How responses are scored
Each requirement carries a priority, which you can change. Default weights: a must-have counts three times as much as a should-have, and a nice-to-have is recorded but carries no weight. These defaults have no published source, so set your own. Weighted coverage is the credit a vendor earns over the weight of the requirements it answered. A requirement a vendor left unanswered is left out of its score and listed as a clarification to send back; it is never counted as a zero. A vendor is ordered only when it meets or conditionally meets every must-have and has no must-have left unanswered, and vendors within 5 points share a position. Only the vendors you enter are ordered, on your data.
Rules and bands
| Response | Credit | Meets a must-have |
|---|
| Native, generally available | 1 | Yes |
| Add-on, generally available | 1 | Yes |
| Through a partner | 0.5 (default, no published source) | Yes, with the ownership questions below |
| Preview, beta or early access | 0 | No |
| Roadmap | 0 | No |
| Not available | 0 | No |
Preview, beta, early access and roadmap capabilities earn no credit: a capability that is not generally available cannot be relied on in production, however soon it is promised.
| Finding | Raised when | Severity |
|---|
| Must-have not available | A vendor answered not available on a must-have. | Critical |
| Must-have not generally available | A vendor answered preview, beta, early access or roadmap on a must-have. It earns no credit until it is generally available (GA), meaning released and supported for every customer. | High |
| Must-have met through a partner | A vendor meets a must-have only through a partner. | Medium |
| Response to clarify | A vendor left a requirement unanswered. It stays out of the score until answered, and it never counts as a zero. | Medium |
| Must-have claim to verify | A vendor claims a must-have is generally available and it has not been seen working in a demo. | Medium |
| Add-ons to price | A vendor meets requirements through paid add-ons. | Insight |
| Too close to call | Two vendors' weighted coverage is within 5 points. | Insight |
| No vendor covers a layer | No vendor meets every must-have in a layer with a generally available capability. | Medium |
| Where the choice is decided | Must-haves that some vendors meet and others do not. | Insight |
The next move is Vendor Match before any vendor is scored, Platform Decision when no vendor covers a layer, License Bundle Gap when vendors meet requirements through add-ons, and Contract Risk Scanner once vendors are ordered.
Every requirement
L7 Analytics + Governance
| Requirement | Default priority | Included for |
|---|
| Real-time operational dashboards with customizable KPIs | Must Have | Core Requirements |
| AI-powered quality management evaluating 100% of interactions | Must Have | Enterprise, Quality Focus |
| Speech and text analytics with sentiment and topic detection | Should Have | Core Requirements |
| Compliance recording with role-based access and audit trails | Must Have | Regulated |
| WFM forecasting within 5% accuracy at interval level | Must Have | Workforce |
| Closed-loop feedback from analytics into routing and coaching | Should Have | Enterprise |
| Custom reporting API with data export in standard formats | Should Have | Core Requirements |
| AI model performance monitoring and drift detection | Nice to Have | AI + Automation |
L6 Routing + Orchestration
| Requirement | Default priority | Included for |
|---|
| Skills-based routing with weighted multi-attribute matching | Must Have | Core Requirements |
| Intent-driven routing using AI classification of customer need | Should Have | AI + Automation, Enterprise |
| Dynamic priority based on customer value, wait time, and predicted complexity | Should Have | Enterprise |
| Cross-channel routing preserving context between voice and digital | Must Have | Digital Channels |
| Real-time queue management with intraday adjustment without admin intervention | Should Have | Workforce |
| Callback scheduling with estimated wait time communication | Must Have | Core Requirements |
| Overflow and failover routing with configurable business rules | Must Have | Core Requirements |
L5 Conversation Management
| Requirement | Default priority | Included for |
|---|
| Unified voice and digital channels from a single platform | Must Have | Core Requirements |
| Agent desktop consolidation, under 3 applications for full interaction handling | Should Have | Core Requirements |
| Cross-channel context continuity (chat-to-phone preserves full history) | Must Have | Digital Channels |
| WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, RCS, and SMS messaging channels | Should Have | Digital Channels |
| Co-browse and screen sharing for complex issue resolution | Nice to Have | Enterprise |
| Async conversation management with SLA tracking | Should Have | Digital Channels |
| Video support for high-value or complex interactions | Nice to Have | Enterprise |
L4 Reasoning + AI
