47QMCB25Q0009 Attachment D-1 - GSACCS Performance Work Statement.docx

47QMCB25F0009 Attachment D-1 of 24

GSA Contact Center Support Performance Work Statement (PWS)

1. Scope.

The purpose of this requirement is to acquire a commercial contact center software solution for the GSA Contact Centers (GSACCs) which currently supports approximately 220 call center agents addressing approximately 800,000 inbound and outbound calls annually, with a potential for future growth over the life of the contract. GSACCs agents are located at multiple geographically dispersed locations and are manned by government employees, however some call centers may require the ability to outsource to contractor provided agents under this effort. All locations are currently in the continental United States and Puerto Rico.

2. Background.

The mission of the GSA is to deliver value and savings in real estate, acquisition, technology, and other mission-support services across government. Customers and suppliers contact GSA for customer service, sales and technical assistance via the GSACCs.

GSA has several GSACCs across the organization manned mostly by Government resources. The GSACCs cloud solution is accessed via public internet and the current solution is administered in-house but supported, managed and maintained off-site by a contractor. Attachment D-2 is provided with historic volumes (where available) and additional information about GSA’s current operating parameters and components.

3. Objectives.

This acquisition aims to secure a turnkey solution that provides the technology, infrastructure, and support services for the GSACCs, enabling them to provide easily accessible, accurate, timely, and professional responses to inquiries about government programs, policies, and acquisitions. The solution should meet the requirements of the individual GSACCs (see Attachment D-2) and allow GSA to offer a wide range of customer support services concerning federal programs, purchases, orders, systems, payments, and status to various stakeholders. It must also provide quality automated and attended support, management tools including analytics and reporting, and technical assistance for specific needs. GSA is interested in exploring how responsible Artificial Intelligence can reduce costs, improve service, and maximize automation. A key performance objective is to ensure all GSACCs operate simultaneously without system degradation in a cloud-based environment.

The contractor shall:

a. Provide comprehensive program management, personnel, training, and technical support for the contact center solution as required in this PWS.

b. Ensure an agile, geographically dispersed, and remote workforce (as applicable) can access the contact center platform and deliver high-quality customer service.

c. Provide robust data and visually appealing and easy to interpret graphical reports to enable the Government to analyze and improve GSACCs operations, determine usage patterns, and enhance customer experience to provide efficient and effective GSACCs operations and outstanding customer experiences.

d. Ensure the technology and support services enable GSA to respond effectively during disasters/emergencies and surges in contact volume.

e. Enable the integration of new capabilities, including artificial intelligence/machine learning tools such as interactive voice response and virtual agents, with the solution to improve service, reduce costs, and improve customer service and operational efficiency.

f. Provide, as required, Contact Center Operations Manager to oversee and manage the performance of contractor’s contact center agents.

4. Performance Requirements/Tasks.

The contractor shall meet the following requirements in the performance and delivery of GSACCs support:

4.1 Solution Features

a. Provide a FedRAMP-authorized cloud-based contact center solution hosted within the United States that meets current and evolving government information systems and personnel security requirements. This includes, but is not limited to, compliance with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) SP 800-37, 800-53, and all GSA IT security requirements, such as FedRAMP for cloud-based services. See security requirements detailed in Attachments D-3 and D-4.

b. Provide an integrated contact center solution that is fully hosted and managed by the Contractor, featuring redundancy and both basic and advanced contact center functionalities. Solution must provide live phone and chat support functionalities, and provide continuous support during operating hours, ensuring prompt response and resolution of inquiries.

c. Provide a solution for call routing, tiered skill-based agent selection, multi-site contact centers, centralized agent profile configuration, system recovery, quality monitoring, and real-time and historical reporting.

d. Enable the Government to provide both automated and attended contact capabilities, with call deflection to live agents as requested by the customer. Current Interactive Voice Response (IVR) call trees are provided in Attachment D-2 for each GSACC.

e. Support over 220 GSACCs agents managing an estimated total annual call volume of approximately 800,000 inbound and outbound calls, with a potential future growth over the life of the contract. The Contractor must have burst capabilities to allow immediate expansion/contraction, including the ability to scale capacity to handle high volumes/surges/disasters/emergencies without system performance degradation.

f. Provide a seamless, fully integrated solution that enables GSACCs to use third-party applications such as the GSA Salesforce.com application in real-time. This includes any software, hardware, and firmware to interface with GSA Salesforce.com. (Salesforce current version is Spring 25 with the next schedule update Summer 25).

g. Provide individual survey functionality for each toll-free number to automatically survey customers after calls. Up to five questions will be required per survey (provided by the Government). The Contractor shall collect, report, and remit survey results for each GSACC and collectively across all GSACCs.

h. Ensure transactions can be captured and tracked. Include call recording and screen scraping features while the agent works the call. Provide immediate access to recordings/scrapings for the most recent 3-month period and within 72 hours for earlier recordings/scrapings. Each call/conversation and screen scraping shall be stored in a separate audio file for each GSACC. The Contractor shall ensure the record retention requirements of Federal Acquisition Regulation 4.805 are adhered to for all recordings/screen scrapings.

