National rail enquiries contact centre service 2012

The proposed contract(s) primarily concern(s) services for the provision of inbound contact centre operation(s) for National Rail Enquiries to provide passenger train service information.

UK-London: call centre

2012/S 24-039454

Contract notice – utilities

Services

Directive 2004/17/EC

Section I: Contracting entity

I.1)Name, addresses and contact point(s)

Train Information Services Limited
40 Bernard Street
For the attention of: Penny Bousfield
WC1N 1BY London
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 2088702458
E-mail: penny.bousfield@atoc.org

Internet address(es):

General address of the contracting entity: www.nationalrail.co.uk

Further information can be obtained from: Train Information Services Limited
40 Bernard Street
For the attention of: Penny Bousfield
WC1N 1BY London
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 2088702458
E-mail: penny.bousfield@atoc.org
Internet address: www.nationalrail.co.uk

Specifications and additional documents (including documents for a dynamic purchasing system) can be obtained from: Train Information Services Limited
40 Bernard Street
For the attention of: Penny Bousfield
WC1N 1BY London
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 2088702458
E-mail: penny.bousfield@atoc.org
Internet address: www.nationalrail.co.uk

Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to: Train Information Services Limited
40 Bernard Street
For the attention of: Penny Bousfield
WC1N 1BY London
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 2088702458
E-mail: penny.bousfield@atoc.org
Internet address: www.nationalrail.co.uk

I.2)Main activity

Railway services

I.3)Contract award on behalf of other contracting entities

Section II: Object of the contract

II.1)Description

II.1.1)Title attributed to the contract by the contracting entity:

National rail enquiries contact centre service – 2012.

II.1.2)Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of performance

Services
Service category No 27: Other services
Main site or location of works, place of delivery or of performance: The services will be delivered to railway passenger service users in the UK. Service delivery location is not limited to the UK. TISL will consider potential alternative service delivery models including, for example, Homeworking.
NUTS code UK

II.1.3)Information about a public contract, a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system (DPS)

The notice involves a public contract

II.1.4)Information on framework agreement

II.1.5)Short description of the contract or purchase(s):

The UK national railway network, which includes some 2 500 stations, operates around 24 000 mainline passenger services daily for approximately 3 000 000 passengers. Following privatisation of the UK national railway network in 1995, the UK mainline passenger services are operated by franchise holders, of which there are currently 19. National rail enquiries is an integral part of the UK railway network by being the passenger train operators’ initial customer contact point for the provision of independent national rail travel information.
The proposed contract(s) primarily concern(s) services for the provision of inbound contact centre operation(s) for National Rail Enquiries to provide passenger train service information. It is currently estimated that the service to be provided will need to respond to around 4 000 000 calls per year with an Average Handle Time of around 180 seconds per call.
The service provider will provide the general public with: information on train services, including timetables, fares and promotions, real time running information and service interruptions; the NRE customer relations service via phone, e-mail and white mail; first line technical support for new media services; bookings and payments for passengers requiring assistance at stations; all other associated data connected with UK rail travel.
The selected supplier will be required to provide and equip the service location(s) and recruit, train and manage the workforce.
Services must be provided:
In English, minimum Level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), 364 days per year, 24 hours per day, By inbound phone, via TextBox for hearing-impaired passengers via e-mail from National Rail web site contact forms via white mail to support customer relations activities.
The service provider must be able to receive data electronically and access databases via secure IP links, and have the capability to host third party applications, in order to utilise the UK rail industry-accredited standard data sources and systems to deliver the services.
A detailed service specification will be provided with the contract documentation at the ITT stage.
Development of the services. As a major provider of customer information National Rail Enquiries continuously assesses its operations, channels and information provision in order to optimise customer satisfaction at best value. The scope of the service(s) and the manner of their delivery may change during the term of the contract. Stringent quality standards will be established and will need to be monitored.
TISL may require additional services which are deemed to be necessary for the provision of the main services and may be procured from the existing provider following negotiation provided that such negotiation does not fundamentally alter the terms of the initial contract.

II.1.6)Common procurement vocabulary (CPV)

79512000, 64210000

II.1.7)Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

II.1.8)Information about lots

II.1.9)Information about variants

II.2)Quantity or scope of the contract

II.2.1)Total quantity or scope:

II.2.2)Information about options

Options: yes
Description of these options: It is intended that the initial term of the service contract will be for a minimum of 3 years plus up to five one-year extensions.
.

II.2.3)Information about renewals

This contract is subject to renewal: no

II.3)Duration of the contract or time limit for completion

Duration in months: 36 (from the award of the contract)

Section III: Legal, economic, financial and technical information

III.1)Conditions relating to the contract

III.1.1)Deposits and guarantees required:

Respondents will need to demonstrate their ability to finance the cost of the provision of the contact centre and to provide adequate financial guarantees.

III.1.2)Main financing conditions and payment arrangements and/or reference to the relevant provisions governing them:

III.1.3)Legal form to be taken by the group of economic operators to whom the contract is to be awarded:

Joint and several liability for group and consortia tenders. Responses from groups of companies or consortia of companies must identify one member of such group or consortia to be the contracting entity.
Any respondents requiring the collaboration of third parties must identify this in their response.

