CONTRACT NOTICE – NATIONAL

1 Authority Details

1.1

Authority Name and Address

1.2

Address from which documentation may be obtained

As in 1.1

1.3

Completed documents must be returned to:

As in 1.1

2 Contract Details

2.1

Title

Wales Millennium Centre - Web Chat System

2.2

Description of the goods or services required

Wales Millennium Centre is going through an exciting digital transformation with changes planned that will improve the way the Centre operates and the services it provides.

We are seeking to include live chat functionality within our website and e-commerce channel, as well as the possibility for email integration to ensure a greater overview of digital communications. This could include multiple inboxes and allow agents to switch between web-chat interactions as well as email enquiries as and when required.

The online solution should enable customers to self-serve in addressing enquiries, wherever possible without the need to involve human agents. This may take the form of a dynamic FAQ page where users can type out questions to generate targeted articles and/or take the form of chat bots which respond to customer enquiries, handing over to human agents or providing prompts to contact where an enquiry has not been resolved to the user’s satisfaction.

The solution should offer skills-based routing to human agents based on categorisation of enquiry, with the option for high level users to manipulate and amend these skills groups when required. For example: enquiries concerning the membership scheme automatically assigned to agents trained on memberships.

All customer-facing widgets or pages should be in-keeping with the design of the existing website; ensuring cohesion of design and providing user confidence. There should be the option for customisation in-house, should this be necessary in the future.

Wales Millennium Centre is a proudly bilingual organisation, committed to the Welsh Language Standards which ensure that all our services are accessible in the medium of Welsh. It is essential that at least the front-end of the solution is entirely bilingual in English and Welsh, with agent operations available to be grouped by language choice and directed to the agent with the relevant skill group. We welcome any suggestions from suppliers to develop in this area.

The solution should be able to offer reporting and analysis of sales, self-service usage and agent interactions, with reports which can be easily manipulated and used for internal and external recipients. These should enable minimum tracking of enquiry volumes including: by category, handling time, individual agent performance, customer feedback on process.

We are also open to options which involve inclusion and/or integration with a telephony system which enables agents to take inbound calls from within the same platform. Where telephony is included within the solution, the system must be able to queue-manage high call volumes (up to 160 p/hour) and allow for programmable IVR trees. Wales Millennium Centre welcomes any suggestions to develop and connect our systems in this area.

PLEASE READ THE ATTACHED BRIEFING DOCUMENT ALSO.

NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Sell2Wales Web Site at https://www.sell2wales.gov.wales/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=108790.

The buyer has indicated that it will accept electronic responses to this notice via the Postbox facility. A user guide is available at https://www.sell2wales.gov.wales/sitehelp/help_guides.aspx.

Suppliers are advised to allow adequate time for uploading documents and to dispatch the electronic response well in advance of the closing time to avoid any last minute problems.

2.3

Notice Coding and Classification

2.4

Total quantity or scope of tender

Please quote your terms for supplying your system to meet our needs, valid for the time-period up to September 2021, using Appendix A.

Your price(s) should include all expected expenditure by the tenderer to enable the organisation to go-live, as well as any annual costs. Your bid must include all price elements.

If your solution has sliding scale pricing, based on communication volumes, please clearly outline these.

If your system prices are based on user accounts, please identify your licensing arrangements and terms for locations and types of user. Please include fixed prices for any discrete options, such as additional users.

If the contract is not on fixed pricing terms please indicate any proposed changes to pricing during the term of this agreement, and please indicate your preferred and/or minimum contract term, as well as any mandatory or possible exit charges.

Pricing should be completed in the attached spreadsheet, please also submit your pricing in a PDF or similar format.

Tenderers should provide daily rates and the basis for charging expenses for the following (these will be the maximum rates to be charged for any additional work, including change control that arises during the initial 5 years):

• Project Management

• Software development

• Training/support/documentation

PLEASE READ THE ATTACHED BRIEFING DOCUMENT ALSO.

3 Conditions for Participation

3.1

Minimum standards and qualification required

During these times of uncertainty, particularly within the performing arts, events and hospitality sectors, it is vital that prospective suppliers are in good overall financial and operational health. To this end we will require suppliers to submit their latest financial statements and audited accounts, together with updated cash flow positions and forecasts at the start of this process.

We reserve the right to exclude suppliers that we have reasonable grounds to believe would present a risk to Wales Millennium Centre.

We request the following with your submissions:

Financials

● The audited accounts for the last filing period. Latest unaudited accounts for the latest financial period will be accepted if audited accounts are not yet available.

● Current Management Accounts including:

○ Cash Flow Position & Forecasts

○ Projections on growth, client retention (or loss) and the basis for these

○ Current significant creditors and liabilities, along with when these are due for repayment / negotiations on restructuring these

● Strategies and policies to retain staff with core skills to support your clients and continue to deploy and develop your products

● Please confirm that your business unit and group (if applicable) are a Real Living Wage employer (this is different from paying the National Living Wage)

Compliance & Social Responsibility

Evidence, certification or other documentation relating to

● Personal data security, hosting and other relevant information

● PCI / PA-DSS compliance, audit and certification

● Penetration test certification or other third-party certification of your application and company’s IT security.

● Please provide details of where our data (and that of our customers) will be stored geographically if applicable, as well as a description of the hosting facility and its compliance levels.

Tenderers should also submit their standard terms, conditions and expected duration of agreements with their response.

The terms must be proportionate and reasonable given the scope of this RFP and may be subject to negotiation with the organisation. Please provide costings based on an annual rate and indicate any alternative options that you would consider/advise.

We reserve the right to request reasonable amendments to tenderers terms and conditions. If amendments cannot be agreed between ourselves and the tenderer, the supplier may be excluded from further participation in the process.

PLEASE READ THE ATTACHED BRIEFING DOCUMENT ALSO.

4 Administrative Information

4.1

Type of Procedure

Dual stage

4.2

Reference number attributed to the notice by the contracting authority

N/a

4.3

Time Limits

4.5

Language or languages in which tenders or requests to participate can be drawn up

4.6

Tender Submission Postbox

5 Other Information

5.1

Additional Information

Queries and clarifications on the tender must be directed to: Lawrence Dixon, Customer Insight Analyst lawrence.dixon@wmc.org.uk and Liz Baird, Head of Customer Relations liz.baird@wmc.org.uk

In the interests of equity, any requests for additional information, clarification of content of this document and all other queries of substance must be made in writing by email as above. Any additional information will be made available to all potential vendors/suppliers who have requested to be involved in the tender process.

If you wish, you may provide any additional significant points you wish to make and details of any other advantages you offer within your proposal.

PLEASE READ THE ATTACHED BRIEFING DOCUMENT ALSO.

(WA Ref:108790)

5.2

Additional Documentation

5.3

Publication date of this notice