4.2 Performance Features:

a. Provide automated service, including unattended service, 24x7x365. Maintain system uptime with no more than 45 minutes of cumulative downtime in any 60-day period. The Contractor must provide a Continuity of Operation (COOP) plan that guarantees GSACCs support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in the event of a system failure, service outage, or disaster.

b. Proactively monitor systems, services, platform performance, and quality. Immediately alert GSACCs supervisors and the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) of any system or performance issues along with a plan of action, including a timeline to conduct a root cause analysis and resolve such issues. Notification to GSACCS Supervisors/COR must occur within no more than 24 hours of detection and the subsequent plan of action must be provided within no more than 48 hours of notification.

c. Provide immediate failover capability in times of system degradation (e.g., dropped calls, connection troubles, and other similar system failures) and provide immediate failover capability 24x7x365 to ensure continuity of operations in case of system failure, service outage, or emergency/disaster.

d. Provide an IT help desk solution to allow GSA staff to submit and track incidents and problems related to the contact center solution and infrastructure. For each GSACC individually and in total, provide monthly reports on submitted incidents and problems and resolution, to include issue, report date, resolution, resolution date, GSACC, agent, time, etc.

e. Provide a full suite of standard and ad hoc reporting capabilities that enable each GSACC to understand their performance and help them deliver outstanding customer service. Enable individual GSACC reporting as well as GSA roll-up reporting with easy, visually-appealing graphics. Enable reports to be exported to other systems/formats (e.g., GSuite, Microsoft, Excel, PDF, etc.). Also provide reports that enable the COR to understand and monitor the Contractor’s performance regarding the technology, infrastructure, and technical support services provided. Additional information on Reporting requirements is provided in section 4.8 below.

4.3 Solution Capability Requirements:

a. Provide a solution that allows GSACCs to auto-answer and play an automated agent greeting upon call initiation.

b. Provide interactive voice response (IVR) and options for IVR operations for Government selection and any updates thereto, such as the use of touch-tone pad or simple voice command recognition technology, such as “say or press” options, and the capability to ensure customers can always access the GSACC for assistance without issue.

i. Provide the following options with the recorded message:

· Option to select the message from the agency about the particular issue.

· Option after the message to end the call.

· Option to be transferred back into call flow for the next available agent.

· Option to be transferred directly to the next available agent.

· Requirement for the user to be forced to hear the complete message before being able to proceed with a menu selection. This should include ensuring the user cannot press a button to end the message and be transferred to an agent or during an invalid/timeout error state.

ii. Provide IVR service 24x7x365.

iii. Create, implement, and maintain separate IVR call flow diagrams and routing schemes for each program. Upload each file to a designated GSA Google shared folder for the Government's review and viewing.

iv. Provide a self-service option to remotely re-record already activated messages as needed.

v. Operate IVR during unexpected peak loads with configurable IVR ports.

vi. Make available IVR usage reports.

vii. Provide the ability for government system administrators to meet the following IVR needs:

· Record additional IVR messages during times of emergency.

· Activate and deactivate approved message(s)

· Implement changes to the IVR menu and message structures or recorded messages within two business days, except for Customer Agency emergency IVR support, upon request by the Government.

c. Provide screen-pop up capabilities with Caller ID and Automated Call Distribution (ACD) based on concurrent use of the platform.

d. Telecommunication Services: The Contractor is expected to provide telephony and site connectivity (circuits and toll-free service). GSA will provide the 800 number routing/transfer to the contractor's solution. GSA's expectation is that telephony minutes will be unlimited. Telecommunication services required includes but is not limited to:

· Domestic and international toll-free services and call-routing features for the Government-provided telephone number (e.g. time-of-day and day-of-week routing, percent-allocation routing, alternate routing, and area code routing).

· Call termination features (e.g. call transfer, dialed number identification service [DNIS]).

· Automatic number identification (ANI).

· Outbound domestic local and long-distance telephone service with unlimited telephony minutes.

· Call detail and management reports.

· Support troubleshooting for any telecommunications issues that may arise including submitting and following up on support tickets.

· Voice Services (internal, local, long distance and international dialing).

· Caller ID.

· Unified Communications and Mobility (Softphone, Mobile Client, Presence).

· Voicemail, including access to voicemail remotely, ability to change voicemail recording by end-users, and call routing capabilities (e.g., 0 out to operator).

· Personal voicemail capability supporting approximately 220 agents with personal voicemail greetings

· E911 Services.

