TELEPHONE REFERRAL SERVICES

Trade Agreement: Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) Tendering Procedures: The bidder must supply Canadian goods and/or services Attachment: YES (MERX) Electronic Competitive Procurement Strategy: N/A - P&A/LOI Only Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No Nature of Requirements: REQUEST FOR INDUSTRY COMMENTS (RFIC) TELEPHONE REFERRAL SERVICES / CONTACT CENTRE SERVICES

1. Nature of Request for Information This is a Request for Industry Comments (RFIC) and not a bid solicitation. No contract will be issued as a result of this RFIC; however, this RFIC includes draft terms and conditions of a proposed Request For Proposal (RFP) for which the industry's comments are requested. The written comments received by Canada will not be specifically shared or referred to in the final solicitation document and any comments provided as a result of this RFIC should not contain any restrictions of use. All written comments and questions received by Canada will not be specifically shared or referred to in any resulting RFP. Canada acknowledges that any information collected will be utilized by Canada in an anonymous fashion.

2. Purpose of this RFIC This RFIC is issued for the purpose of: Alerting industry to a future procurement action for the supply of Telephone Referral Services/Contact Centre Services; and Obtaining feedback from industry concerning the requirement and the planned procurement process

3. Background Service Canada is the delivery agent of the Government of Canada (GC) in support of citizen-centred services. The Citizen Service Branch (CSB) of Service Canada achieves this mandate by providing seamless, secure, knowledgeable services to Canadians. Service Canada provides primary access points by telephone, in-person and by Internet for information on programs, services and information products of the Government of Canada.

One of these access points, 1 800 O-Canada, is operated within Service Canada's Canada Enquiry Centre (CEC) located in Ottawa, Ontario. While 1 800 O-Canada is the largest and best-known of the services managed by the CEC, the Centre also manages and delivers customized public enquiry and information services on behalf of other government departments.

Previous contracts for this requirement have been awarded as a result of competitive solicitation processes. Service Canada has been managing this private-public service delivery arrangement, using this approach, since 1982. Service Canada establishes all service, organizational, and operational targets and strategies and is responsible for all corporate support services including technology, facilities and finance. The Contractor is responsible for recruiting, training, managing and directing its team to deliver a public enquiry response service that achieves the service and operational targets established by Service Canada.

4. Summary of Anticipated Requirement

Service Canada requires the services of a Contractor to provide and manage a completely self-contained and integrated team of fully bilingual information centre specialists, which works within an infrastructure provided and managed by Service Canada to provide the following:

Professional, knowledgeable, and bilingual information officers to respond to enquiries for 1-800 O-Canada;

Professional, knowledgeable, and bilingual information officers to respond to calls and emails for project specific customized information solutions on behalf of other GC organizations and programs; and

Information management specialists to manage and update knowledge repositories used by front line staff.

5. Nature and Format of Responses Requested Suppliers are requested to review the attached solicitation document and to provide any written questions, comments or suggestions on the Statement of Work, Evaluation Criteria or the solicitation document in general. Suppliers may also seek clarification of any part of the solicitation document that they determine requires additional information. Respondents should explain any assumptions they make in their responses.

6. Enquiries and Submission of Responses This is not a bid solicitation. Accordingly, Canada will not respond to enquiries in writing or by circulating answers to all potential suppliers. Canada will not reimburse any respondent for expenses incurred in responding to this RFIC. Potential suppliers are not required to submit information under this RFIC to qualify for any future bid solicitations for this requirement. Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada

All enquiries and written responses to this RFIC should be submitted to:

Maxime Thauvette PWGSC, Services and Specialized Acquisitions Management Sector (SSAMS) Communication Procurement Directorate Constitution Square 12-360 Albert Street Ottawa, Ontario KIA OS5

Telephone: 613-995-2278 Facsimile: 613-949-1281 E-mail: maxime.thauvette@pwgsc-tpsgc.gc.ca Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

The Crown retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any procurement.

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.