NIGP 91505: Answering/Paging Services

NIGP 91505 Answering/Paging Services (Item) covers live-operator telephone answering and emergency dispatch services that state and local governments use to handle after-hours, holiday, and overflow call traffic for public utilities, public safety, and administrative functions. Recent solicitations show governments buying dedicated staffing for 24/7 answering capacity, call routing to on-call personnel, bilingual support, call recording with 60–90 day retention, and daily call reporting integrated with municipal systems. The work spans municipal utilities departments, county emergency services, city public safety operations, and specialized functions like medical examiner intake—all requiring operators trained on departmental protocols and capable of determining call priority and appropriate dispatch routing in real time.

Recent activity appears across municipal and county governments in Florida and the Midwest, with the City of Tampa issuing RFQ 26-P-00594 for after-hours answering services supporting Mobility and Water Departments (due October 15, 2026), Collier County Board of County Commissioners issuing ITB 26-8670 for 24-hour Public Utilities Department answering and dispatch services with an approximate annual cost of $60,000 (due August 13, 2026), and the City of Indianapolis and Marion County Purchasing Division issuing RFQ RFQUAL47COR19 for after-hours answering services supporting the Marion County Coroner's Office (due June 5, 2026). The City of San Marcos, Texas also solicited utilities customer care center answering services under RFP 2026-044 (due July 9, 2026). These opportunities typically structure pricing on a per-call or monthly-base-plus-overage model, require three years of relevant experience with current client references, mandate bonded performance and liability insurance, and in jurisdictions such as Collier County apply local-vendor preferences; Indianapolis offers set-asides and certification encouragement for disadvantaged business enterprises (MBE, WBE, VBE, DOBE).