· Prohibited Charges;

· Music on Hold;

· Auto-Answer;

· Auto-Greeting;

· Call-Forwarding;

· Call-Conferencing;

· Inter-office/inter-system 5-digit transfers (preferred if available);

· User-configurable favorites/contacts lists;

· Individual call recording;

· Basic call hold and connect-back as well;

· Call hold and dial out w/conference or consult mode;

· Transfer call or connect back to original call: Ability to transfer call both hot & cold;

· User definable recorded messages for each toll-free number;

· Role-based agents (e.g., Administrator, Supervisor, Team Lead, agent, etc.);

· Virtual hold functionality for the system to be able to call customers back and connect with the next available agent without losing their spot in the queue;

· Support multiple callers (e.g., hold line 1, dial outbound to line 2), and remain on line 2 until complete and either return to line 1 call and/or conference both lines 1 and 2 together).

e. The Contractor shall provide all necessary services, including interactive web-based services, to support the contact center solution and minimize reliance on government networks/equipment (Refer to Attachment D-2 for current operating parameters). Services must demonstrate the ability to support the estimated contact volume and agent count (as detailed in the PWS). The Contractor is not required to provide home internet services to agents or replace GSA’s current solution.

f. Provide centralized, smart routing to streamline communications, manage volume and deliver calls anytime, anywhere without customer on-premise equipment--no hardware/software needed at agent location.

Additionally, enable an end-user to utilize multiple devices (e.g., physical set, softphones, mobile client, etc.). Agents work both from the office and from home, sometimes utilizing a desk phone and sometimes softphones, all while maintaining the same phone number. Remotely located agents must be able to connect to the contact center solution. While GSA uses other approved network security solutions, these solutions may not be suitable to support voice. GSA requires agents to be able to connect to the contact center solution, using a required multi-factor authorization to minimize dependency on the GSA network providing a full cloud solution. The Contractor is expected to identify, troubleshoot and resolve all connectivity and quality of service issues in a timely manner.

g. Provide the ability for the Government’s system administrator to perform basic administrative tasks (e.g., moves, day-to-day administration of user profiles, add/remove users, user accounts, account resets, unlocks, change auto greeting or auto answer settings, change/modify IVR call trees, etc.).

h. Ensure the Government’s system administrator can create and manage any programming of call vectors and documentation. Call-vectoring is defined in this case as administration of call flows/trees, caller control, split queues, agent work mode, Vector Directory Number (VDN) processing and cover paths.

i. Support two-digit Aux reason codes to identify the status that an agent goes into when they are not available to take calls.

j. Provide Quality Management Analytics (QMA) to analyze and categorize 100% of interactions for all voice and text channels.

k. Provide speech analytics, phonetic indexing, speech-to-text transcription, speaker separation, emotion detection and talk-over analysis to be able to identify key words, threats of the caller and/or emotion detection.

l. Provide detailed contact records in CSV or Excel format.

m. Provide capability for multilingual recorded options as required by individual contact centers.

4.4 Performance Management:

The Contractor will be responsible for maintaining service levels during steady- state, surge, and disaster recovery operations. The contractor shall provide the following contractor- developed plans:

a. Program Management Plan: The Contractor will provide an annual program management plan that identifies and defines the Contractor’s organization, roles and responsibilities, lines of authority, management procedures/policies/plans, escalation procedures for problem/dispute resolution, and reporting requirements for the services to be performed under this contract. This plan must include an organization chart that identifies the chain of command in the organization responsible for this effort and the organizational components that support this contract. Additionally, the plan will address strategies and objectives, corresponding actions, roles and responsibilities, schedule with critical paths and dependencies, and quality and risk management approach.

b. Technical Test and Acceptance Plan: The Contractor will provide an initial test and acceptance plan that identifies the approach the Contractor will use to successfully test services and technologies prior to implementation and keep such plan updated to account for any technological upgrades or enhancements.

c. Quality Control Plan (QC Plan): The Contractor will submit a recommended QC Plan that complements its PWS as part of the quote submitted, and update the QC Plan throughout performance as necessary in coordination with the Government. The QC Plan will capture the performance measurements described below. It must describe how the performance metrics will be met, measured, sourced, and validated. Additionally, for the quality performance metrics, the QC Plan must include the details described below. The Government reserves the right to adjust or suspend performance metrics individually or in their entirety or to add other performance indicators as deemed necessary at any time during the performance period of this contract. Any adjustment, suspension, or addition will be in collaboration with the Contractor and with ample notice for change management. Performance metrics are structured based on Productivity and Quality standards. The Contractor will adhere to the performance metrics noted in the following sections.

i. Quality Performance Metrics QC Plan Specifics: The Contractor shall propose suggested platform performance metrics that align with this PWS and meet the Government’s performance objectives to deliver quality and outstanding customer service. Proposed performance metrics should be no less than industry standards for similar services. Performance metrics of interest include:

