Phoenix Software Ltd

Azure Bot Service

Interact naturally with your users on websites, apps, Cortana, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Slack, Facebook Messenger etc.

Features

• Accelerates development providing integrated environment
• Outofbox templates including; basic, form, language .
• Cognitive Services recognize user in photos
• Azure Bot Service can be integrated across multiple channels

Benefits

• As per the above

£199.93 a user a month

• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at ccs@phoenixs.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

124471719722475

Contact

Jonny Scott
01904 562200
ccs@phoenixs.co.uk

Service scope

• Service constraints: See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/ to determine applicable constraints based on buyers requirements
• System requirements: See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Between 8 and 1 hour depending on support plan purchased See https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/support/plans/
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: None or don’t know
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: Web chat
• Web chat support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support accessibility standard: None or don’t know
• How the web chat support is accessible: For questions about accessibility with enterprise or commercial products, please visit the enterprise Disability Answer Desk.
• Web chat accessibility testing: For questions about accessibility with enterprise or commercial products, please visit the enterprise Disability Answer Desk.
• Onsite support: No
• Support levels: See https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/support/plans/
• Support available to third parties: No

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: See https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/ plus comprehensive online documentation for various solutions available across the platform. See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/. We also offer free of charge remote best practice guidance from our Azure Engineers called FastTrack for Azure. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/programs/azure-fasttrack/#overview
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Customer are able to remove their data at any time through the same means they uploaded. Either over their network (internet or express route) or via the Azure Import/Export services. Also see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/trustcenter/privacy
• End-of-contract process: Microsoft is governed by strict standards and removes cloud customer data from systems under our control, overwriting storage resources before reuse, and purging or destroying decommissioned hardware. https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/trust-center/privacy/data-management?rtc=1

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Using the web interface: Microsoft Accessibility Conformance Reports show our commitment to accessibility. For enterprise, education, and government professionals, these reports help with procurement decisions and product integration within an organization. Search Reports https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/industry-blog/government/2018/09/11/accessibility-conformance-reports/
• Web interface accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Web interface accessibility testing: See https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/ee460799.aspx
• API automation tools:
  • Ansible
  • Chef
  • SaltStack
  • Terraform
  • Puppet
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • HTML
  • ODF
  • PDF
• Command line interface: Yes
• Command line interface compatibility:
  • Linux or Unix
  • Windows
  • MacOS
  • Other
• Using the command line interface: The Azure command-line interface (Azure CLI) is a set of commands used to create and manage Azure resources. The Azure CLI is available across Azure services and is designed to get you working quickly with Azure, with an emphasis on automation. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/?msclkid=2b50e70aa91311ec9b84e2bb2e192699

Scaling

• Scaling available: Yes
• Scaling type:
  • Automatic
  • Manual
• Independence of resources: We currently have On Demand Capacity Reservation in preview https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/capacity-reservation-overview
• Usage notifications: Yes
• Usage reporting:
  • API
  • Email
  • SMS

Analytics

• Infrastructure or application metrics: Yes
• Metrics types:
  • CPU
  • Disk
  • HTTP request and response status
  • Memory
  • Network
  • Number of active instances
• Reporting types: Real-time dashboards

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: Microsoft

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: None

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations:
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • Other locations
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
• Penetration testing frequency: Never
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: Azure Key Vault & Azure Active Director see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security/fundamentals/encryption-atrest?msclkid=b2f26c8ea91a11ecac8f8d24fb4e36fc
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Backup and recovery

• Backup and recovery: Yes
• What’s backed up: Please see below
• Backup controls: On-premises - Back up files, folders, system state using the Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent. Or use the DPM or Azure Backup Server (MABS) agent to protect on-premises VMs (Hyper-V and VMware) and other on-premises workloads; Azure VMs - Back up entire Windows/Linux VMs (using backup extensions) or back up files, folders, and system state using the MARS agent.; Azure Managed Disks - Back up Azure Managed Disks; Azure Files shares - Back up Azure File shares to a storage account; ; By assigning Azure Policies in Backup Center.
• Datacentre setup: Multiple datacentres with disaster recovery
• Scheduling backups: Users schedule backups through a web interface
• Backup recovery: Users can recover backups themselves, for example through a web interface

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • Private network or public sector network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Other
• Other protection between networks: Microsoft’s approach to enabling two layers of encryption for data in transit is:; ; Transit encryption using Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2. All traffic leaving a datacenter is encrypted in transit, even if the traffic destination is another domain controller in the same region. TLS 1.2 is the default security protocol used. TLS provides strong authentication, message privacy, and integrity (enabling detection of message tampering, interception, and forgery), interoperability, algorithm flexibility, and ease of deployment and use.; Additional layer of encryption provided at the infrastructure layer.
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • Other
• Other protection within supplier network: Microsoft’s approach to enabling two layers of encryption for data at rest is:; ; Disk encryption using customer-managed keys. You provide your own key for disk encryption. You can bring your own keys to your Key Vault (BYOK – Bring Your Own Key), or generate new keys in Azure Key Vault to encrypt the desired resources.; Infrastructure encryption using platform-managed keys. By default, disks are automatically encrypted at rest using platform-managed encryption keys.

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: See SLA's for each service here https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/support/legal/sla/summary/?msclkid=0132c6f0a91b11ec927496d95a52a9a9
• Approach to resilience: Network reliability through intelligent software; Safe Deployment with AIOps ; Resiliency threat modeling for large distributed systems; Low and no impact maintenance ; For more detail please see https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/features/reliability/#features
• Outage reporting: Through Azure Service Health which gives personalised alerts and guidance for Azure service issues

Identity and authentication

• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google apps)
  • Username or password
  • Other
• Other user authentication: "Azure Active Directory is Microsoft’s multi-tenant cloud based directory and identity management service. Azure-AD provides an affordable, easy to use solution to give employees and business partners single sign-on (SSO) access to thousands of cloud SaaS Applications like Office365, Salesforce.com, DropBox, and Concur. For application developers, Azure-AD lets you focus on building your application by making it fast and simple to integrate with a world class identity management solution used by millions of organizations. Azure-AD also includes a full suite of identity management capabilities including multi-factor authentication, device registration, self-service password management, self-service group management, privileged account management.; ; https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/active-directory-whatis"
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: "Azure-AD can designate separate administrators to serve different functions. These administrators will have access to features in the Azure portal and, depending on their role, will be able to create or edit users, assign administrative roles to others, reset user passwords, manage user-licenses, and manage domains, among other things. A user who is assigned an admin role will have the same permissions across all of the cloud services that your organization has subscribed to, regardless of whether you assign the role in the Office365 portal, or in the Azure classic-portal, or by using the Azure-AD module for Windows PowerShell.; ; https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/active-directory-assign-admin-roles"
• Access restriction testing frequency: Never
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
• Devices users manage the service through: Dedicated device on a segregated network (providers own provision)

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users receive audit information on a regular basis
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: BSI
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 01/01/2022
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: Please see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/compliance/regulatory/offering-ISO-27001?view=o365-worldwide
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: Yes
• CSA STAR accreditation date: 12/02/2019
• CSA STAR certification level: Level 3: CSA STAR Certification
• What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover: None
• PCI certification: Yes
• Who accredited the PCI DSS certification: Coalfire Systems Inc
• PCI DSS accreditation date: 01/11
• What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover: Service Scope is identified here http://aka.ms/azure-pci
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • FACT
  • FedRamp
  • NIST 800-171
  • FIPS 140-2
  • CCSL (IRAP)
  • ENISA IAF
  • CDSA
  • ISO 27001 (ISMS), 27017 (Cloud Security) and 27018 (Personal Data)
  • 22301 (Business Continuity) and 9001 (Quality Management)
  • SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards:
  • CSA CCM version 3.0
  • ISO/IEC 27001
  • Other
• Other security governance standards: EN 301 549, ENISA IAF, EU Model Clauses, UK Cyber Essentials Plus, UK NPIRMT, CIS Hardened images, SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2,
• Information security policies and processes: We have policies for infrastructure security, physical security, abailability, components & boundaries, network architecture, production network, SQL DB, operations, monitoring, integrity and data protection. For more information please visit https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/security/fundamentals/infrastructure-availability

