With this procedure, the contribution service is looking for a service provider who, on the one hand, continues to guarantee accessibility via the existing service numbers from all German fixed and mobile networks and, in principle, from abroad, as well as the secure, targeted and efficient distribution and processing of calls in the call center network of the contribution service with the shortest possible waiting times for the caller with optimal capacity utilization of the call center network. On the other hand, customer orientation and efficiency of the telephone service are to be increased by using technological potential and closer integration with the CRM system of the contribution service.

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The service to be procured with this objective includes:

1. the porting and connection of the existing service numbers and the routing of these numbers in the IN service (Intelligent Network);

2. the distribution and control of incoming calls in a call center network with a heterogeneous PBX environment by means of an ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) located in the network. The network currently comprises four external service providers at currently seven locations as well as the central location of the contribution service;

3. the implementation and integration of a powerful, state-of-the-art IVR (Interactive Voice Response) component, which enables targeted control and automated processing of various customer requests even after the contributor has been identified;

4. the implementation of an intelligent verification procedure that takes into account agent availability, expected waiting time for callers and status of the IVR (e.g. number of callers in the IVR, current turnaround times) regulates the acceptance or rejection of a call before Connect;

5. the implementation and integration of a recall management system;

6. an end-to-end connection to the proprietary CRM system of the contribution service "RUBIN" by means of a defined interface, via which data can be exchanged, for example, in the context of IVR use and agent control.

The solution to be implemented must contain comprehensive tools and options for monitoring and intraday control of the call center network, administration and configuration of the system components involved, as well as flexible role and rights management. For reporting purposes, comprehensive statistical data - primarily basic data for further consolidation and processing in-house - must also be provided. The system to be deployed as a whole must meet high requirements for availability and compliance.

In 2022, the contribution service processed approx. 2.7 million calls and approx. 800,000 faxes via the service numbers. In addition to the aforementioned figures, the number of calls processed by the IVR was approximately 350,000. Conversations peaked at 1 million minutes per month and 70,000 minutes per day. The proportion of calls with mobile subscribers was around 62% by 01.12.2022. The proportion of calls from abroad is clearly negligible at < 1% (an average of 700 minutes per month).

The contribution service assumes that the number of accepted calls and faxes will tend to decrease in the coming years. At present, however, it is still assumed that an average of at least 2.5 million calls and 400,000 faxes p.a. (max. 4 million calls and 800,000 faxes p.a.) will be accepted over the entire term. Furthermore, it is assumed that about 20 percent of the calls will be processed by the IVR.

The contribution service guarantees a minimum annual volume of calls of at least 2.5 million calls and 400,000 faxes p.a. during the entire term of the contract and assumes a maximum annual volume of up to 4 million calls and 800,000 faxes p.a. per year. This maximum quantity is expressly not guaranteed.

The IVR component to be deployed must map the following functions and features, among others:

- Language and dialect support

- Dialogoptionen (Randomized Prompting, Divergentes Exception Handling, Barge in, Hotwords)

- Speech input and recognition (input variants and holistic dialogs, structured input formats)

- Sprachausgabe (Ansageelemente (Voice Prompts), Synthetische Sprachausgabe (Text-to-Speech,TTS),

These functions are to be implemented within the framework of concrete use cases of "call pre-processing". After specifying the request or narrowing down the request from a selection of clustered topics, either an automated processing of the request in the IVR should be provided and/or a qualification of the caller should take place. Accordingly, a distinction is made between three use cases or case groups:

- Automated processing without caller qualification

- Caller qualification and targeted control

- Caller qualification and automated processing.

The applicant must implement the following use cases of the type "Automated processing without caller qualification", which correspond to the status quo:

- Announcement menu for specific service numbers:

- Announcement for the reason for the postal notification

- Announcement of information regarding the contribution number

- Announcement of exemption from the obligation to pay contributions

- Announcement of connection with the service team

- Announcement menu standard for all other service numbers:

- Announcement of the bank details of the contribution service

- Announcement of the postal address of the contribution service

- Announcement of information regarding the contribution number

- Announcement of connection with the service team

At this point in time, the contribution service cannot yet conclusively determine the scope of a potential expansion of the IVR component beyond the status quo (i.e. specific use cases to be implemented). Therefore, the contribution service expressly reserves the right to implement and implement further use cases during the contract period to a maximum of 50 person-days (PT/maximum quantity without purchase obligation).

It is intended to conclude a framework agreement with the most economical bidder with a fixed term of 4 years and the possibility of a one-time extension for a further 12 months (hereinafter also referred to as "extension option") on the same terms.

The framework agreement is concluded when the contract is awarded. The start of the service is the first of the month following the award of the contract, but at the earliest on 01.05.2024.

With the start of the service, an implementation phase is initially planned to establish the operability of the entire system, including connection network operation and network ACD, along with the other system components (capacity testing procedures, IVR, CTI, recall management). The implementation phase lasts a maximum of 12 months.

As soon as this implementation phase is completed, the contractor has to take over the operation of the entire system.

If and to the extent that the maximum implementation period of up to one year is not required, the operation of the entire system is also possible at an earlier point in time.

Further details for the provision of the entire service can be found in the tender documents, in particular the terms of reference, which will be made available to all suitable candidates after the end of the competition.