(Company Name) Insert Your Title (Month - Year) : Request For Proposal

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[Company Name] 

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL


Insert Your Title
[Month | Year]
[Company Name] RFP Table of Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Response Guidelines 3

3. Vendor Evaluation and Selection 3

Vendor Proof of Concept (POC) Presentations 3

Vendor Selection 3

Use and Disclosure of Information 3

Vendor Costs 4

4. Vendor Response 4

Vendor Overview 4

Implementation 5

Support, Maintenance and Upgrades 5

Architecture / Hosted Services 6

Security 7

Feature Requirements 8

Cost 12

Costing Template (SAMPLE) 12

Vendor References 13

[Company Name] Contact Center Platform RFP Company Confidential | 2


1. Introduction
[Introduce your company to the Parties]

2. Response Guidelines
All responses must be submitted electronically no later than {date to be determined}.
Please direct all questions, communications and RFP submissions to:

[Enter the Contact Information of the Person compiling the RFP for your ORG]
(please use the Subject line “RFP: Contact Center Platform: your company name”)

Qualified vendors must respond to each item listed in Section 4: Vendor Response.
[Company Name] will be pleased to answer any vendor questions.

All responses become the property of [Company Name]. Failure to submit responses according
to these guidelines may result in rejection of the entire response. [Company Name] may request
clarification of any responses in whole or in part.

3. Vendor Evaluation and Selection


The criteria for vendor selection will be based on the combination of factors that is most
advantageous for [Company Name] in terms of functionality, price, quality, vendor qualifications, and
other factors which [Company Name] deems appropriate. Before proceeding further, selected
vendors will be asked to demonstrate their product or service to ensure it meets all the necessary
qualifications.

Vendor Proof of Concept (POC) Presentations


Each recipient of this Request will be asked to participate in a preliminary overview/test of their
product offerings. Following the evaluation of responses to this RFP, one or more leading candidates
will be invited to provide a Proof of Concept/Trial for evaluation by [Company Name].

Vendor Selection
[Company Name] reserves the right to base its final decision on any combination of requirements or
specifications presented in this RFP. [Company Name] reserves the right to prioritize or waive
requirements in whatever way serves its best interests in making a final selection decision.

Use and Disclosure of Information


[Company Name] will consider all responses to this RFP as confidential and proprietary to the vendor
submitting the response.

Information disclosed in this RFP is proprietary to [Company Name] and must be treated by vendors
as confidential. This information is to be used solely for the purpose of preparing a response to this

[Company Name] Contact Center Platform RFP Company Confidential | 3


RFP. This information may not be used or shared with other parties for any other purpose without
[Company Name] written permission.

Vendor Costs
Costs for developing the response to this RFP and participating in any subsequent product
demonstrations, POCs or presentations are entirely the responsibility of the vendor responding to this
RFP and shall not be chargeable in any manner to [Company Name].

4. Vendor Response
Vendor Overview
● What is your company’s legal name, address, phone number, and URL?
Provide the date and state of incorporation.
○ Legal Name:
○ Address:
○ Phone Number:
○ URL:
○ Date & State of Incorporation:
● Provide the name, title, address, telephone number, fax number, and email address
for the person submitting this proposal.
○ Name:
○ Title:
○ Address:
○ Phone Number:
○ Fax:
○ Email:
● Briefly describe your organization. Include the following:
○ Business background and history:
○ Ownership structure:
○ Subsidiary relationships:
○ Acquisitions and/or mergers:
○ Number of years in the Contact Center Platform business providing the service(s)
proposed in this RFP:
○ Number of employees:
○ Number of customers using your products:
○ Provide financial information that speaks to the current financial health of your
company and its prospects for future financial health, including audited financial
statements for the last two (2) years, Dun & Bradstreet rating, Moody’s and Standard
& Poor’s ratings, Gartner, etc.
● What are your top competitive advantages as a company and for the service(s) proposed in
this RFP?
● Specific to the services covered in this proposal, are any of the services delivered via a
subcontractor partner?
● [Company Name] requires [Enter your Payment Terms] Payment Terms. Do you provide
other payment terms?