· Metric time objectives for tasks

· Service/system availability

· System performance

· Incident response and resolution time

· Business continuity of operation

· Reliability (mean time between failure and mean time to repair)

· Call quality (appropriate volume, call clarity, zero or minimal dropped calls, both parties have bi-directional audio, etc.) and quality of service metrics

· Security

· Throughput (bandwidth)

· Capacity

· Scalability

· Latency

· Technical service and helpdesk support

· Percent of calls blocked

· Abandonment rate

· Any additional metrics that support the success of the GSACCs solution

ii. The Contractor will provide the Government with methodologies and procedures for maintaining effective quality assurance and service improvement programs, including monitoring and assessing system performance and service activities to ensure the contact center solution performs in accordance with the requirements herein. The Contractor will work with the Government to finalize agreed-upon performance metrics. The Contractor’s QC Plan must include the following components when addressing the quality performance metrics:

· Quality Standards Document (QSD) that outlines definitions of all quality measures for service delivery. The QSD will be reviewed and updated to reflect the changing needs and expectations of the customer. All changes to the QSD must be approved by the Government.

· QA tools and forms for ongoing assessment and updating of quality measures to reflect customer expectations. QA tools and forms will be reviewed and updated at a minimum, annually. Changes to QA tools or forms must be approved by the Government.

· QA methodology that will be used for all programs, including the frequency, scoring methodology.

· Process and methodology that will be used to ensure the accuracy of invoices.

· Process and methodology that will be used to ensure the accuracy of monthly performance and narrative reports.

· Solution performance.

· Quality results and trends.

· The Government’s feedback.

· Specific action plans for continuous quality improvement (CQI).

d. Technical and Program Management Reviews: At least annually, or as requested by the COR, the Contractor will host a technical and program management review. This review will include performance to date, including accomplishment of performance metrics, resources, status of new initiatives and technology pilots, and high-level plans for the coming year and risk mitigation approaches.

e. Business Continuity Plan: The Contractor shall provide a business continuity plan for immediate failover and redundancy of the contact center solution if a catastrophic event, failure, or network connectivity loss occurs at any of the GSACCs locations. This should include quarterly or semi-annual disaster recovery testing. It must cover program operations recovery, voice, and data.

The Contractor will develop and implement contingency and disaster recovery plans and procedures to address continuity of operations in the event of a lapse in service for any reason, including natural or manmade disaster or Government shutdown. The Contractor’s solution should provide for rapid return to service while containing costs.

In addition to preparing/submitting the above plans, the contractor shall:

f. Ensure all GSACCs systems are operational simultaneously without system degradation in a cloud-based environment. The Contractor should propose alternate solutions for agents to be able to connect to the contact center solution, using a required multi-factor authorization to minimize dependency on the GSA network providing a full cloud solution in an effort to minimize system performance issues that may impact GSA networks. The Contractor is expected to identify, troubleshoot and resolve all connectivity and quality of service issues in a timely manner.

g. Provide high availability (e.g., HA system) so that routine maintenance can be performed without outages.

h. Provide a detailed transition out plan that seamlessly migrates applicable services and data. Minimize disruption of the existing service and seamlessly transition the customer base and work volumes to/from the contact centers. Include schedule and interface points with an incoming contractor, GSA, and GSACCs to maintain high quality service during the transition of this contract at its conclusion.

i. As applicable, provide a data migration strategy so that work continues uninterrupted. The Contractor shall provide a data migration plan that addresses security and privacy of data, data reconciliation and cleanup, timing duration and scope of testing and parallel operations, the development of automated tools to support data migration and the responsibilities and authority of persons participating in the data migration. The migration approach shall also address post-migration error correction contingencies. The plan must address how it will migrate 24 months of the existing call management system data and call recording/scraping data to a storage platform, and comply with record retention requirements as outlined in FAR Part 4.805.

ii. Perform transition services to prepare/staff GSACCs, develop/ transfer the support of the knowledge base and scripts for automated responses, and establish/maintain fully functional GSACCs.

