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RFP Package · Enterprise Applications

Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCaaS) RFP questions and template

132 questions, 10 demo scenarios and a five-vendor scorecard for choosing Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCaaS) software, in one Excel workbook.

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What this package is for

Use it to run a Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCaaS) software selection, from the first long list to the final scorecard.

What the category covers. Software that runs an organization's calling, messaging, meetings and rooms on one platform: PSTN connectivity and numbers, emergency calling, cloud PBX, channels, webinars, room devices, AI transcription, external collaboration, and the retention and eDiscovery that cover all of it. Bought by IT, telecom and workplace leaders replacing a PBX and separate chat and meeting tools.

A selection usually runs in three rounds. The package has questions for each:

  • RFI, to the long list. 28 questions screen out products that lack something you need.
  • RFP, to the shortlist. 73 questions ask how each product does the work.
  • Deep dive, to the finalists. 31 questions ask for proof on your own data.

10 demo scenarios tell each vendor what to load and what to show, so every product does the same work in front of you. 80 due-diligence questions cover security, integration, implementation and exit. The scorecard weights the answers and ranks up to five vendors.

Each question comes with why it matters, what a good answer looks like and the red flags, so the people scoring the replies know what to look for.

3 questions from the package

From the RFI round. The first shows part of the guide each question carries; the workbook adds follow-ups, how to verify the answer, a priority and a weight.

1. For each PSTN connectivity model your product supports (calling plans where you are the carrier, carrier-integrated connections run by third-party operators, bring-your-own-carrier SIP trunking), state whether it is generally available today.

Why it matters. The connectivity model decides who the carrier of record is, who handles porting and carrier faults, and which countries the buyer can serve. A product that supports only one model can force a carrier change at every site.

Good answer
  • Names each supported model separately and gives its general-availability status
  • Separates generally available models from those in preview or beta
  • Points to a dated service description that matches the answer
Red flags
  • Describes "PSTN calling" without saying which connectivity model it uses
  • Lists preview or roadmap models as available
  • Gives no availability status for one or more models

2. Provide a matrix showing, for each country in [countries] and each PSTN connectivity model you support, whether users can place emergency calls on your platform.

Why it matters. Emergency calling support often differs by country and by connectivity model. A gap found after design means the buyer must keep legacy lines at those sites or change the connectivity model late in the project.

3. List every destination an auto-attendant menu option can send a caller to, such as a user, a call queue, another auto-attendant, a shared voicemail box or an external number.

Why it matters. If an auto-attendant cannot reach a destination type that the buyer's current call tree uses, that branch must be redesigned or dropped before cutover. External callers notice the change first.

Capability areas

PSTN Connectivity & Number Management (11)

PSTN connectivity models (provider calling plans, carrier-integrated, bring-your-own-carrier SIP trunking), country coverage, number porting, temporary-number bridging and number inventory across the buyer's sites. Excludes call-routing features and emergency calling, which have their own areas.

Emergency Calling & Location (8)

Emergency calling for office, teleworker and mobile users: dynamic location capture, address validation, notification of on-site staff, routing to the correct answering point, and per-country emergency-calling equivalents. Excludes general call quality and failover.

Call Control & Telephony Features (13)

Cloud PBX depth: auto-attendants, call queues and hunt groups, call park, transfer, call flip across devices, delegation, shared lines, voicemail, paging, overhead and analog endpoints, and certified desk phones. Excludes contact-center routing, covered under administration and convergence.

Voice Resilience, Network & Media Quality (9)

Local survivability, secondary PSTN routes, live-call behavior during a path or region failure, network and QoS requirements, local breakout, low-bandwidth fallback for calls and meetings, and per-call quality diagnostics. Excludes contractual uptime and general disaster recovery, covered by cross-cutting modules.

Messaging, Channels, Search & Notifications (12)

Direct and group messages, threads, mentions, rich content, channels (private, announcement, archived, templated), channel permissions, notifications and focus controls, message and file search, people directory, and feature parity across desktop, web and mobile clients including offline mobile. Excludes retention and eDiscovery of message content.

Meetings, Webinars & Large Events (13)

Scheduled and ad hoc meetings, host and lobby controls, dial-in and browser join, breakout rooms, whiteboard, meeting chat continuity, recording consent notices, end-to-end encrypted meetings and their feature limits, and webinars or large events with registration and attendee controls. Excludes AI summaries and room hardware.

Meeting Rooms & Devices (8)

Room systems, certified room and desk hardware, cross-platform room interoperability (joining meetings hosted on another platform), device provisioning, firmware management and device health monitoring. Excludes desk phone call features, covered under call control.

Suite, Files & Workflow Fit (16)

Fit with the productivity suite, calendar and file storage the buyer already runs: scheduling with free/busy, file sharing with channel permissions, version history, co-editing, presence sync, tabs, bots, no-code workflows, business-application notifications, and administrator approval of third-party apps. Generic API availability, SSO and SCIM belong to the integration module.

AI Meeting & Call Assistance (10)

Transcription with speaker names, live captions and translation, meeting and call summaries, action-item capture, message translation, recall across past meetings, and whether the assistant works on meetings hosted on other platforms. Excludes general AI governance, safety and AI cost tracking, which separate AI modules cover.

External Collaboration & Federation (8)

Guest access scoped to named channels with expiry, shared channels between organizations, domain allow and block lists, labeling of external participants, chat and presence federation with other platforms, and cross-platform meeting join. Excludes room interoperability, covered under rooms and devices.

Recording, Retention & eDiscovery (12)

Compliance recording of calls and meetings, retention policies across chat, files, recordings, transcripts and voicemail, legal hold, eDiscovery search and export, data loss prevention, information barriers, mobile app data controls, and the administrator audit trail. Excludes certifications and the vendor's own data-handling terms, covered by cross-cutting modules.

Administration, Analytics & Contact-Center Convergence (12)

Single admin console, dial plan management, user, number and device lifecycle, policy assignment at scale, adoption and usage reporting without message content, call-quality analytics, and how contact-center seats share presence, routing, transfers and reporting with UC users. Excludes implementation services.

Demo scenarios

Each scenario lists the data to load before the demo, then the steps to show, and the questions it scores.

  1. Port our test numbers and answer them
  2. Teleworker places a test emergency call from home
  3. Lose a PSTN route and WAN link mid-call
  4. Kick off a project with an outside partner
  5. Run an all-hands webinar with translated captions
  6. Join another platform's meeting from our room
  7. Summarize a meeting and a call, then restrict it
  8. Place a custodian on legal hold and export
  9. Agent warm-transfers a customer call to an expert
  10. Onboard a new hire, then offboard them

Due diligence

The workbook carries the screening questions from these modules. Each module is also sold on its own.

Questions about this package

How many Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCaaS) RFP questions are there?

132 solution questions in 12 capability areas: 28 for the RFI, 73 for the RFP and 31 deep-dive questions for the finalists. The workbook adds 80 due-diligence questions on security, integration, implementation and exit.

What comes with each question?

Why it matters, good-answer signals, red flags, follow-up questions, how to verify the answer (a demo step, a test or a document), and a suggested priority and weight for scoring.

Can I edit the questions?

Yes. The workbook is an ordinary Excel file. Change, add or remove questions, and change the weights; the scorecard recalculates.

Which license do I need?

The Enterprise License covers any number of evaluations inside one organization. The Consultancy License covers use with any number of clients. Neither allows reselling or republishing the questions.

Before you shortlist

The buyer guide compares the products in this category and what decides between them.

Buyer Guide
Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCaaS)

For the business side of the same change: