DE01--Enterprise Service Desk Managed Contact Center Infrastructure (CCI)

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:

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

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

AI Intent-Based Routing

Routes contacts based on detected intent, sentiment, customer value and/or agent expertise

Predictive Routing

Optimizes for CSAT, FCR and AHT

Journey-Aware Routing

Considers prior interactions, unresolved tickets, open incidents and channel switching

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

Workforce Engagement Management

AI forecasting of contact volumes

Automated scheduling

Skill-based workforce planning

Real-time adherence monitoring

Agent coaching recommendations

Hyper-Personalized Customer Experience

Customer identity resolution

Interaction history

Behavioral signals

Real-time personalization

Intelligent Process Automation

Auto ticket creation

Backend task automation

System integration workflows

Automated service fulfillment

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

Real-Time Operational Intelligence

Real-time service dashboards

Anomaly detection

Predictive workload forecasting

Customer journey analytics

Root cause identification

Integrated Service Management

Ticket creation from calls

IVR context passed into tickets

Automated updates between systems

Incident correlation

Service status awareness

Simulation-Based Agent Training

AI-generated training scenarios

Simulated customer interactions

Automated feedback

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:

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

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

Strategic opportunities for future capabilities and enhancements

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.