Implementation

[Company Name] Contact Center Platform RFP Company Confidential | 4


1. Provide an overview of a typical implementation including the expected timeline,
implementation methodology and requirements for management & support personnel.
Also provide a typical staffing model for post-go-live operational support and maintenance.

EXAMPLE PROJECT PHASES:


2. Provide examples of any templates/workbooks/workshops/status reports that you provide?
○ Please see the following attachments for i and ii:
i. Example Project Plan
ii. Example Weekly Status Report
iii. Recorded Training - During the deployment phase, customer success
managers will record and make all training available to [Company Name].
Training is split into three parts: agent, admin, and supervisor.
3. Do you support a phased implementation? If yes, then describe the logistical considerations
for a phased deployment. Specify the features/components that will be included in the initial
roll-out and implementation.
4. Do you have your own Professional Service (PS) practice and Technical Service (TS) to
implement your technology, or do you use PS/TS partners to implement? If you use partners
please provide names and contact information.
5. Will a Program/Project Manager be assigned to manage the implementation?
6. What is the escalation process for resolving any conflicts or discrepancies in scope.
7. What [Company Name] team members will be required on the implementation project, for
what percentage of time?
8. How many environments are provided (dev, staging, production) during implementation and
on-going?  What is the process to move configurations/code between environments?  What is
the process to refresh data between environments?
9. Describe your testing process including types of testing, methods for resolving discrepancies,
and criteria for ensuring the testing is complete.

Support, Maintenance and Upgrades


1. Describe the ongoing relationship management between you and [Company Name]
2. How do we engage with your support team?
3. Please explain the flow of customer support when an agent needs same-day assistance?
4. Can you please provide SLAs on the past 6 months for same-day support follow up? and
resolution times? Please explain company philosophy.
5. What is your SLA on accepting tickets submitted?
6. How do you prioritize and accept tickets based on severity? What is the SLA for each tier?
What is your average resolution rate for each SLA tier? Please explain.
7. Do you have 24x7 live support options for post-deployment technical questions and issues?
8. Provide documentation on your support and training service offerings for both implementation
and post deployment.
9. Are any fees required to obtain new releases?
10. How are new releases and changes tested? Are there provisions for either cloud or on-prem
test environments?
11. Do you offer zero-downtime maintenance as a standard practice?
12. Please explain risk mitigation plans.
13. What is your fee structure for support? Please explain if recurring, usage based, or lump sum.

[Company Name] Contact Center Platform RFP Company Confidential | 5


14. Please explain in detail the structure of your on-going post-sale support
15. Please describe in detail how many accounts each member of your support team handles?
16. What methods of communication do your support teams rely on with your clients? Phone,
SMS, Chat, etc.
17. Please explain your support model - is it 24x7 follow-the-sun? Please explain your escalation
path in detail.
18. Please explain your ticketing process - what is your SLA for response times to tickets? Is a
managed services provider involved?
19. How is first-line support provided to your customer’s agents and supervisors - do they reach
out to your IT team or another internal resource? Please explain.
20. Is all support and service handled in-house? Please explain.
21. What is your CSAT rating for your support team?
22. Provide a list of ongoing trainings provided by supplier (can include industry conferences,
video-led sessions, maintenance/product trainings). Please indicate which trainings are free
vs. paid (and cost of trainings if paid).

Architecture / Hosted Services


1. Describe your platform architecture and its benefits.
2. Is this technology SAML-compliant so that it can be integrated with the [Company Name]
platform for identity management of [Company Name] users?
3. Describe, in detail, the user provisioning and de-provisioning features of your solution.
4. What is your overall system availability and response time SLA? How is it measured?
Describe the types of real-time performance and availability monitoring, and how you monitor
and manage SLA results?
5. Show how High Availability (HA) is achieved with your product or service. Do you run your
service active/active across multiple data centers?
6. Describe how you provide geographic redundancy in your data center infrastructures.
7. The Contact Center Platform implementation is expected to be primarily, if not exclusively,
hosted in the cloud. Please specify any hardware/software components that need to be
installed on-premises.
8. If your service is delivered as SaaS, are you multitenant?
9. Where is the platform hosted? Is it centrally hosted or geographically distributed? Please
provide a map or list of data center hosting locations.
10. Do you have a status page where we can see the current state of the service and any service
degradations or outages? Please include the link and provide the last six months of status
details.
11. How many countries do you support? In how many countries do use more than one tier 1
carrier? Please specify any countries that are not available with your platform.
12. Does the vendor develop and maintain the platform solution in-house or does it resell another
vendor’s solution? Please elaborate if there is a local carrier partner involved.
13. Do you provide a Voice Quality SLA? Please explain and provide at least six months of
history including global MOS, Jitter, Latency, and Packet Loss.

