M met rd Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.. Request For Information IT RFI NO. IT-IVR/JF Date: December 5, 2014
Date: December 5, 2014 SUBJECT: RFI No. IT-IVR/JF Dear Sir/Madam: The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority f'nmata) is conducting market research for the purposes of identifying sources who have demonstrated capabilities in the area of creating an interactive self-service system that is accessible to customers via telephone. The system should be intuitive and easy to use without the need to train customers and should provide answers to the most frequently asked questions that Metro receives via its Customer Information telephone line such as next bus arrivals, trip planning, schedules, and fare information. The system should be able to interact with customers in a way that mimics natural conversation and should have support for languages in addition to English. It should also be able to overcome obstacles such as ambient noise as a large number of calls to our information services are made from noisy locations. Additionally, the system should have the ability to adapt quickly to a changing environment and call type and be scalable for the purposes of implementing new functionality should we wish to expand to further call types in the future. If you have any questions, Technical, Contractual, or Administrative, please e-mail them to WWW@wmata.com no later than 12:00 p.m. EST on December 11, 2014. WMATA will provide written answers, by e-mail to all those who obtain the RFP and provide their e-mail addresses. Your responses must be received with all required submittals as stated in the RFI, no later than 12:00 p.m. EST on December 19, 2014 at WMATA, Office of Procurement and Materials, 600 Fifth Street, NW, Room 3C-02, Washington, DC 20001-2651or via email at bkpadeh@wmata.com. sfa/~ Jdl L Contracting Officer Office of Procurement and Materials Enclosure: Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA)-RFI IT-IVR/JF
RF~ No. IT-!VR/JF INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION. RFI CERTIFICATIONS PAGE (RFI NUMBER: IT -IVR/JF IT APPROVED FOR RELEASE 111iam R. Walters, Jr Contracting Officer END OF SECTION Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA) - RFI IT IVR/JF
Request for lnfonnation (RFll Disclaimer: This is not a solicitation. This is not a request for quote (RFQ), invitation for bid. (IFB), request for proposal (RFP), request for application (RFA) or an announcement of a solicitation i;ind does not assume the Authority or Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMA TA) will award a contract or proceed with any of the above solicitations in the near future. The information requested herein is for information purposes and does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that a procurement action will be issued or awarded. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect cost or charges by WMA TA will arise as a result of the submission of Information. All information considered proprietary shall be marked accordingly. The Authority shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for any improperly identified proprietary information. Properly identified proprietary information will be safeguarded In accordance with Authority regulations. The purpose of this announcement is solely to gather information from the market place and any responses received will not be considered offer by he responding party and cannot be returned. No telephone or email requires will be accepted and requests for solicitation packages will not granted, as no solicitation has been prepared at this time. Synopsis: Request for Information (RFI) All responsible businesses' responses will be considered by the Authority. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts or quotations. The authority main objective is to find a vendor that will create an IVR that delivers an excellent customer experience in terms of navigability, voice recognition, information processing, and solution delivery. The main objective is to create an interactive self service system that is accessible to customers via telephone. The system should be intuitive and easy to use without the need to train customers and should provide answers to the most frequently asked questions that Metro receives via its Customer Information telephone line such as next bus arrivals, trip planning, schedules, and fare information. The system should be able to interact with customers in a way that mimics natural conversation and should have support for languages in addition to English. It should also be able to overcome obstacles such as ambient noise as a large number of calls to our information services are made from noisy locations. Additionally, the system should have the ability to adapt quickly to a changing environment and call type and be scalable for the purposes of implementing new functionality should we wish to expand to further call types in the future. No solicitation of offers is made by this synopsis. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Authority in determining the appropriate acquisition method. The Authority will not be obligated to provide the services described herein and it is understood by the Authority that the cost estimates provided as a result of this request are "besr estimates only. Submissions will be kept confidential. Confidentiality All information included in this RFI is confidential and only for the recipient's knowledge. RFI Procedure Vendors responding to this RFI shall fill in the attached form, Appendix A. Responses must adhere to this format. Proposers shall contact Benjamin Kpadeh via email at bkpadeh@wmata.com if they have questions regarding this RFI no later than Close of Business on December 11, 2014 at 12:00 p.m. EST (US and Canada). WMATA will Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA) - RFI IT-IVR/JF Page 1