4.5 Quality Assurance:

The Contractor’s quality management and assurance approach shall provide the data to enable the Government to evaluate individual agent and GSACC performance to include, but not be limited to:

· Total calls handled by agent

· Total calls handled by IVR

· Call length (duration)

· Age of query

· Response Time

· Number of satisfied customers

· First contact resolution

· Call arrival rate

· Peak hour traffic

· Agent utilization rate

· Adherence to schedule

· Calls answered per hour

· Speed of answer

· Hold time (wait time)

· Transfer rate

To ensure a high-quality, robust quality assurance program, the Contractor will:

a. Establish and maintain systems for capturing, analyzing, and reporting quality measures and will analyze operational performance against Government expectations and identify areas of competency and areas of needed improvement.

b. Record and store calls/screen scrapings as described in 4.1.o. Call recordings/screen scrapings will be retained as specified herein. The Contractor and the Government shall be able to download recordings as needed.

c. Provide the Government with access to observe live calls, and recorded calls which include screen captures.

d. Complete and store quality evaluations using scorecards approved by the Government.

e. Provide the Government with login access to all quality assurance systems and data.

f. Host regular, joint quality and calibration calls between GSACCs and the Contractor. These calls shall include regular discussions of quality monitoring results, trends, improvement opportunities, and calibration of interactions. Frequency of quality calibration calls will be determined in collaboration with the Contractor after the start of the contract.

g. Provide the Government with a monthly quality monitoring report that provides performance data for each GSACCs separately as well as in the aggregate.

h. Provide an automated capability to gather and report on customer complaints, compliments, and other service related comments/suggestions. The system shall provide the means to capture and transcribe the comments for analyses.

i. Work closely with the GSACCs to revise the existing evaluation and audit forms and supporting documentation as needed.

4.6 Quality Assurance System (QAS):

The Contractor shall provide a secure QAS that meets the information technology security requirements referenced in this PWS(such as FedRAMP certification for cloud-based services, etc.). Additional QAS requirements:

· Ability to record and retain 100% of calls.

· Ability to record CSR screen data captures (recorded playback of the full calls, chats interaction from beginning to end).

· Ability to record screen capture recordings from agent desktops for the following GSACCs at indicated levels:

· NCSC and GSA Fleet: At least 20% screen capture of total call volume monthly.

· Ability for both Contractor and GSA’s Quality Team to listen to calls via the QAS system.

· The Contractor will partition call recordings by GSACCs such that GSACCs will have access to only their GSACCs calls/audits. The GSA team will have access to all program calls and audits.

· The Contractor must be able to download and provide call recordings as needed for all programs.

· Call recordings transmitted via email must be encrypted and password protected. The call file(s) and the password shall be transmitted in separate emails.

· Evaluate interactions within the QAS system using the agreed upon scorecard.

· Audit Analysis: Ability to run quality and calibration reports (comparing Government audits to Contractor audits). Ability to create quality reports on individual agent performance and overall group trends.

· Remote Service Observe (live) access: “Service observe” telephone calls in real time.

4.7 Training/Change Management Features:

The Contractor shall implement initial and on-going technical training on the technology and infrastructure for all end users, train-the-trainer, and system administrators, and evaluate training outcomes to enhance the training program. This may include development, maintenance and delivery of live instructor led on-line webinar training (recorded via Google Hangouts or other video conferencing platforms) or hosted training with supporting materials and job aids for new features or services to ensure staff readiness to use the GSACCs solution, FAQs, etc. All training recordings will become GSA property.

The Contractor shall provide periodic refresher training on the solution and keep training materials current, accurate and complete throughout the contract period of performance.

4.8 Reporting:

The Contractor must be able to synthesize data generated from relevant systems (such as the ACD, dialer, CTI, retention, IVR, recording, QA, workforce management, speech analytics, and others) in order to provide reporting and analysis on a real-time and historical basis for each individual GSACC and the GSACCs collectively. Two kinds of reporting are required--data to help GSACCs manage their agents and operations, and data to measure the Contractor’s performance in providing the technology, infrastructure and technical support services.

Specifically, the Contractor must provide a reporting system that provides both standard and ad-hoc reports with ease and without the need for a programmer, along with the ability to export reports in an Excel or similar format (for example: google sheets) as approved by the Government to facilitate further analysis. Report sharing among managers should require no developer assistance:

· Create both real-time and historical transactional data reports.

· Produce data/enable dashboards accessible to the Government.

· Have a single system of record that generates reports in sync with their feeder systems so that there is a single system used to aggregate and display data related to the operations of the GSACCs.

· Enable reports/dashboards on demand.

· Allow various user groups, including Government staff, to see different reports and/or data that are relevant to their specific function.

· Create rules to issue alerts to Government personnel when a specific performance metric falls out of compliance.

· Create a permissions-based environment that limits data access as needed.