| Requirement | Default priority | Included for |
|---|
| IVA or chatbot with natural language understanding across voice and digital | Must Have | AI + Automation |
| Real-time agent assist with suggested responses during live interactions | Should Have | AI + Automation |
| Knowledge AI with RAG grounding on enterprise data sources | Should Have | AI + Automation, Enterprise |
| AI-generated interaction summaries and auto-disposition | Should Have | AI + Automation |
| Autonomous task execution (booking, cancellation, status change) as well as text generation | Nice to Have | AI + Automation |
| Guardrails preventing hallucination, off-topic responses, and policy violations | Must Have | AI + Automation |
| Human escalation with full AI conversation context transferred to agent | Must Have | AI + Automation |
L3 Policy + Guardrails
| Requirement | Default priority | Included for |
|---|
| PCI DSS compliance with payment tokenization or pause/resume recording | Must Have | Regulated, payments |
| HIPAA BAA with PHI encryption at rest and in transit | Must Have | Healthcare |
| FedRAMP High authorization | Must Have | Government |
| SOC 2 Type II certification current within 12 months | Must Have | Core Requirements |
| GDPR and CCPA compliance with data subject request handling | Must Have | Regulated |
| Role-based access control with SSO/SAML integration | Must Have | Enterprise |
| Data residency options for geographic compliance requirements | Should Have | Enterprise, Regulated |
| AI decision audit trails for customer-facing automated actions | Should Have | AI + Automation, Regulated |
L2 Workflow Execution
| Requirement | Default priority | Included for |
|---|
| End-to-end workflow automation for top 10 contact types | Should Have | Core Requirements |
| CRM integration with real-time read/write (Salesforce, ServiceNow, Dynamics, HubSpot) | Must Have | Core Requirements |
| API-triggered workflows from external events, as well as from the user interface | Should Have | Enterprise |
| Cross-system data writes: one agent action updates billing, CRM and case systems at the same time | Should Have | Enterprise |
| Workflow versioning and rollback capability | Nice to Have | Enterprise |
| Low-code workflow builder that business users can use without a developer | Should Have | Core Requirements |
L1 Data Access + Infrastructure
| Requirement | Default priority | Included for |
|---|
| 99.99% uptime SLA with financial credits for breaches | Must Have | Core Requirements |
| BYOC (Bring Your Own Carrier) support for existing telephony relationships | Should Have | Enterprise |
| Open API architecture with rate limits sufficient for production integration | Must Have | Core Requirements |
| Event streaming or webhooks for real-time interaction signals | Should Have | Enterprise |
| CDR and interaction data export in standard formats (CSV, JSON, API) | Must Have | Core Requirements |
| Multi-region deployment for disaster recovery and data residency | Should Have | Enterprise, Regulated |
| SSO, SCIM provisioning, and directory integration | Must Have | Enterprise |
Vertical requirements
Added as must-haves when you choose the vertical; you can change their priority.
Healthcare
- HIPAA BAA with PHI encryption
- EHR integration (Epic, Oracle Health, athenahealth)
- Patient identity verification across channels
- Appointment scheduling and referral management workflows
Financial Services
- PCI DSS Level 1 with tokenization
- Core banking integration (FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry)
- Identity verification with multi-factor authentication
- FFIEC and GLBA compliance documentation
Government
- FedRAMP High authorization
- Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility
- CJIS compliance for law enforcement use cases
- StateRAMP authorization for state and local agencies
Retail + eCommerce
- Commerce platform integration (Shopify, BigCommerce, commercetools)
- Seasonal elastic scaling (8-10x volume without pre-provisioning)
- Order management system integration for real-time status
- Returns automation workflow
Insurance
- Policy admin integration (Guidewire, Duck Creek)
- Claims FNOL automation through IVA
- State insurance regulation compliance
- Separate routing for service and claims tracks
Telecom
- BSS/OSS platform integration
- Carrier-grade 99.999% availability
- CPNI protection compliance
- Complex IVR support (100+ nodes)
What this tool cannot tell you
- Scores come from what vendors answered in your RFP. A claim stays a claim until you see it working in your own scenarios, in the demo or on reference calls.
- Coverage is weighted by your priorities. It measures how well a platform fits your requirements. It says nothing about the platform's quality in general.
- The weights, the partner credit and the tie margin are defaults with no published source. Set your own if your evaluation differs.
- It orders only the vendors you entered, on your data. It never adds, removes or ranks a vendor on its own.