36C10B26Q0368.docx

Sources Sought Notice Sources Sought Notice

GENERAL INFORMATION

SET-ASIDE

Technology Acquisition Center

23 Christopher Way Eatontown NJ 07724

POINT OF CONTACT*

Contract Specialist Dan DiNocera daniel.dinocera@va.gov

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

ADDRESS

POSTAL CODE

COUNTRY

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

AGENCY’S URL

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AGENCY CONTACT’S EMAIL ADDRESS

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DESCRIPTION

Request for Information Enterprise Service Desk Managed Contact Center Infrastructure TAC RFI Number: 36C10B26Q0368

1. Introduction The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Enterprise Command Operations (ECO) is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) in support of a planned future solicitation for its Enterprise Service Desk Managed Contact Center Infrastructure (CCI) solution. ECO is seeking feedback and engagement from interested parties.

See Section 3 for CCI Solution capabilities and anticipated future capabilities.

This RFI is issued for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation nor does it restrict the Government as to the ultimate acquisition approach. In accordance with (IAW) Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.101(c), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The purpose of this RFI is to obtain market information on capable sources of supply, industry practices, and input specific to the information provided. The Government is not responsible for any cost incurred by industry in furnishing this information. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future Request for Proposals, if any is issued. Any information submitted by respondents to this RFI is strictly voluntary. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned. Any proprietary/sensitive information must be clearly marked by the vendor.

2. Disclaimer The Government will not reimburse any costs incurred in responding to this market research request. Participation is voluntary, and non-response will not preclude participation in any future solicitation. The Government may use the information received to refine requirements, acquisition strategy, and solicitation structure

3. CCI Solution Capabilities The current CCI solution utilizes the NICE CXOne platform. Additional features and enhancements leverage Medallia and fill integration with VA’s IT Service Management (ITSM) tool, currently ServiceNow.

3.1 Current Capabilities

The VA operates in a multi‑vendor environment in which contractors must work collaboratively, using non‑proprietary materials and coordinated processes to ensure seamless, consistent service delivery. The CCI Contractor must fully cooperate with all stakeholders, participate in required joint activities, align with VA governance, share deliverables, and support coordinated handoffs and continuous service improvements across vendors.

The CCI Contractor will provide and maintain a fully integrated up‑to‑date CCI solution that interoperates with VA systems, supports multi‑channel contact handling, delivers intelligent routing, real‑time reporting, and secure access for both onsite and remote agents. They are responsible for designing and updating call flows and automated messages, ensuring compatibility with VA firewalls and change‑management processes, addressing security vulnerabilities, and staying current with OEM releases. The solution must include complete call management capabilities, service observation, required Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), and support for operational disruptions, while also supplying all associated documentation and reports.

The Contractor must deliver comprehensive performance analysis and reporting across the CCI solution, ITSM, and ESD vendor operations, using automated monitoring tools, defined metrics, surveys, and trend analyses to assess service quality, Service Level Agreement (SLA)adherence, and customer satisfaction. The Contractor must also maintain robust data management practices, provide dashboards and reporting interfaces, support quality assurance reviews, and ensure continuity through coordinated disaster recovery, contingency, and escalation plans aligned with VA standards.

The CCI Solution has the following core capabilities:

A. Intelligent Routing & Queuing

· Intelligent, skills‑based routing across modalities (voice, chat, web)

· Universal queue; dynamic prioritization; overflow and default routing

· Multi‑vendor routing and support for Moves, Adds, Changes, and Deletes (MACD) on queues and routing configs

· Real‑time, rules‑driven routing (skills, availability, SLA, language, presence)

· Warm/cold transfers; conferencing; multi‑channel transfer capability

· Ability to use Interactive Voice Response (IVR)‑captured data for routing; omni‑channel context passing

· Simulation/testing tools for routing; emergency routing controls

· Expansion of ports and routing resiliency B. Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

· Visual IVR and speech/Natural Language Understanding (NLU)‑driven automated interactions