The Contractor will provide the reporting platform and on-demand training to enable the Government to create and provide standard and ad-hoc reports based on real-time and historical basis. All report data must be accessible to the Government and to individual relevant GSACCs. The Government may require Contractor support with the creation of additional custom and ad hoc reports to include providing call center volume and performance data for any successor contract effort. The Contractor will maintain performance data for the life of the contract. The Contractor will enable the Government to pull data summarizing operational statistics for individual agents and GSACCs and provide a rollup total of all supported GSACCs and their programs. The Contractor will enable the Government to create charts or graphs showing comparisons month-to-month, fiscal year-to-fiscal year, hour-to-hour, and the same period last year. The solution shall provide capability to pull the following data and generate subsequent reports at a minimum:

a. Daily and Weekly Performance Data: Data should be provided in an Excel or similar format as approved by the Government to facilitate further analysis by the Government. The Government has provided a list of operational statistics in Attachment D-2.

b. Monthly Billing/Volume/Metric Data: GSACCs that use Salesforce may ask the Contractor to upload reports into Salesforce as applicable.

c. Monthly Contractor Performance and Narrative Report: The Contractor will provide a monthly performance and executive style narrative report that includes contractor metrics to which it is accountable for, and explanations of any unusual performance in a narrative format. The narrative should include:

· A discussion of major events, problems, outages, and issues encountered during the report period and progress in their resolution.

· Review of performance metrics for the month with any deficiencies addressed.

· Summary of monthly statistics.

· Review of outstanding and new action items.

· Overall QA results.

· Quality improvement actions.

If required by the GSACCs or program:

· Demographic profile of inquirers such as location, gender, and source of referral.

· Wrap-up codes.

· Most popular templates used by agents (topics by templates).

d. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Report: The Contractor will enable the each GSACC to pull a monthly CSAT report that should include:

· Average scores for each survey question asked and percentage each response choice was chosen.

· Key survey statistics, such as number of completed surveys and number of offered surveys.

· A spreadsheet export of all response data and associated survey metadata from each complete survey. The spreadsheet must also include associated information from the referring agent interaction if applicable and known.

The data should be robust enough for the Government to conduct an analysis on what actions the survey results indicate should be taken in order to improve scores.

The Government needs the ability to aggregate data to understand CSAT across its GSACCs and programs.

e. Intraday Reporting: As needed, the Contractor will enable the Government to pull data on an intraday basis to analyze any unusual situations and/or spikes in volume as well as any identified drivers.

f. Ad Hoc Reports: Throughout the contract period of performance, each GSACC may request the Contractor to provide up to 12 ad hoc reports per year at no additional cost to the Government.

g. IT Reports: The Systems Security Officer will provide the following reports: quarterly Plan of Action and Milestone (POA&Ms), monthly vulnerability scans, analysis and reports of servers and applications, annual Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) accreditation reports, and any other reports required by Attachment D-3 and D-4.

h. System Performance Report: The Contractor will provide system performance reports on a regular cadence and as requested by the Government. The Contractor is required to immediately notify the COR and GSACCs system administrators of system performance issues in accordance with the PWS/IP.

i. IVR Reports: Provide the Government with the ability to pull daily and monthly IVR and toll-free traffic reporting via automated email. The Contractor will enable the Government to pull a monthly IVR analysis report for each IVR that should include:

· Number of calls (and %) to each published number.

· Number of calls (and %) without published number.

· Number of total calls.

· Number of calls (and %) during business hours.

· Number of calls (and %) after business hours.

· Number of calls (and %) with no entry point.

· Business Hours and After Business Hours Stats - Use of the IVR options/selections offered to callers

· Roll-up numbers for the above to compare the reporting month against YTD figures and previous months in the same fiscal year.

4.9 Help Desk Support:

The Contractor will provide a help desk responsible for tracking and resolving technical issues for Government users, including agents, supervisors, system administrators, and the COR. The goal is to ensure users have prompt access to qualified IT Help Desk support during each GSACC's normal business hours (see Attachment D-2) to resolve technical and functional questions. Policy-related issues requiring Government intervention shall be escalated to the appropriate Government Representative.

The help desk must utilize a ticketing system accessible remotely by approved individuals. Tickets that do not require a software fix must be resolved within 2 business days of receipt. The COR must be immediately notified of any software problems as per the Contractor's performance metrics. Non-technical programmatic issues requiring Government expertise will also be escalated through the ticketing system.

The Contractor will provide timely updates to users on their ticket status and verify resolution with the user before closing the ticket, documenting all activities and the final confirmation in the ticket. The Contractor will also notify system users and the COR/GSACCs of all software problems, system changes, scheduled downtime, operational announcements, software fixes, and detected system capabilities defects.

The Contractor shall provide monthly volume/performance/status reports that show the following data for tickets for each GSACC individually and collectively:

· Number of issues received from initial call and categorization of types of issues.

· Number of issues escalated to higher technical support.

· Unresolved issues and courses of action to resolve issues.

The Contractor shall analyze common technical problems encountered by users, determine effective solutions, and maintain this information in a question-and-answer (Q&A) format as requested by the Government within a shared Google file. This Q&A resource will be accessible to authorized Government personnel. Upon request, the Contractor will also provide the COR with a report summarizing this information. Additionally, the Contractor will manage and regularly update a system FAQ database or web link containing relevant information and documentation. A list of the most frequently escalated system issues shall also be provided to the COR upon request.

