Contact Centre Transformation

The Government of Canada, through the work of Shared Services Canada (SSC), is transforming its telecommunications infrastructure in order to:

• provide modern, reliable and secure services with reduced operating costs;
• improve service to Canadians; and
• increase security of information.

One of the telecommunications projects being undertaken is the contact centre transformation initiative.

Objective

The contact centre transformation initiative sets out to modernize the Government of Canada’s call centres. The majority of call centres today provide voice-based services only. However, contact centres are customer service facilities that provide the technology and means for Canadians to contact an agent or an automated self-service system via voice, Web, text, chat and videoconferencing.

The current organization of federal call centres is unnecessarily complex and costly. This initiative will:

• consolidate, modernize and streamline the existing network;
• lower the infrastructure costs;
• result in a consistent quality of service;
• allow Canadians and the Government of Canada to make more effective use of available technology; and
• result in a more efficient use of resources for operating and maintaining the infrastructure.

The Government of Canada’s call centres handle more than 100 million calls every year. The new call centre infrastructure designed to update contact centre services will serve all departments and agencies across the country and will be deployed over the next five years.

Benefits to Canadians

While some federal call centres provide services to departments and agencies within the Government of Canada, 70 percent of the call centres to be modernized deliver programs and services directly to Canadians. For example, Service Canada, Canada Revenue Agency and Citizenship and Immigration Canada assist many Canadians through their call centres. This initiative will allow the Government of Canada to enrich the ways Canadians can access services by providing a multimedia user experience. Canadians and federal government employees will be able to access the services they need in more ways than they could before the transformation initiative: via voice, Web, text, chat and videoconferencing. The transformation will also improve the efficiency of these services and reduce costs.

Information Technology sector engagement

Through industry engagement, SSC identified best practices for the design, implementation and operation of contact centre services. SSC followed a collaborative procurement process to engage the telecommunications industry in designing and providing these services for the Government of Canada. From the initial Industry Engagement Day in September 2013, through various stages in the procurement process, qualified companies provided feedback to support the design of the transformed services while ensuring best value to Canada. This partnership approach has allowed for planning and clarification, from the beginning, to support a successful implementation.