Outsourced Contact Centre and Business Services

Access contact centre solutions including people, technology and consultancy and business services including HR, source-to-pay, payroll and financial accounting.

Description

Ideal for organisations who need to outsource services for contact centre solutions and back office functions. This agreement is available to:

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

You can access Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to:

  • streamline processes
  • maximise value provided through your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems

Lot 1: Contact Centres

Provides flexible and scalable fully outsourced contact centre services, inclusive of inbound and outbound contact capabilities for the public sector. You can access services such as:

  • provision of information, products and services
  • sending information to other citizens and industry

The agreement covers new and innovative ways of accessing contact centre services including, but not limited to:

  • web chat
  • social media
  • online services
  • voice/agent contact

Organisations can also access Transformation Consultancy if they need support with transforming and modernising their interactions with citizens and industry. Transformational Consultancy is only available as part of the service as a whole.

Lot 2: Business Services

Provides specialist support for the outsourcing of common back office functions including:

  • Human Resources (HR)
  • financial accounting
  • payroll
  • source-to-pay

Case study: learn how two local councils became more efficient by implementing a revenues and benefits service partnership using lot 2 business services.

This agreement 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 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Contact Centre suppliers to make sure there is a competitive supply of services
  • 3 available routes to market: further competition, further competition with dialogue and direct award
  • we have included Expression of Interest (EOI) for both further competition and further competition with dialogue to refine the list of suppliers at main tender stage
  • promotes price transparency and flexible charging structures that will encourage competition
  • supports organisations to reduce manual and human led processes and enhance user experience through robotic process automation
  • uses the CCS public sector contract with updated terms aligned to the principles of the Cabinet Office Sourcing Playbook
    • we have evaluated social value at agreement level in line with PPN 06/20
  • opportunities to optimise workflow across many contracts to manage high and low periods of activity for contact centre services

Products and suppliers

Please read the 'How to buy' tab below for detailed instructions on how to find out which suppliers are on this framework.

How to buy

To use this agreement you will need approval from your organisation and 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 you will need to contact the Commercial Continuous Improvement Team.

As a minimum, the commercial spend controls should apply at Outline Business Case, which usually takes place before formally engaging with the market. Spend controls might also apply at full business case, which is usually the contract award recommendation stage.

Before undertaking any competitive process, we recommend taking part in extensive pre-market engagement. This will help to refine your needs and minimise procurement risk.

There are three ways to buy from this agreement. These are:

  • further competition
  • further competition with dialogue
  • direct award

For further competitions you can also use an expression of interest (EOI).

EOIs allow you to share your needs with agreement suppliers to understand the level of interest. You do not need to invite any suppliers to the main tender who do not respond or decline their interest. Or, you can run a competition with all agreement suppliers, without including an EOI stage.

Before running a further competition or direct award, you will need to complete the following documents:

  • call-off schedules
  • joint schedules

You can find the call-off schedules and joint schedules individually listed in the documents section below.

We advise you to follow your own internal processes and seek your own legal advice when selecting which optional schedules are relevant to your specific needs.

You can find more information about the different buying options in the customer guidance.

You can use your own eSourcing system to run your procurement, or you can use 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 ensure you familiarise yourself with the further competition procedure as set out in framework schedule 7. As an overview, you should:

  1. take part in pre-market engagement with suppliers to help you define your needs (optional but recommended)
  2. identify your needs and develop your specification (make sure your specification is detailed and includes timescales)
  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 including deadline for tender submission
    1. this can be done by email or through your preferred e-Sourcing tool
  5. evaluate supplier responses, making sure that you evaluate all suppliers equally and fairly
  6. award your contract by signing framework schedule 6: order form
  7. provide unsuccessful suppliers with written feedback on why their tenders were unsuccessful using the unsuccessful supplier letter
  8. publish your contract on contracts finder for transparency purposes

Direct award

To direct award under this agreement you should ensure you familiarise yourself with the direct award procedure set out in framework schedule 7. As an overview, you should:

  1. clearly define your needs by developing your specification
  2. develop your direct award 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 Contracts Finder

Direct awards will be priced based on maximum agreement rates. You should consider whether you can get better value for money through an accelerated competition before awarding a direct award.

For more detailed information, read our customer guidance document. Or you can contact the category team. They will be able to provide ‘on the shoulder’ support to help you with your needs.