Security
1. Provide a data flow diagram that describes how data is processed and transferred through
the system.

[Company Name] Contact Center Platform RFP Company Confidential | 6


2. Describe the system architecture.
3. Provide Security Policy documentation to include disaster recovery, InfoSec policy, incident
management, notifications, etc.
4. Provide third-party vulnerability scans and penetration test results from within the last 12
months.
5. Are you SOC I Type II compliant? SOC II Type II?
6. Please list all certification and regulatory compliance supported by your organization.
7. Describe the security and data integrity features of the system.
8. Does the system meet compliance regulations for data security? Will its functionality comply
with governing acts at the federal, state, as well as international levels?

PRIVACY
1. Provide your Privacy Policy
2. Does your company follow GDPR standards?
3. Provide some information about what is done regarding GDPR compliance.
4. Do you have a Data Processing Agreement that can be signed for GDPR?
5. Is data processed or stored outside EEA?
6. If yes, what mechanisms are used to assure lawful transfer?
7. Are you HIPAA compliant? Do you have a BAA? Please explain.

INNOVATION
1. Please describe your feature/product update cadence and process. Is there any system
downtime involved?
2. Please highlight all products, capabilities and services you’ve released in the last 12 months.
3. Please highlight your roadmap for the next six months.
4. Please describe your product vision

Feature Requirements
The following list of technical specifications constitutes the baseline functionality required from the
Contact Center Platform solution.

GENERAL
1. Describe which products in your suite are natively built on a single platform, acquired, and
partner/third party products.

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a. If acquired or partner products, describe in detail the level of integration to the core
platform.
2. Describe the agent onboarding experience, including typical ramp time.
3. Describe how your platform supports adaptability, flexibility, and speed.

CRM/HELPDESK INTEGRATION REQUIREMENTS


1. Describe how Supplier offers the ability to integrate with [CRM Name] via screen pops.
2. Where is the CTI displayed on the computer screen? Is it pinned or floating? Please explain.
3. Is it extensible/customizable?
4. Describe how Supplier offers auto-call logging with [CRM Name].
5. List common implementation time with [CRM Name]
6. Describe "call-routing" logic and integration with [CRM Name] routing logic.
7. Can your platform speak to custom objects and custom fields within the CRM system?
8. Can calls be routed based on CRM data? If yes, is this native to your platform? Will custom
development be required? Please explain.
9. Please describe, for both inbound and outbound calls, your platform’s ability to auto-create
new records, populated with relevant details from call/caller with our CRM.
10. Define expected implementation time.
11. Describe any pre-built automations you have with our CRM.
12. How do you handle custom integrations?
13. Do you have a public API? Provide API documentation and specific examples of how your
product API will meet our integration needs.
14. Can you support look up and identify by account/contact/lead phone number ("Caller ID")
within [CRM Name]? Can you highlight if it is a VIP customer, name, and account when they
call?
15. Please confirm and explain your platform’s support for manual entry of customer ID or
customer phone number in [CRM Name].
16. Please confirm and explain your platform’s support for customer verification via designated
"PIN" code within [CRM Name].
17. Describe the sync between your telephony platform and current business applications in
scope.
18. Describe "Single-Sign-On" support for reps through [CRM Name] and other business
applications.

ADDITIONAL OUT-OF-THE-BOX INTEGRATIONS (E.G. SLACK)


1. What additional out-of-the-box integrations does your platform provide to other business
applications (e.g., Slack, WFM tools, etc)? Please list the applications and the respective
levels of effort required for the integration to be enabled.

TELEPHONY FUNCTIONALITY REQUIREMENTS


1. Describe capabilities for cold transfer, warm transfer, agent/customer interaction while on
hold with alternate department/person.
2. Does your platform offer call recording capabilities? Where are the calls stored? How long
can we retain our call recordings? Are there any fees associated with call recording storage?
3. Does your platform offer QA for call recordings?
4. What type of live monitoring capabilities does your platform offer?

[Company Name] Contact Center Platform RFP Company Confidential | 8


ROUTING CAPABILITIES
1. Please summarize your Voice portal / Interactive Voice Response (IVR) offering, in particular
the flow designer.
2. What skills are required to create and modify routing flows?

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
1. Please summarize your use of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and/or Natural
Language Processing functionality.

CUSTOMER SURVEYING - CSAT


1. What type of post-call survey functionality do you offer through your platform?
Please explain the channels leveraged and the settings we can select from for frequency, etc.
2. What is the typical response rate you receive?
3. Can you customize the questions asked in the post-call survey?
4. How and where is survey data stored? Can we report on the results within our CRM?
Please explain.
5. Can we set up triggers to alert management when poor survey results are submitted for
follow-up? Please explain.
6. Can the surveys system adapt if you have more advanced survey needs?

PERSONALIZATION CAPABILITIES
1. Does your platform allow for click-to-call dialing from a mobile app or website? What data can
be shared from the app/website with the agent so they can have more information about the
customer journey before a call begins? Please explain.

ADMIN AND CONFIGURATION CAPABILITIES


1. How does an admin user make changes to IVR flows and configurations?
Please provide a screenshot of the user interface and walk through the typical process.
2. How often is Professional Services from your company needed to help us make IVR
configuration changes? How long does this typically take? What is the cost of supporting
these changes?

REPORTING / ADVANCED REPORTING


1. Describe reporting capabilities, especially "real-time" call-center metrics and ability to
integrate real-time data with CRM and other business systems (e.g., BI Tools, WFM Tools,
Slack, etc).
2. Describe what KPI dashboards are native to your telephony solution and provide screenshots
of the dashboards for Supervisors or Managers.
3. Please describe the process of building and running reports from a user perspective.

[Company Name] Contact Center Platform RFP Company Confidential | 9


QA / VOICE ANALYTICS
1. Does your platform offer voice analytics for call quality monitoring and coaching purposes?
Please describe the capabilities of the platform and the integration into the telephony and/or
CRM solution.
2. Do you offer any scorecard functionality for scoring and providing standardized feedback on
call monitoring activity for agents? Please describe the capabilities and how it is integrated
into the telephony platform.
3. What type of screen recording capabilities does your platform offer?

OMNICHANNEL
1. To what extent does the agent desktop support management of interactions consistently
across channels, including email, social, text, chat and messaging?
2. Can interactions in digital channels be logged onto CRMs or other systems of record?
3. Is it possible to view team-wise trends of digital channels traffic and performance metrics in
the form of visualizations?
4. Is it possible to trigger proactive web chat messages based on customer attributes like
Current Page URL or Time Spent on Page, as well as HTML events such as On Click or On
Change, directly on the business’ website?
5. Is it possible to elevate a chat to a phone call?
6. Is it possible to manage queue priority based on predefined rules?
7. Can messages from customers be escalated automatically when they ares not responded to
in a timely manner?
8. Is it possible to create templates so that agents don’t waste time writing the same answers?

SELF SERVICE
1. How well does the CCaaS solution provide self service across touchpoints? What capabilities
are there to utilize AI to enhance self-service capabilities?
2. Are self-service capabilities supported across all customer touchpoints?
3. Do applications (e.g., IVR flows) require professional services to create/modify or can
administrators manage these changes independently?
4. Is additional self-service functionality available through your partner ecosystem?
5. Is data generated during self-service interactions automatically made available to agents
when customers request live support?

AGENT VIRTUAL ASSISTANT


1. How does the solution support the development and implementation of an AI based agent
desktop assistant? Does the solution incorporate an embedded knowledge base to support
the virtual assistant?

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
1. Please summarize your knowledge management offering.
2. Does the offering fully integrate with the CCaaS platform?
3. Does the offering seamlessly integrate with other contact center tools, such as agent
assistants and virtual agents?

