NI Direct Strategic Partner Procurement

Tender description

In 2008 the NI Direct Programme decided to transform the NICS switchboard service into a modern customer contact centre by piloting the provision of directory, information and simple transactional services to a range of business areas within a number of NICS Departments. The NI Direct Programme supports a multi-channel service delivery strategy to improve access to government information through nidirect.gov.uk, the telephony based NI Direct contact centre and the NI Direct SMS text service which will be used for all government campaigns. The strategy over the next four years is to shift as many contacts as possible towards the NI Direct website and to move as many calls as possible from the office environment into a professional contact centre environment which provides better citizen service and efficiency. The NI Direct Strategic Partner Procurement Project has been established to ensure the existing telephony contact centre services continue as well as putting in place support arrangements to assist Departments in reviewing their current services and shift contacts from more expensive channels to cheaper channels such as the web, telephone or SMS text services. The NI Direct Programme is seeking a Strategic Partner to assist in the design, delivery and implementation of telephony based contact centre services, associated managed ICT support services, online transaction toolkit along with a range of specialist business consultancy, ICT consultancy and emergency resource planning services.