Outsourced Services

Access to transformational citizen experience and business process solutions. Including people, technology and transformational advisory services delivering contact centres, process administration, HR, procurement, payroll and financial administration.

Description

This agreement is for organisations that need to outsource contact centre solutions and back office work.  It is available to:

  • all central government departments
  • arm’s length bodies (ALBs)
  • devolved administrations
  • the wider public sector
  • third sector organisations

Through this agreement, you can access transformational services that use people and technology. This includes the use of robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) to:

  • make processes faster and simpler
  • get more value from your enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems

The agreement helps organisations use new and modern technology. It supports your staff so they can work more efficiently and provide more cost-effective services for citizens.

You can also get surge capacity services and transformation advice. These services can help you update and improve how you work with citizens.

Read our case study to learn how two local councils became more efficient by using modern technology to improve revenues and benefit services.

RM6295 Outsourced Services will run for 4 years. We recommend a call off term of up to 7 years to maximise the value from outsourcing services. There is no minimum call off length.

Benefits

  • a wide range of citizen experience and business process outsourcing (BPO) suppliers to make sure there is a competitive supply of services
  •  our  first agreement to be let under the Procurement Act 2023. It lets you use a range of flexible buying options, including award without competitionsimple rate card structure that supports:
    • people and digital agent pricing
    • rates available for working time
    • available time and productive time to promote price transparency 
    • flexible charging structures to encourage competition
  • helps organisations  reduce manual work and improve user experience through digital services
  • clear and simple Call-Off terms 
  • opportunities to manage peaks and dips in demand by improving workflow across outsourced services

Products and suppliers

There are 27 suppliers on this agreement

Lot 1: Citizen Experience
Provides contact centre solutions and process administration services.This includes full inbound and outbound contact handling, workflow support, and operational activities delivered by human agents and digital tools.

Expires:

21 suppliers

Lot 2: Business Services
Includes all aspects of back office services. Including payroll, financial administration, human resources and procurement processes. These can be delivered by both human staff and digital services.

Expires:

13 suppliers

How to buy

To use this agreement you will need approval from your organisation and the Cabinet Office. Commercial spend controls apply to all commercial activity with a value of £10 million or more, excluding VAT.

Some organisations have a higher spend threshold for commercial controls. To confirm the spend threshold for your organisation contact the commercial continuous improvement team.

Before running any competitive process, we recommend strong pre-market engagement. This will help refine your needs and reduce procurement risk.

All buying options allowed under the Procurement Act 2023 are available through this framework. You can also use the award without a competition process..

For other competitions you can also run an expression of interest (EOI).

EOIs let you:

  • test supplier interest before launching a full competition

Suppliers who do not respond, do not need to be invited to tender. You can also run a competition with suppliers without using an EOI. 

Before running a further competition or an award without competition, you must complete:

  • call-off schedules
  • joint schedules

These documents are listed in the documents section. You should follow your internal processes and seek legal advice when choosing which schedules you need. 

You can use your own eSourcing system or our eSourcing tool.If this is your first time using our eSourcing suite, you will need to register an account.

If you have already registered, sign in to your eSourcing account.

Read guidance on the eSourcing tool.

Further competition

To run a further competition under this agreement you should follow the process  in Framework Schedule 7. You should:

  1. Take part in pre-market engagement to define your needs (optional but recommended).

2. Identify your needs and develop your specification, including timelines. 

3. Complete your further competition documents, such as:

    • attachment 1: about the further competition
    • attachment 2: how to bid and evaluation criteria
    • attachment 3: statement of requirements (specification)
    • attachment 4: cost model
    • attachment 5: order form and terms and conditions

4. Issue further competition and set the deadline for tender submission.

    • by email or through your preferred e-Sourcing tool

5. Evaluate all responses fairly.

6. Award your contract by signing Framework Schedule 6: order form.

7. Give unsuccessful suppliers written feedback explaining why they were not selected.

8. Publish your contract on the portal for transparency

Award without competition

If you want to make an award without competition, you must follow the procedure in Framework Schedule 7. You should:

  1. Clearly define your needs and create your specification.
  2. Set your award without competition criteria.
  3. Evaluate supplier proposals against the direct award criteria.
  4. Award your contract by signing Framework Schedule 6: order form.
  5. Publish your contract on the portal.

Awards without competition will use the maximum agreement rates. You should consider whether a short competition could give you better value for money before choosing this route.

For more detailed information, you can read the customer guidance document. Or you can contact the category team. They can provide support and guidance as needed.Agreement pricing request

To request pricing fill out a pricing rate card.  Rate cards can be requested by emailing info@crowncommercial.gov.uk from your .gov email address.

Documents