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.