4.10 Key Personnel:

The Contractor must have the capability to provide qualified personnel to meet the specific requirements of this contract. At a minimum, the Contractor will provide the following key personnel: Program Manager (PM), Configuration/ Administration Subject Matter Expert (CASME), and Security Systems Officer (SSO). All proposed substitutes for key personnel will meet or exceed the qualifications of the person to be replaced. The Government will be notified in writing of any proposed substitution of key personnel at least 30 days in advance of the proposed substitution. The Contractor will submit a resume to the Government for approval prior to hiring any new key personnel and substitutes. Key personnel vacancies must be filled within 30 days. The Government will approve initial contractor key personnel at the time of award. Replacement key personnel must be approved in writing by the Government.

Program Manager (PM): The PM will be responsible for the overall management and day-to-day operations of the Contractor and will be the primary contact for the Government.

Responsibilities:

· Manage and implement the overall contract requirements and tasks including technical operations, resources, and budget.

· Maintain open communication with the Government to ensure support for the program and a positive relationship with the contracting organization.

· Ensure that all contract deliverables and performance metrics are met.

· Organize, direct, coordinate planning, and implement all contract support activities.

· Coordinate financial and staffing resources.

· Monitor and analyze contract and performance data and report results to the Government.

· Implement the quality assurance plan.

· Ensure that GSACCs experience and feedback data are continually integrated into the QA program

· Suggest improvements and efficiencies based on observations of the operation and quality of customer experiences.

· Evaluate emerging contact center technologies, present recommendations to leadership, and implement chosen technologies.

Minimum qualifications:

· Bachelor's Degree in Communications, Business Management or other related field.

· Five or more years’ experience in managing complex budgets, human, and other administrative resources involved with the operation of a major communications program.

· Experience with the Government contracting environment is desired.

· Experience in identifying innovative solutions and mobilizing to adapt to new technologies and program priorities.

· Excellent written and oral communications skills.

Configuration/Administration Subject Matter Expert (CASME): The CASME is responsible for the day-to-day configuration, operation and administration of the contact center technology, infrastructure, and technical support services. Additionally, the CASME is responsible for training on the technology, tools and features, service delivery, problem escalation and resolution, and performance monitoring.

Responsibilities:

· Perform technical planning, design, configuration, implementation, operations, modifications, and maintenance of all telecommunication and contact center technologies.

· Facilitate work sessions with business users to understand business processes and requirements.

· Configure/administer each GSACC.

· Leverage user-centered design methodologies to manage a technology stack that supports business objectives.

· Train users on the solution set.

· Identify, troubleshoot and resolve performance problems and quality of service issues.

· Create and deliver GSACCs workflow solutions.

· Provide systems integration expertise, develop code and document associated regression, use case, and unit testing scenarios, develop detailed deployment steps and packages, and support technical deployments and training.

· Provide and enable reporting, analyze trends, and ensure identification of issues to resolve.

· Assist in the implementation and administration of a comprehensive QA plan.

· Evaluate technical operations and customer experience and identify and present recommendations for improvements.

· Coordinate work with the Government’s System Administrators for each contact center to support the development and implementation of new features and services of the GSACCs according to business rules.

Minimum qualifications:

· Five or more years’ experience in managing a successful contact center similar to the size and scope contemplated herein.

· Demonstrated expertise in the planning, design, configuration, implementation, training, modifications, and maintenance of all telecommunication and contact center technologies.

· Demonstrated knowledge of performance and quality management.

· Experience in identifying innovative solutions and mobilizing to adapt to new technologies and program priorities.

Systems Security Officer (SSO): The SSO responsible for the day-to-day security operations of the Contractor information systems and information technology resources needed to fulfill this contract including: infrastructure, facility, training, service delivery, QAS, workforce management systems, problem escalation and resolution, and performance monitoring systems in accordance with GSA IT Security policies.

Responsibilities:

· Immediately report all security incidents in accordance with GSA policy.

· Work closely with the PM to ensure that systems evolve to meet any changing needs of the program.

· Work with the GSACCs to identify and document all security-related problems on the technology/infrastructure and provide the Government with a report of these issues along with a performance improvement plan detailing how to resolve and prevent problems from reoccurring.

· Ensure that information systems used in supporting task requirements meet initial and ongoing compliance of information systems security requirements in accordance with Federal Information Publication Standards (FIPS) Publication 200, Minimum Security Requirements of Federal Information Systems through the use of security controls in accordance with the NIST Special Publication 800- 53, Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems, as amended.

· Oversee preparation of all required documentation for the compliance process, including security plan, risk assessments, contingency and contingency test plans, configuration management plan, system test and evaluation reports, assessment and authorization packages (compliance with NIST Risk Management Framework (Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover).