III.1.4)Other particular conditions:

The performance of the contract is subject to particular conditions: no

III.2)Conditions for participation

III.2.1)Personal situation of economic operators, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers

Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: (1) All candidates will be required to produce a certificate or declaration demonstrating that they are not bankrupt or the subject of an administration order, are not being wound-up, have not granted a trust deed, are not the subject of a petition presented for sequestration of their estate, have not had a receiver, manager or administrator appointed and are not otherwise apparently insolvent.

III.2.2)Economic and financial ability

Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: (1) All candidates will be required to provide a reference from their bank;
(2) All candidates will be required to provide evidence of relevant professional risk indemnity insurance;
(3) All candidates will be required to provide a statement, covering the 3 previous financial years including the overall turnover of the candidate and the turnover in respect of the activities which are of a similar type to the subject matter of this notice;
(4) All candidates will be required to provide statements of accounts or extracts from those accounts relating to their business.

III.2.3)Technical capacity

Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: (1) A statement of the candidate’s average annual number of staff and managerial staff over the previous 3 years;
(2) Details of the educational and professional qualifications of their managerial staff; and those of the person(s) who would be responsible for providing the services or carrying out the work or works under the contract;
(3) A statement of the principal goods sold or services provided by the supplier or the services provider in the past 3 years, detailing the dates on which the goods were sold or the services provided; the consideration received; the identity of the person to whom the goods were sold or the services were provided;
(4) An indication of the proportion of the contract which the services provider intends possibly to subcontract.

III.2.4)Information about reserved contracts

III.3)Conditions specific to services contracts

III.3.1)Information about a particular profession

III.3.2)Staff responsible for the execution of the service

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)Type of procedure

IV.1.1)Type of procedure

Negotiated
Some candidates have already been selected (if appropriate under certain types of negotiated procedures): no

IV.2)Award criteria

IV.2.1)Award criteria

The most economically advantageous tender in terms of the criteria stated in the specifications or in the invitation to tender or to negotiate

IV.2.2)Information about electronic auction

IV.3)Administrative information

IV.3.1)File reference number attributed by the contracting entity:

IV.3.2)Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

IV.3.3)Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents

IV.3.4)Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate

23.2.2012 – 16:00

IV.3.5)Language(s) in which tenders or requests to participate may be drawn up

English.

IV.3.6)Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender

IV.3.7)Conditions for opening tenders

Section VI: Complementary information

VI.1)Information about recurrence

VI.2)Information about European Union funds

VI.3)Additional information:

Respondents to this notice are required to identify:
A proven track record of delivery of similar scale contact centre operations in which they are directly involved as main contractor or sub-contractor, including annual volumes handled and details of sector.
A proven experience of successful management of the migration of similar call volumes.
A proven experience of successful management of high demand volatility.
A proven ability to provide the services specified in this notice.
Ownership of or access to existing high performance contact centre infrastructure and systems to enable the rapid development and efficient operation of the service, including (but not exhaustively) remote monitoring with screen and call recording for quality management purposes, workforce management and reporting capabilities.
The relevant infrastructure to interface with the cable & wireless telecommunications network and storm mass call handling platform.
Tested business continuity procedures.
How they intend to develop the service for full operation within three months of contract award.
Existing quality accreditation or adherence to relevant quality standards.
Robust quality and contact centre management processes to secure efficiency, quality and customer satisfaction over the life of the contract.
That the service contract to be tendered for does not represent more than 20 % of the part of the respondents’ annual turnover that is derived from contact centre contracts.
Summary financial information for not more than 3 years of contact centre operations.
A location in the UK to support the management of the contract, irrespective of the service delivery locations.
Experience of designing and developing different and innovative solutions to meet and achieve commercial and technical objectives.
Current or recent experience of handling inbound information provision contacts.
Contract award criteria:
Respondents should provide an outline request to participate, of not more than 8 A4 pages, including the details of their compliance with the above qualification criteria. Such response must be sent by e-mail to penny.bousfield@atoc.org and a Registered post hard copy to the address set out at 1 above. If you require confirmation of receipt of your request to participate please provide full contact details including an e-mail address.

Suppliers will be selected on the basis of their response to the qualification requirements set out in this notice; in the event they are qualified to proceed to the next stage, they will be invited to participate in a pre-qualification RFI (request for information) process, following which successful candidates will be invited to participate in a full ITT (invitation to tender) process and be issued with full RFP and contract documentation, on the basis of which negotiation will be carried out in one or more rounds.
The contract(s) will be awarded on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender on the basis of certain detailed conditions which specify what is meant by “the most economically advantageous” bid which will be set out in the ITT.
TISL reserves the right not to accept any tender.
While email communication is acceptable only hard copies of any documents received by registered mail or delivered by hand will constitute formal and binding communication for the purpose of this notice.
Respondents who best meet the qualification criteria at any stage in the processes described above may be invited to attend a briefing in London, UK, or via a remote webinar/online Q&A session at which further information about the parameters of the service will be advised. A set of further pre-qualification documents may be issued at or following the briefing.
(MT Ref:85492).

VI.4)Procedures for appeal

VI.4.1)Body responsible for appeal procedures

VI.4.2)Lodging of appeals

VI.4.3)Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained

VI.5)Date of dispatch of this notice:2.2.2012