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FEDERAL RETIREMENT THRIFT INVESTMENT BOARD ANNOUNCES SELECTION OF FIRM TO PROVIDE PARALLEL CALL CENTER AND SUPPORT SERVICES
Washington, D.C. (June 20, 2005) – The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board announced today that it has selected SI International of Reston, Virginia, to provide a new parallel call center and support services to the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) for Federal employees. The selection was made through a competitive procurement. The new call center will complement current services provided by a call center located in Cumberland, Maryland, which is operated by Spherix, Incorporated.
The RFP required that the parallel call center be located within the United States but outside a 250 mile radius of the Cumberland facility. The SI International site will be located in Clintwood, Virginia.
Each of the two centers will provide disaster recovery relief for the other. This arrangement ensures that callers will continue to receive service in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency at either site.
The term of the contract is one base year, with four one-year options renewable at the Board’s discretion. The contract price for the base plus 4 option years totals $18,116,042. The new call center will initially handle 30% of the current call volume, and eventually handle 50% of all TSP phone traffic.
These services are currently performed by the National Finance Center and are budgeted at more than $12 million a year. Participants will thus save $40 million over current services for the five year life of the contract.
The TSP is a retirement savings plan for Federal civilian employees and members of the uniformed services which is similar to the 401(k) plans offered by many private employers. It was created by the Federal Employees’ Retirement System Act of 1986. As of May 31, 2005, TSP assets totaled approximately $157 billion, and retirement savings accounts were being maintained for more than 3.4 million TSP participants.
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