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4. How does the offering leverage AI to assist authors in the creation and continuous
improvement of articles?
5. Does the offering integrate with communities to quickly act on customer and agent feedback?
6. To what extent does the offering leverage natural language processing (NLP) to assist agents
and customers in finding relevant knowledge quickly?
7. Does the offering provide the ability to clearly separate internal and external knowledge?

WFM/WFO
1. Is your WFM/WFO natively built on the platform you are proposing?
2. Does your WFM/WFO solution integrate out-of-the-box with your telephony platform? Please
describe the implementation requirements and level of effort/time/resources required to
execute.
3. Do you offer real-time agent status and schedule adherence monitoring? Does this integrate
with Slack or any applications for notifications?
4. Please describe the capabilities to schedule and forecast on an hourly basis (by day of week)
the call volume trends and staffing requirements.
5. Do you offer a portal where agents and supervisors can request, approve, collaborate on
scheduling needs?

OUTBOUND
1. Do you offer native predictive dialing? Describe its capabilities.
2. Do you offer preview and power dialing? Describe their capabilities.
3. Do you offer proactive notifications (agentless dialing)? Describe its capabilities.

REMOTE AND MOBILE AGENT WORKFORCE


1. Please describe how your platform supports remote/work-from-home agents.
2. Please summarize your mobile support capabilities for agents.

PARTNER ECOSYSTEM
1. Does your platform have a partner ecosystem of additional functionality and offerings pre-
integrated with the solution that we can add over time? Please explain the process
of adding and implementing partner capabilities, including payment/provisioning.
2. Do you offer trials of the partner solutions to see if they meet our needs and requirements?

Cost

PRICING INSTRUCTIONS
Based on the information provided in this Request For Proposal, please provide your recommended
system configuration, pricing, and any other relevant recommendations for your company.

The following items must be easily identified for analysis:


1. Recommended configuration and price (up front and recurring). Pricing should be inclusive of
all VoIP Communications System services, licenses, and software, as well as any interface

[Company Name] Contact Center Platform RFP Company Confidential | 11


software required to the LAN, voice carriers, and EHR systems); and should clearly identify
the cost of support and maintenance. If there is a step function in pricing, please be clear at
what point each step occurs and what drives each pricing step.
2. The vendor is responsible for identifying and providing the functionality and cost of each line
item. The vendor must identify both one-time non-recurring charges like implementation and
setup fees as well as ongoing costs including but not limited to maintenance, support,
licenses, and software upgrades.
3. Pricing must include installing and configuring all software proposed for your solution.
4. Please note your ability to meet the timeline for implementation as outlined in the
implementation section.

COST VS BENEFIT ANALYSIS


Use this section of the RFP to identify ways your technology, people, and processes will help
us create a business case. What are typical areas of inefficiency you see in contact center
organizations prior to implementing your platform (e.g., manual processes around reporting,
WFM and agent workflows; but we encourage you to get more granular than that)? How will your
technology eliminate each inefficiency you see? How much time do you see your technology saving
us with each inefficiency you identify? Please note which feature/capability you believe will eliminate
each inefficiency you identify. In addition, please highlight any additional benefits your technology can
provide beyond cost savings.

Vendor References

Please provide three (3) existing customer references. Customer references will only be contacted
during the final stages of the vendor selection process. [Company Name] will inform vendors of its
intent to contact references before any such contacts are made.

COMPANY REFERENCE 1

Company Name Insert Name

Company Address Insert Address

Company Industry Insert Industry

Company Contact Insert Contact

Company Contact Email Insert Email

Company Contact Telephone Insert Telephone

Company Contact Title Insert Title

How long on System? Insert Duration

[Company Name] Contact Center Platform RFP Company Confidential | 12


COMPANY REFERENCE 2

Company Name Insert Name

Company Address Insert Address

Company Industry Insert Industry

Company Contact Insert Contact

Company Contact Email Insert Email

Company Contact Telephone Insert Telephone

Company Contact Title Insert Title

How long on System? Insert Duration

COMPANY REFERENCE 3

Company Name Insert Name

Company Address Insert Address

Company Industry Insert Industry

Company Contact Insert Contact

Company Contact Email Insert Email

Company Contact Telephone Insert Telephone

Company Contact Title Insert Title

How long on System? Insert Duration

[Company Name] Contact Center Platform RFP Company Confidential | 13

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