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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 01:00

OJEU - F1 - Prior Information Notice
Summary of the contracting process

Link Group plans to replace its corporate telephony and contact centre environment as part of a wider customer experience transformation. The requirement is for a scalable, cloud-based Contact Centre as a Service solution covering 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 platform may support housing, repairs, property management, factoring, care and support, advice, employability, development and corporate services across Link Group. Users will include tenants, owners, applicants, supported people, partners and other stakeholders. The service will be delivered across Link Group’s operations in Scotland, with the main location at Link House in Edinburgh. This is a services requirement, with an anticipated future scale of around 250 to 500 user licences.

This procurement is at the planning stage and is currently a preliminary market consultation, not a call for competition. Link Group is seeking supplier views on market capability, delivery models, service transformation, emerging requirements and procurement strategy, using a questionnaire and possible Microsoft Teams briefings. Participation is voluntary and will not determine eligibility for the later competition. The consultation is expected to inform a future specification and formal tender, with a further notice anticipated on 2 October 2026. No contract will be awarded through this exercise. The intended procurement concerns one group-wide requirement rather than separate service lots. Link’s priorities include automation, virtual assistants, AI-assisted colleague support, workforce management, self-service, real-time reporting and customer journey redesign. Future evaluation will follow the formal tender documents.

This will suit suppliers with an established cloud contact-centre platform and experience delivering complex, multi-channel customer service transformations. Relevant capability includes voice, live chat, messaging and social-media integration; customer relationship and case-management integration; intelligent routing; customer history and knowledge prompts; automation and virtual assistants; AI-assisted colleague support; workforce management; operational dashboards and reporting. Suppliers should be able to demonstrate scalable, resilient and configurable services supporting different teams, operating models, service hours, customer journeys, call flows and user groups. Experience in housing, repairs, property management, care, support or other high-volume public-facing services would be relevant. The buyer is looking beyond like-for-like telephony replacement, so providers able to link technology implementation with service redesign, reduced repeat contact and increased digital self-service will be well placed to prepare for the future tender.

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.. See Attached Document

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-r6ebe6-0000838193
Publication Source
Public Contracts Scotland
Latest Notice
https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JUL561273
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
OJEU - F1 - Prior Information 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

Notice Documents

  • https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/NoticeDownload/DownloadDocument.aspx?id=JUL561273&idx=2
    30th July 2026 - Link Group Telephony and Contact Centre PIN Questionnaire
  • https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/NoticeDownload/DownloadDocument.aspx?id=JUL561273&idx=1
    30th July 2026 - Link Group - requirements overview and information about the current systems
  • https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JUL561273
    Replacement of Corporate Telephony and Contact Centre Environment - 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.

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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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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