ATO goes to market for contact centre solution

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has released a tender to engage a single service provider to deliver a managed service including the provision, implementation and transition and ongoing managed services for an Interactions Centre Solution (ICS).

The ATO interacts with many different groups of taxpayers through phone, web chat, correspondence and face-to-face contacts, and has the desire to interact with the community through modern interaction channels.

The new Interaction Centre Solution will aim to deliver an improved community and taxpayer experience; enhanced ATO staff support and capacity; smarter work management; service continuity assurance; enriched data and insights; and strengthened workforce engagement and management.

The ICS Service Provider will be tasked with delivering Transition In services to implement and manage a modern solution comprised of a set of products, applications, infrastructure and services that will provide a cohesive, scalable and multi-channel interaction platform.

The ATO has used Genesys technology as the core Contact Centre platform since 1999 and it currently services between 15-20 million assisted taxpayer interactions per year (via phone and other channel interactions).

The ATO Contact Centre serves as the ATO’s primary channel for engaging with the community to provide support and guidance on tax obligations and to support the Commonwealth’s revenue collection. 

Genesys formally announced in 2024 that the core of the incumbent solution, Genesys Engage, will be at end of operation and no longer available after 31 December 2028. 

The new solution is to be delivered in two tranches, the first of which involves the Transition In of the solution and managed services.

This will not only ensure continuity of service by procuring and implementing a solution to support interactions and address the incumbent solution end of operation risk by December 2028, but also establish strategic foundations for the solution functionality delivered before December 2028, ensuring it can seamlessly scale to new users and business processes after that date without requiring rework.

Tranche 2, which seeks to implement additional interactions capabilities by June 2031, will support the ATO with delivery planning for continuous capability development including finalising scope, scheduling, design and governance process activities; expand on the foundational capabilities of the solution; and uplift the Managed Services to support operations and future changes to the enhanced solution.

The closing date of the tender is 2 March 2026 at 2:00 pm (ACT Local Time).