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Replacement of Corporate Telephony and Contact Centre Environment

Link Group

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Planning

30 Jul 2026 at 15:45

Planning Notice
Summary of the contracting process

Link Group is planning a group-wide replacement for its corporate telephony and contact centre environment. The requirement is for a scalable, cloud-based Contact Centre as a Service platform supporting voice, live chat, messaging, social media and future digital channels. It is intended to provide a single customer view, intelligent routing, real-time operational visibility, workforce engagement and insight across customer journeys. The wider transformation covers housing, repairs, income, complaints, property management, factoring, care and support, advice, employability, development and corporate services. The system will support customer-facing and colleague-facing teams serving tenants, owners, applicants, supported people, partners and other stakeholders across Scotland. Delivery is associated with Link House, 2C New Mart Road, Edinburgh, and the service will operate across Link Group’s Scottish activities.

This is a planned Prior Information Notice and preliminary market consultation, not an invitation to tender or a commitment to award a contract. Link expects to use market feedback to refine its specification, delivery model and procurement strategy before starting the formal competition. A separate contract notice is expected on 2 October 2026. The procurement is planned as a single lot covering the group-wide requirement. Link is exploring technology replacement and service-transformation models, including automation, virtual assistants, artificial-intelligence-assisted colleague support, workforce management and customer-journey redesign. The future solution is expected to address repeat contact, redials, avoidable transfers, misdirected queries, digital self-service, real-time demand management, reporting and access to customer history and knowledge prompts.

This consultation is relevant to suppliers of cloud contact-centre and customer-management platforms, telecommunications, systems integration and managed transformation services. Strong candidates are likely to demonstrate multi-channel CCaaS capability, secure and resilient cloud delivery, intelligent routing, customer-data integration, real-time reporting, workforce management and configurable support for different service models and customer journeys. Experience with automation, virtual assistants, artificial intelligence, self-service and colleague-assistance tools will be pertinent, alongside the ability to integrate fragmented channels and siloed systems. The requirement is group-wide and may involve around 250 to 500 user licences across varied housing, property, care, support and corporate functions. Suppliers can contribute through voluntary market consultation without gaining preferential status in the later competition.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Information

Notice Title

Replacement of Corporate Telephony and Contact Centre Environment

Notice Description

Link Group, the Contracting Authority, is seeking to modernise its telephony and contact management environment as part of a wider customer experience transformation. The requirement is not limited to a like-for-like telephony replacement. Link is seeking to understand how the market can support a move from fragmented channels and siloed systems towards a single, integrated and insight-led contact management platform. The primary objective is to implement a modern, scalable, cloud-based Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) solution capable of supporting seamless multi-channel customer engagement across voice, live chat, messaging, social media and future digital channels. Link is particularly interested in solutions that can provide a single view of the customer, intelligent routing based on customer intent and need, real-time operational visibility, workforce engagement capability and data-driven insight across the end-to-end customer journey. This Prior Information Notice (PIN) is issued solely to initiate a Preliminary Market Consultation exercise. The purpose is to test market capability, understand available delivery models, inform Link's emerging specification and procurement strategy, and explore how suppliers can support both technology replacement and service transformation outcomes, including automation, virtual assistants, AI-assisted colleague support, workforce management and customer journey-led redesign. Link's emerging priorities include reducing repeat contact, redials, avoidable transfers and misdirected queries; improving colleague access to customer history and knowledge prompts; enabling real-time demand management and reporting; increasing digital adoption through automation and self-service; and ensuring that future technology is aligned to priority customer journeys rather than being designed around existing channel structures.

Lot Information

Lot 1

Link Group is a group of social enterprise companies and one of Scotland's largest social landlords. Link Group provides affordable housing, property management, regeneration, advice, financial inclusion, employability, care and support services to a large and diverse customer base across Scotland. Link Group serves more than 20,000 customers and provides housing management services to circa 16,000 tenants in social rented accommodation, including general needs and sheltered housing. The Link Group structure includes a number of related organisations and service areas that collectively deliver housing, property, care, support and community-based services. These include Link Group Ltd, which provides core group functions; Link Group Housing Services, which delivers housing management services for social rented tenants; C~urb, which brings together development, property management, letting, factoring and property maintenance activities; Horizon Housing Association, which provides affordable housing and services that support people with impairments to live independently; Larkfield Housing Association, a community-based Registered Social Landlord in Greenock; LinkLiving, which provides person-centred care, housing support and wellbeing services, and West Highland Housing Association, which provides affordable housing, property management, and maintenance services across the Lorn area and the Inner Hebridean islands of Scotland. The proposed replacement of telephony and contact centre systems is intended to support the wider Link Group operating environment rather than a single isolated service area. The future solution may therefore need to support multiple customer-facing and colleague-facing functions across housing, repairs, property management, factoring, care and support, advice, employability, development and corporate services. The Customer Service Centre (CSC) acts as a primary customer contact function, managing enquiries across housing, repairs, income, complaints and related services. Link also operates specialist customer-facing teams, including services supporting housing applications, registrations, lettings, responsive repairs, planned maintenance, compliance activities and property-related enquiries. These teams collectively support high-volume contact across a broad range of customer journeys. For market-sizing purposes, Link currently anticipates a future licence requirement in the region of 250-500 user licences across the Group, subject to confirmation through future operating model development, service design and multi-skilling activity. Given the scale and breadth of these services, effective contact management is central to Link's ability to provide responsive, accessible and joined-up services to tenants, owners, applicants, private rented sector customers, supported people, partners and other stakeholders. This group-wide context is important because suppliers may be required to demonstrate how their proposed solution can support different operating models, service hours, customer journeys, user groups, reporting requirements, call flows, contact channels and integration needs across Link Group. Link is therefore seeking market insight into solutions that can provide scalable, resilient and configurable contact management capability across the full breadth of the group, while enabling consistent customer experience, improved colleague access to information and better operational insight. Additional information: See Attached Document

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-06d7f3
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/072318-2026
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
Planning Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
Not specified
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

32 - Radio, television, communication, telecommunication and related equipment

64 - Postal and telecommunications services

CPV Codes

32500000 - Telecommunications equipment and supplies

64210000 - Telephone and data transmission services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
30 Jul 20262 months ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
2 Oct 2026Expired
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
Not specified - Not specified
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planned
Lots Status
Planned
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
Link Group
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
EDINBURGH
Postcode
EH14 1RL
Postcode Area
Edinburgh
Country
Scotland
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLM Scotland
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLM1 East Central Scotland
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLM13 City of Edinburgh
Delivery Location
TLM75 City of Edinburgh
Local Authority
City of Edinburgh
Electoral Ward
Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart
Westminster Constituency
Edinburgh South West

Further Information

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

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