· Elastic IVR ports for surges; configurable greetings and announcements

· Database integration for data retrieval, verification, and self‑service

· Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF)/speech capture; transcription and reporting in English & Spanish

· Natural speech recognition (English & Spanish) with high accuracy

· Survey capability; accessibility support (Teletypewriter (TTY)/ American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII))

· Comprehensive reporting, real‑time caller activity visibility

· Ability to update messages rapidly; integrate with backend databases

· Caller authentication; self‑service transactions; multi‑language support C. Quality Management

· Real‑time monitoring of interactions, queues, agents

· 100% or selective voice/screen recording; remote playback

· Quality Management forms, scorecards, evaluators; multiple scoring systems

· Call search, tagging, flagging; trend analysis across channels

· Speech analytics; archive retrieval; Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)‑compliant encryption

· Supervisor monitoring, targeted recording, and evaluation tools

· Integration of metadata, attachments, transcripts (including Spanish translation) D. Recording & Monitoring

· Full multimedia recording (voice, chat) with metadata capture

· Archive, playback, selective or random recording

· FIPS‑compliant encryption; configurable business‑rule recording

· Synchronization of audio + chat transcript; search across metadata

· Export and movement of archived data; masking of sensitive information

· Ability to pause/stop live recording; apply speech analytics E. Storage Requirements

· Capacity for 100% call recording + 20% screen capture

· National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)‑compliant retention: 6 months online, 18‑month archive

· Elastic storage; ability to move data between archive and online F. Agent Features

· Softphone/desk phone support with full call controls

· Screen pops with customer/IVR data; toll‑free/local dialing

· Real‑time visibility into blocked calls

· Agent state management (ready/not ready, reason codes)

· Local/global phone books; voicemail; customizable buttons

· Free seating with preserved metrics G. Remote & End‑User Training

· Train‑the‑trainer model; comprehensive system training

· Government‑approved curriculum; reusable training materials (videos, docs)

· Virtual interactive training; semi‑annual updates

· Data analysis to identify training needs H. Supervisor Tools

· Real‑time team/agent status; silent monitoring; barge‑in/intercept

· Alerts on agent events; escalation handling; assistance tools

· Real‑time skill assignment changes; reason code management

· Custom dashboards; reporting across all channels

· Broadcast messaging; whisper coaching; filtering and alerts

· Extensive reporting, drill‑down, and permission‑based access I. Agent & Supervisor Desktop Tools

· Softphone with call control, agent state changes, reason codes

· Performance statistics; multi‑line appearance

· Manager views: team status, forced state changes, reassignments J. Web Chat – Core Capabilities

· Secure chat integrated with ITSM; multi‑session handling

· Transcripts, history, attachments, pre‑defined responses

· Routing by business rules/skills; supervisor monitoring/coaching

· Surveys; chat bot escalation; KM integration

· Queueing, after‑hours messaging, browser compatibility K. Workforce Management (WFM)

· Forecasting (long/short‑term), scheduling, and “what‑if” modeling

· Real‑time and historical adherence monitoring

· Multi‑site, multi‑skill planning; scheduling templates

· Intra‑day management (reassign, overflow, call‑flow changes)

· Reporting on adherence, staffing, agent activities L. Virtual Call Queue

· Automatic callback with estimated wait times and retries

· Maintain queue place when caller opts for callback

· Configurable triggers (queue depth, wait time, time of day)

· Voicemail message capability; multi‑timezone support

· Reporting: successful/failed callbacks, usage, wait‑time accuracy M. Automated Call Survey

· Post‑call and delayed call‑back surveys (DTMF/voice)

· Recording of comments; scoring, weighting, configuration

· Reporting (15‑minute segments to yearly); trend and statistics

· Linking results to interactions and agents; export tools N. Text (SMS)

· SMS chat with live agent; attachments; automated replies

· Routing by business rules, keywords, and phone number

· Ability to shift from automated to live agent without losing context

· Confirmation texts; integration with VA Knowledge Base O. Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)

· Screen pops with caller and history data

· Integration with third‑party systems via standard APIs

· Support for intelligent routing, call control, reporting, blending P. Screen Capture