provide written responses by posting answers to the questions on WMATA website and email to all those who obtained the request for information (RFI) and provided their email addresses. Delivery of Responses Please submit your response via email to the attention of Contract Administrator (CA), Benjamin T. Kpadeh at bkpadeh@wmata.com on or before December 19, 2014at12:00 p.m. EST (US and Canada). The response shall be submitted as Microsoft Word document, no Version higher than Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 or in Adobe Acrobat pdf format in reference to Appendix A. It is the Offeror's responsibility to ensure it arrives by the required date and time. For the purpose of establishing timely receipt of responses, the time will be established based upon the electronic copy submission. Delivery of Responses Proposers are to submit a formal response In reference to the attached Appendix - A form in word or pdf format via email to bkpadeh@wmata.com. Contact Benjamin T. Kpadeh Contract Administrator Office of Procurement & Materials Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) 600 5 111 Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 Email: bkpadeh@wmata.com Tel: 202-962-2478 Introduction and Puroose of the RFI The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Customer Service, Communications, and Marketing department is looking signficantly improve the customer experience and self service resolution rate from the IVR in two departments. 1. Customer lnfonnation is responsible for answering a high volume of general information questions, trip planning, fares, etc. (More than 1.5 million contacts per year.) 2. Customer Relations is responsible for providing first line response to customer feedback, suggestions, complaints, and commendations. Escalates those not resolved to the appropriate department. This is not a request for offers but only a request for Information. A determination not to issue a solicitation based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). Background The existing IVR system is voice enabled and consistently achieves a 55 percent to 60 percent self service resolution rate. It provides trip planning, real time vehicle arrivals, and answers to frequently asked questions. However, the system is based on aging technology that is no longer the most effective at meeting customer experience expectations. Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA)- RFI IT-IVR/JF Page2
Ob!ectlves The main objective is to create an interactive self seivice system that is accessible to customers via telephone. The system should be intuitive and easy to use without the need to train customers and should provide answers to the most frequently asked questions that Metro receives via its Customer Information telephone line such as next bus arrivals, trip planning, schedules, and fare information. The system should be able to interact with customers in a way that mimics natural conversation and should have support for languages in addition to English. It should also be able to overcome obstacles such as ambient noise as a large number of calls to our information seivices are made from noisy locations. Additionally, the system should have the ability to adapt quickly to a changing environment and call type and be scalable for the purposes of implementing new functionality should we wish to expand to further call types in the future. RFI Guidelines Please note that this is for INFORMATIONAL and PLANNING purposes only and does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP). Responses to this RFI will not be accepted by WMATA to form a binding contract. WMATA will not pay for the information solicited nor recognize any costs associated with the submission of the RFI. The purpose of this RFI is to provide an opportunity for industry to enhance the success of any future procurement to meet this requirement. Any information obtained as a result of this RFI is intended to be used by the Government on a nonattributlon basis for program planning and acquisition strategy development. Please be brief in your answers. If a particular answer; however, is best presented as an attachment you may do so. Place of Performance Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority 600 5th Street, NW Washington, District of Columbia 20001 United States Contracting Office Address Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority 600 5th Street, NW Washington, District of Columbia 20001 United States Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA)-RFI IT-IVR/JF Page3