· Prepare continuing responses to reports, data calls and updates throughout the year such as quarterly Plan of Action and Milestone (POA&Ms); monthly vulnerability scans, analysis and reports of servers and applications, and annual Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) reporting. Duties may be changed during the year based on program manager priorities.

· Ensure that the IT security requirements (called controls in 800-53) are incorporated in the early planning and execution of the transition as well as early in the development of new projects.

Minimum qualifications:

· Familiarity with NIST IT security publications including NIST SP 800-37, 800-53 and related policies. An SSO should have experience and expertise with applying these policies in a Federal Government IT program and provide the experience and expertise on complying with Federal IT security requirements as defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NIST and GSA.

· Experience and expertise in supporting assessment and authorization activities and documentation in compliance with NIST Risk Management Framework (Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover) for IT systems within the Federal Government. This should include knowledge of all controls at the moderate level and the ability to incorporate these controls into Federal IT systems as well as to evaluate implementation of these controls into Federal IT systems.

· Experience and expertise in oversight of multiple teams supporting the completion of assessment and authorization activities and packages (compliance with NIST Risk Management Framework (Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover).

· Expertise conducting vulnerability scans at the operating system level, application level and data bases, completing code reviews and assessing compliance with benchmarks.

· Experience and expertise in completing POA&Ms, FISMA Assessments and other IT security data calls for Federal IT systems.

· Broad familiarity with processes and security tools to provide consulting on strategies for complying with Federal IT security requirements and in the development of IT security architectures for Federal IT programs and related policies to IT security and their implementation for HSPD-12 and privacy requirements.

4.11 Contact Center Agent Support:

Currently the GSACCs are staffed by Government and contract personnel. The contractor shall provide the ability to support the contact centers with contractor supplied Contact Center Agents. NCSC is the only Contact Center currently planning to utilize contractor supplied Contact Center Agents, however there is potential that this need will reach other Contact Centers throughout the period of performance. Contractor supplied Contact Center Agent support will be contracted for under a Level of Effort Contract Line Item (CLIN) separate from the overall Contact Center Support Services.

The Contact Center Agents must have a sufficient skillset to accomplish varying levels of task complexity as follows:

· Basic Complexity: Interaction with customers, contractors, or citizens to provide information from established guidance, Knowledge Management, or other convenient sources.

· Intermediate Complexity: Actions requiring effort beyond accessing readily available information, including additional research into existing programs, consulting with GSA Subject Matter Experts, and/or contacting external parties such as contractors, Contracting Officers, or buyers.

· Advanced Complexity:

· Technical Help Desk Support: Providing assistance that requires specialized technical knowledge and troubleshooting skills. This includes resolving complex technical issues related to GSA systems and applications, guiding users through technical processes, and coordinating with IT support teams for more advanced troubleshooting.

· Collections Services: Conducting outbound interactions with customers and/or industry partners to resolve unpaid bills on behalf of Portfolio partners. This includes:

· Reviewing and verifying outstanding accounts.

· Contacting customers/industry via phone or email to facilitate payment arrangements.

· Providing detailed account information and answering inquiries related to billing and payments.

· Escalating unresolved issues to Portfolio and/or GSA Finance (OCFO) and/or NCSC management partners or designated contacts.

The general purpose of the contractor Contact Center Agent is to respond to, measure, and manage customer and contractor inquiries and problems, termed a “case”, and productivity is measured by first-tier cases successfully resolved or escalated to second or third-tier contacts.

a. Call Answering:

i. The contractor will answer customer calls in a personable, responsive, and highly knowledgeable manner about GSA offerings with minimal calls being redirected.

b. Outbound Calls/Emails:

i. As needed, the contractor will make outbound calls/emails/notifications to support customer and stakeholder services. Outbound interactions may include but are not limited to support for billing, collections, marketing, business development, quality issues, recalls, customer and industry research, and other matters essential to the GSA & FAS mission to support customers and stakeholders.

ii. Collections Services: Conduct outreach to customers or industry partners with outstanding balances on behalf of Portfolio partners. Facilitate the resolution of unpaid bills by providing account details, and working with GSA Finance (OCFO). Document all collections activities, including customer interactions, resolutions, and escalations in accordance with documentation policies (as documented within Salesforce VISION).

c. Inquiry Documenting:

i. The contractor will log inquiries in the GSA Information Technology system, documenting the contact, subject, resolution, and any necessary escalations. Documentation must occur on the same business day and follow the GSA documentation policies (as documented within Salesforce VISION).

d. Email Answering:

i. The contractor will respond to the initial email within 24 business hours.

e. Web-Based Contacts/Live Chats:

i. The contractor will respond to web/instant messages in real-time and asynchronous contacts within 24 hours during standard operating hours.

f. Case Resolution:

i. The contractor will provide customer…