GSA earlier this month introduced the following new SIN in the Information Technology Schedule IT70
Automated Contract Center Solutions SIN 132-20
This SIN for automated services will include but will not be limited to Artificial Intelligence (AI), Chat Bots, Robotic Process Automation, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Voice/Speech Recognition, Text-to-Speech, Voicemail, Callback, Web Callback, Email Delivery, Hosted Online Ordering, Hosted Email Web Form, Hosted FAQ Service, etc.)
The goal of this new SIN is part of the new philosophy at GSA that has been put in place over the past few years. “If you are looking at what GSA is enabling it’s not goods, it’s not services, its solutions.”GSA Administrator Emily Murphy
Why I think this is a big deal? The Federal Government incurs approximately $17.5B per year on contract center services to field calls and deal with inquires. AI, Chat Bots and the like are emerging technologies that greatly reduce those costs. Before now GSA IT70 was not setup in a solutions driven context so it would be far more difficult for an agency wanting to search for providers of solutions in this area to determine who the players are. Now knowing this information and having cost saving solutions will simply be a few key strokes away.
GSA IT70
The General Services Administration has introduced a special item number for contact center products and services on the IT Schedule 70 acquisition vehicle.
GSA said Monday the Automated Contact Center Solutions SIN allows government agencies to procure multiple offerings from pre-vetted contact center service providers through a single contract.
ACCS will also support GSA’s Center of Excellence for Contact Centers, which assist agencies in reforming federal contact centers and the delivery of civilian services.
Bill Zielinski, acting assistant commissioner for category management at GSA, said emerging technology such as artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and chatbots can help the public sector manage customer service.
GSA rolled out the ACCS category in accordance with the President’s Management Agenda, which calls for federal agencies to adopt customer service approaches similar to that of industry.