Appendix-A Please Provide the Following Information: Please provide additional information for any questions. You can provide additional information for questions as a word document/pdf. 1 Company name 2 Company address 3 Company website 4 Main Products/Services 5 Main Market/Customers 6 Ownership structure with ownership status in percentage 7 Structure of mother corporation, joint ventures, subsidiaries, partnerships or other relevant relations Table 1. Vendor Company Details and References: 8 Financial Information Last year turnover 9 Company Location(s} 10 Environmental management system(s) 11 Quality management system(s) 12 Describe your business continuity management 13 Employees 14 Production 15 R&D Last year gross margin Last year profit Stock markets where your company is listed Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA) - RFI IT-IVR/JF Page4
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Marketing & Sales Quality Department Capacity conditions today Anticipated capacity conditions within 12 months Conditions that's listed in the RFI and can't be met Description of products or services that are already delivered to customers today, and could be comparable to what is requested in this RFI POC for this RFI Name Email Address Phone Number Fax Number List your government agency references below 23 24 25 Federal Government agency customer #1 Federal Government agency customer #2 Federal Government agency customer #3 Name and the description of the product POC-name, email, phone number Name of the agency Name and the description of the product POC-name, email, phone number Name of the agency Name and the description of the product Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA) - RFI IT-IVR/JF Pages
POC-name, email, phone number Name of Agency Table 2. Customer Experience RFl-001CC RFl-002CC RFl-003CC RFl-004CC RFl-OOSCC RFl-004CC RFl-OOSCC RFl-006CC RFl-007CC Is the system voice enabled? If voice enabled does it support natural language speech recognition. Does the system offer a touch tone alternative entry method? For voice enabled systems please provide a percentage accuracy for the speech recognition functionality. What languages in addition to English are available? For prompt recording is a voice artist used? What is the standard turnaround time for updating prompts? Does the system allow for ad hoc emergency prompt recording? Please provide examples of percentages of calls resolved in other similar environments without any human intervention. RFl-OOBCC How is the system able to parse and process speech inputs where the information may be presented differently by customers? (Example an address 2100 Example St may be presented as "Twenty one hundred" or "Two-one-zero-zero" RFl-009CC RFl-OlOCC How does the system handle dialects and accents that may vary by customer? Does the product offer any unique integration capabilities with ACD's other than simply passing a call that needs to be routed to an agent? Table 3. Infrastructure RFI -OOllnF RFI -0021nF RFl-0031nF RFI -0041nF Is the system a hosted solution? If hosted please explain the security features available to protect customer and business critical information. For a hosted solution please provide a general cost of yearly subscription or licensing not including any enhanced support. For a solution that is not hosted please provide general annual maintenance costs and licenses cost/structure (per user or site). Please provide server, database, networking, and client requirements for onpremise solutions. Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA) - RFI IT-IVR/JF Page 6
RFI -OOSlnF RFl-0061nF RFl-0071nF Please provide information on how privacy of WMATA is ensured for hosted solutions from the workstation to the server and the database? Is the database encrypted, if so please describe the encryption method? Please describe how WMATA data privacy is maintained in flight from the user workstation to/from your application infrastructure and between the applic.ation infrastructure components. For both hosted and on-premise solutions, please provide technical (skill-set) support requirements. For hosted solution please provide procedures for backup and disaster recovery. Table 4. Implementation Methodology RFl-0011M RFl-0021M RFl-0031M RFl-0041M Please explain Project Methodology used to implement large scale complex IVR solutions. A sub-set of existing Customer data must be ported over to the new solution. What technique will be used to transform and map the data to the new platform? Is your software proprietary? And if so, what is the process for requesting enhancements or the ability to customize a requirement? How does this impact future upgrades and what are the skill-sets required by in-house staff if the customizations are done onsite? What is the standard implementation timeframe? RFl-OOSIM What would be a general cost of initial implementation for an organization with approximately 1.5 million telephone calls per year for a single language? RFl-0061M RFl-0071M RFl-0081M How is the annual licensing structured? Per call, per port, per IVR attendant? Please list the total number of customers using your solution. Are any of them in the Transit industry? Provide definitions for levels of post implementation support and the general price for each level. Table 5. Reporting RFl-001RPT Describe the reporting functionality available from the system with particular focus on dashboards, standard reports, and the ability to create ad hoc customized reports. Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA)-RFI IT-IVR/JF Page 7