHSBSA Issues PIN
2. Suppliers to register interest
3. Suppliers to attend Webinar
4. Suppliers to participate in a Request for Information (RFI) exercise via a written submission to the NHSBSA
(potentially including a demonstration)

A Webinar is part of the NHSBSA's preliminary market consultation phase and its purpose is to give the
market a broad indication of the requirements of the NHSBSA, and to receive feedback from the market to
help inform the NHSBSA's strategy for Customer Experience/Contact Management.

Following presentations by the NHSBSA at the Webinar, the NHSBSA intends to offer all suppliers in
attendance, and those who expressed an interest and are not in attendance, the opportunity to participate
in the RFI.

Both the Webinar and RFI will assist the NHSBSA in developing its proposed strategy for requirements set
out in section 3. Description.

The Webinar will last approximately 1.5 hours and will take place on 18 December 2017. Suppliers should
be aware that the discussions at the webinar will be documented, and the resulting documents will be made
publicly available as part of the Webinar Materials (see below).

Webinar date: 18 December 2017
Webinar timings: 10:30 - 12:00 (GMT)

If you would like to attend, or alternatively would not like to attend and participate in the RFI only, you are
required to register an interest by contacting Michelle McParlin via email on michelle.mcparlin@nhs.net. The
closing date and time to register is 18:00 (GMT) 14 December 2017. Within your registering email you
must state if you want to attend the Webinar and / or participate in the RFI.

This notice is published for information purposes only. It is not a call for competition. The NHSBSA will not
be responsible for any costs incurred by suppliers in responding to this PIN or for participating in the
Webinar or follow-up market engagement activity. All information provided by the NHSBSA at the Webinar,
including the any presentation materials together with the questions asked and answers given during the
general Q&A sessions (the Webinar Materials) will be made available on the NHSBSA's website at
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/

Interested suppliers who are unable to attend the Webinar should nevertheless register (using the details
provided above in this section) in order to be notified when the Webinar Materials are available.


About the buyer

Address

Stella House Goldcrest Way
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE15 8NY
England

Email

michelle.mcparlin@nhs.net