DE01--ECO Enterprise Service Desk (ESD) Consolidated Effort - RFI (VA-27-00011677)

Request for Information Synopsis Enterprise Service Desk: Integrated Service Delivery Model with Independent Billing and Outcome Oversight 1.0 RFI Synopsis Narrative Background and Purpose The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information & Technology (OIT), Enterprise Command Operations (ECO) is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to conduct market research supporting a planned future acquisition strategy for Enterprise Service Desk (ESD) support and its associated Contact Center Infrastructure (CCI). VA currently operates ESD Tier 0/1 support and CCI as two separate prime contracts under a Multi-Vendor Service Provider (MVSP) model, where the CCI vendor produces independent Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance reporting and conducts formal quality assurance oversight of the Tier 1 vendor's performance. VA is exploring whether and how Tier 1 agent services and CCI platform management could be brought together under an integrated service delivery model, while determining what functions, if any, should remain organizationally independent from the delivery contractor to preserve objective performance, quality, and billing oversight. VA has not determined the appropriate scope or structure of any such independent function and is seeking industry input on whether independence is necessary, which functions require it, and the most effective means of providing it. The primary purpose of this RFI is to hear from industry on how an integrated delivery model would work in practice, i.e., how it would be structured, transitioned, and operated and to use that input, together with the Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimates requested below, to inform the resulting Performance Work Statement (PWS) and VA's decisions on scope, sequencing, and commercial structure. VA recognizes that consolidation may not be the right answer in every respect, and industry input that identifies where a combined model would be impractical, along with the reasoning behind that view, is just as valuable to VA as input on how to make consolidation work. This RFI is not a solicitation and does not commit VA to a particular acquisition approach. One specific issue on which VA would welcome industry input, particularly in the context of a combined model, is how outcomes should be classified if VA adopts outcome-based, automation-linked, or gainshare pricing. Under those pricing structures, the classification of individual contacts (e.g., AI-resolved vs. human-handled, genuinely deflected vs. merely relabeled, successfully automated vs. escalated) becomes the basis for what VA pays. If agent services and CCI are combined, VA wants to understand how a vendor would ensure that the entity performing the work and the entity classifying/reporting the outcome of that work don't create a structural incentive to classify ambiguous or borderline contacts in whichever direction favors billing. VA recognizes that transparent data feeds alone may not fully resolve this on their own, since the vendor typically controls the metadata structure, the correlation logic between systems, and the judgment calls in ambiguous cases. This lines up with feedback VA has already received from industry: multiple respondents to prior VA market research independently flagged the "AI-attempted-then-escalated" correlation and the "resolving tier" determination as fields that are self-reported, consequential to billing, and not easily produced by either vendor alone under the current structure. Given that feedback, VA wants industry's perspective on whether some form of independent validation of billing-relevant outcomes would be useful under a combined model, and if so, how narrowly or broadly it should be scoped. For example, whether it should focus solely on billing/outcome validation, or whether it makes more sense operationally to fold in general quality assurance scoring and day-to-day SLA compliance reporting as well. VA has not settled this question and is not assuming an independent function is necessary at all; VA's own data feeds, combined with automated QA tooling already in production, may prove sufficient on their own. This RFI invites industry input to help VA define the scope of the issue without presupposing a particular outcome. Strategic Direction VA's objective is not simply to combine two existing statements of work. It is to move the ESD operating model from a labor- and channel-centric structure to one organized around demand elimination, unified customer experience, and outcome-based accountability. Specifically, VA is seeking industry's perspective on an operating model that: Eliminates demand rather than optimizing contact handling. The strategic objective is not reducing cost per contact but reducing the volume of contacts that require human involvement in the first place, through AI-assisted self-service, proactive communication, automated fulfillment, and FboNotice-cause elimination. Presents a unified, channel-agnostic experience to the End User. The distinction between phone, chat, portal, and other channels should be invisible to the employee; the service environment, not the caller, determines whether AI, automation, knowledge, or a human agent is the appropriate resolution path. Treats AI and automation as the operating model, not an add-on. The relevant question is which categories of work should never require a human, and how the contractor is held contractually accountable for progressively moving categories of work off human agents. Realigns commercial incentives from resources consumed to outcomes achieved, while recognizing that outcome-based and gainshare pricing models raise the stakes on how outcomes are classified and who classifies them. Current Environment VA's current environment processes approximately 125,000 150,000 contacts per month across voice, chat, SMS, and self-service channels, supports roughly 600,000 End Users and 900 applications, and already has voice biometric verification, IVR-based automation (NICE Autopilot), and Medallia-based automated quality analytics in development or early production. VA's current CCI platform is NICE CXOne. VA is not presupposing that either of these existing tooling investments, the CCI platform or the automated QA platform, necessarily carries forward unchanged into a consolidated structure, and is asking industry to address both explicitly in the questions below. For purposes of responding to this RFI, the current functional baseline includes Tier 0/self-service and Tier 1 multi-channel end-user support, incident and service request intake, triage, resolution, and routing; knowledge management, process integration and new-service intake; workforce management, ACD/IVR and contact routing, contact recording and quality management, contact center platform administration; analytics and reporting; integration with VA's enterprise ITSM environment, customer experience capabilities, identity verification, existing voice AI/IVR automation and evolving enterprise self-service and AI capabilities; transition services; and continual service improvement. VA is interested in industry's perspective on evolving these capabilities toward an omnichannel service model and expanded AI-enabled automation. This description is intended to provide industry with sufficient context regarding the current functional baseline and potential scope under consideration. VA has not determined that all functions identified above will be included within a single future acquisition, nor has VA determined the final allocation of responsibilities among the delivery contractor, VA, other enterprise service providers, or any independent oversight function. Industry is specifically encouraged to identify functions that would benefit from common contractual accountability, as well as functions that should remain separate and the rationale for doing so. What VA Is Asking Industry to Address This RFI asks industry to respond to the questions below based on operational and commercial experience delivering comparable integrated service desk models particularly within federal, security-sensitive, or highly regulated environments, and where outcome-based or automation-linked billing has been implemented. VA's central interest is in how industry would combine Tier 1 and CCI delivery successfully, where industry believes a combined model would not work well, and to understand why to assist in determining the acquisition approach. VA is also interested in candid input on how billing-relevant classifications can be gamed, intentionally or not, and what structural safeguards actually prevent it as opposed to merely documenting it after the fact. This RFI is issued for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute an Invitation for Bid, Request for Task Execution Plan, Request for Quotation or Request for Proposal nor does it restrict the Government as to the ultimate acquisition approach. In accordance with (IAW) Federal…