· Capture agent activity across multimedia interactions

· Secure, FIPS‑compliant capture, storage, search, playback, export, and archival of interactions with full metadata

· Configurable business rules controlling when and how interactions and screens are recorded

· Real‑time authorized monitoring of agent screens Q. Enhanced Features

· Web Callback functionality with agent‑availability–based routing and full VA operating‑hours integration

· AI‑driven features including AutoPilot (voice assistant), Agent Co‑Pilot, and Supervisor Co‑Pilot

· Full integration with ServiceNow, Medallia, reporting tools, and major‑incident IVR workflows

· Advanced authentication and security enhancements including one‑time passcodes (SMS/IVR) and voice biometrics

3.2 Future Capabilities

The CCI solution requires integration, testing, and implementation of VA approved Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Speech/Sentiment Analytics or third-party applications into the CCI solution using industry standard APIs and repeatable, agile software and system engineering processes. In addition the CCI solution is anticipated to expand into the following future capabilities:

A. Conversational AI (Voice & Chat)

· Natural language voice bots and chatbots

· Multilingual conversational AI

· Intent recognition with contextual memory

· Dynamic conversation flow generation

· Voice AI with natural prosody and interruption handling B. AI Intent-Based Routing

· Routes contacts based on detected intent, sentiment, customer value and/or agent expertise C. Predictive Routing

· Optimizes for CSAT, FCR and AHT D. Journey-Aware Routing

· Considers prior interactions, unresolved tickets, open incidents and channel switching E. Proactive and Predictive Service

· Proactive outreach notifying customers of outages, proactive service alerts and AI-triggered outreach when behavior indicates trouble

· Predictive issue resolution when detecting potential service failures and automatically opening tickets or contacting customers F. Workforce Engagement Management

· AI forecasting of contact volumes

· Automated scheduling

· Skill-based workforce planning

· Real-time adherence monitoring

· Agent coaching recommendations G. Hyper-Personalized Customer Experience

· Customer identity resolution

· Interaction history

· Behavioral signals

· Real-time personalization H. Intelligent Process Automation

· Auto ticket creation

· Backend task automation

· System integration workflows

· Automated service fulfillment I. Knowledge Intelligence

· AI-generated Knowledge Articles

· Knowledge GAP detection

· Auto-recommendation during calls (within IVR and for agents)

· Knowledge effectiveness scoring

· Automatic knowledge creation from resolved cases J. Real-Time Operational Intelligence

· Real-time service dashboards

· Anomaly detection

· Predictive workload forecasting

· Customer journey analytics

· Root cause identification K. Integrated Service Management

· Ticket creation from calls

· IVR context passed into tickets

· Automated updates between systems

· Incident correlation

· Service status awareness L. Simulation-Based Agent Training

· AI-generated training scenarios

· Simulated customer interactions

· Automated feedback M. Experience Orchestration

· Customer journey orchestration

· Cross-system workflow execution

· Real-time decision engines

· Adaptive service workflows

4.0 Submittal Instructions

All responsible sources may submit a capability statement in accordance with the information below. Interested parties shall provide a maximum of five-pages briefly addressing their recommended solution and approach. All responses should at minimum provide:

a. Recommended approach to maintaining, enhancing, and/or replacing ECO’s current CCI solution and associated benefits/risks to this approach

b. Flexible cost-effective Firm-Fixed-Price licensing models for the CCI solution to support fluctuating helpdesk agents and other users

c. Strategic opportunities for future capabilities and enhancements

d. Recommended contract vehicle, In addition, all responses should list your company business size and status.

Responses are due no later than 10:00AM ET Monday, May 4, 2026 via email to Dan DiNocera, Contract Specialist, at Daniel.dinocera@va.gov; Andrea Caltabilota, Contract Specialist, at Andrea.Caltabilota@va.gov; and Evan Schlisserman, Contracting Officer, at Evan.Schlisserman@va.gov. Please submit all responses via email using the subject line “ECO CCI Solution- Capability Statement” and provide a Point of Contact, if needed.

Sources Sought Notice