Documents

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) became Government Commercial Agency (GCA) on 1 April 2026. Documents published before this date may still refer to CCS. All contract documents remain valid for existing and new contracts, and there are no changes to how you work with us.

Case study

Transforming out of hours services through outsourcing

Welwyn and Hatfield and Broxbourne Borough Councils revenues and benefits service partnership

UK Health Security Agency: single service centre

Open University – Resource Augmentation

 

  1. RM6181 Buyer guide
  2. RM6181 List of schedules
  3. RM6181 Expression of interest (EOI) template
  4. RM6181 Bid pack template: attachment 1 about the procurement competition
  5. RM6181 Bid pack template: attachment 2 how to bid including evaluation criteria call off only
  6. RM6181 Bid pack template: attachment 3 statement of requirements
  7. RM6181 Terms and conditions overview
  8. RM6181 PSC outsourcing core terms v2
  9. RM6181 Joint schedule 1 (definitions) v.1
  10. RM6181 Joint schedule 2: variation form v.3.1
  11. RM6181 Joint schedule 3: insurance requirements v.3.1
  12. RM6181 Joint schedule 4: commercially sensitive information v.3.1
  13. RM6181 Joint schedule 5: corporate social responsibility v.3.2
  14. RM6181 Joint schedule 6: key subcontractors v.3.1
  15. RM6181 Joint schedule 7: financial difficulties v.1
  16. RM6181 Joint schedule 8: guarantee for PSC v3.3
  17. RM6181 Joint schedule 9: minimum standards of reliability v.3.3
  18. RM6181 Joint schedule 10: rectification plan v.3.0
  19. RM6181 Joint schedule 11: processing data v4.2
  20. RM6181 Joint schedule 12: supply chain visibility v.1.0
  21. Download all joint schedules
  22. RM6181 Call-off schedule 1: transparency reports v3.7
  23. RM6181 Call-off schedule 2: staff transfer v3.3
  24. RM6181 Call-off schedule 3: continuous improvement v3.0
  25. RM6181 Call-off schedule 4: call off tender v3.1
  26. RM6181 Call-off schedule 5: pricing details v3.1
  27. RM6181 Call-off schedule 6: ICT services v3.4
  28. RM6181 Call-off schedule 7: key supplier staff v3.1
  29. RM6181 Call-off schedule 8: business continuity and disaster recovery v1.0
  30. RM6181 Call-off schedule 9: security
  31. RM6181 Call-off schedule 10: exit management
  32. RM6181 Call-off schedule 11: installation works v3.0
  33. RM6181 Call-off schedule 12: clustering
  34. RM6181 Call-off schedule 13: implementation plan and testing v.1
  35. RM6181 Call-off schedule 14: service levels v3.2
  36. RM6181 Call-off schedule 15: call off contract management v3.1
  37. RM6181 Call-off schedule 16: benchmarking v3.2
  38. RM6181 Call-off schedule 17: MOD terms v3.1
  39. RM6181 Call-off schedule 18: background checks v3.0
  40. RM6181 Call-off schedule 19: Scottish law v1.0
  41. RM6181 Call-off schedule 20: specification v3.0
  42. RM6181 Call-off schedule 21: Northern Ireland law v.1.0
  43. RM6181 Call-off schedule 22: lease terms v.1.1
  44. RM6181 Call-off schedule 23: HMRC terms
  45. RM6181 Call-off schedule 24: supplier furnished terms v1.0
  46. RM6181 Download all call off schedules
  47. RM6181 Framework schedule 1 (specification)
  48. RM6181 Framework schedule 2: framework tender v.3.0
  49. RM6181 Framework schedule 3: framework prices v.2.
  50. RM6181 Framework schedule 4: framework management v3.4
  51. RM6181 Framework schedule 5: management charges and information v.4.6
  52. RM6181 Framework schedule 6: order form template and call-off schedules v3
  53. RM6181 Framework schedule 7: call off award procedure v3
  54. RM6181 Framework schedule 8: self audit certificate v.3.1
  55. RM6181 Framework schedule 9: cyber essentials scheme v.3.2
  56. RM6181 Download all framework schedules
  57. RM6181 Case study London borough of Sutton council
  58. RM6181 Case study for lot 2 business services
  59. RM6181 Case study – UK Health Securty Agency Single Service Centre
  60. RM6181 Case study: Open University