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Configuration and change management approach: "Azure has developed formal standard operating procedures (SOPs) governing the change management process. These SOPs cover both software development and hardware change and release management, and are consistent with established regulatory guidelines including ISO 27001, SOC 1 / SOC 2, NIST 800-53, and others.; ; Microsoft also uses Operational Security Assurance (OSA), a framework that incorporates the knowledge gained through a variety of capabilities that are unique to Microsoft including the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL), the Microsoft Security Response Center program, and deep awareness of the cybersecurity threat landscape. ; Please see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/SDL/OperationalSecurityAssurance and https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sdl; "
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: "When providing the Antimalware solution for Virtual Machines, Azure is responsible for ensuring the service is highly available, definitions are updated regularly, that configuration through the Azure Management Portal is effective and that the software detects and protects against known types of malicious software. MCIO-managed hosts in the scope boundary are scanned to validate anti-virus clients are installed and current signature-definition files exist.; ; Vulnerability scans are performed on a quarterly basis at a minimum. Microsoft Azure contracts with independent assessors to perform penetration testing of the Microsoft Azure boundary."
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: "Microsoft Azure employs sophisticated software-defined service instrumentation and monitoring that integrates at the component or server level, the datacenter edge, our network backbone, Internet exchange sites, and at the real or simulated user level, providing visibility when a service disruption is occurring and pinpointing its cause.; ; Proactive monitoring continuously measures the performance of key subsystems of the Microsoft Azure services platform against the established boundaries for acceptable service performance and availability. When a threshold is reached or an irregular event occurs, the monitoring system generates warnings so that operations staff can address the threshold or event.; "
• Incident management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v3.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Incident management approach: "Microsoft has developed robust processes to facilitate a coordinated response to incidents. ; • Identification – System and security alerts may be harvested, correlated, and analyzed. ; • Containment – The escalation team evaluates the scope and impact of an incident. ; • Eradication – The escalation team eradicates any damage caused by the security breach, identifies root cause for why the security issue occurred. ; • Recovery – During recovery, software or configuration updates are applied to the system and services are returned to a full working capacity.; • Lessons Learned – Each security incident is analyzed to protect against future reoccurrence."

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v3.0)

Separation between users

• Virtualisation technology used to keep applications and users sharing the same infrastructure apart: Yes
• Who implements virtualisation: Supplier
• Virtualisation technologies used: Red Hat Virtualisation
• How shared infrastructure is kept separate: In the cloud-enabled workplace, a tenant can be defined as a client or organization that owns and manages a specific instance of that cloud service. With the identity platform provided by Microsoft Azure, a tenant is a dedicated instance of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) that your organization receives and owns when it signs up for a Microsoft cloud service. Each Azure AD directory is distinct and separate from other Azure AD directories. The Azure AD architecture isolates customer data and identity information from co-mingling. For more information: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security/fundamentals/isolation-choices

Energy efficiency

• Energy-efficient datacentres: Yes
• Description of energy efficient datacentres: Please see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/sustainability

Social Value

• Fighting climate change:

  Fighting climate change

  Phoenix is Carbon Neutral - eight years ahead of government targets. We have achieved this by offsetting our operational emissions with carbon credit-approved schemes. By 2026 we will have further reduced our emissions by 50%, and by 2040 we will be Carbon Net-Zero.; ; We are ISO 14001 certified and hold IEMA membership. In addition, we have developed a Sustainability Carbon Accounting System, which is updated monthly and work closely with suppliers to ensure compliance and best practice throughout our supply chain and operations. ; ; Contract waste will be minimised by recycling wherever possible, removing any general waste we create, and most crucially using cloud technology:; ; Our clean air low carbon initiatives reduce the impact of our car emissions on the environment and support people's health:; ; • All company cars are electric vehicles ; • Car Share programmes ; • Flexible working hours for public transport timetables ; • Electric vehicle charging points in the car park for all employees to use on personal or company vehicles ; • Use of public transport centrally arranged and promoted for customer visits as the preferred choice of travel ; • Hybrid working environment with staff only required to travel to the office 2-3 times a week. ; • No 'car idling' policy; ; To support customers on G-Cloud in fighting climate change, we will deliver the following sustainability workshops free of charge:; ; • Explore how Microsoft technology can help you record, report, and reduce your carbon emissions in one platform; • Understand how to procure ICT kit for a circular economy, accounting and mitigating for the carbon cost of your hardware; • Discover how you can implement ISO 14001 principles for robust environmental governance and compliance; • Learn how to engage your workforce and change their behaviours to work in greener ways, reducing paper and mileage
• Tackling economic inequality:

  Tackling economic inequality

  Phoenix takes our responsibilities seriously around our supply chain to tackle economic inequality, increase resilience and capacity, and create new business, new jobs, and new skills. ; ; We are committed to working with a diverse supply chain to provide a route to market, with over 70% of our services supply chain represented by SMEs. In addition, Phoenix is a signatory of the Prompt Payment Code to show our dedication to driving change towards fair payment terms and boosting the economy. ; ; A member of our Alliances Team works with each partner to give them the necessary support to help them achieve their goals. We operate open-book pricing models with most of our partners to ensure fair margin allocation and encourage implementing improvements for mutual gain-share.; ; Phoenix ensures its suppliers are treated fairly, ensuring invoices are paid on time as well as promoting fair commercial arrangements. Phoenix encourages all suppliers that the products they supply are from sustainable sources and have excellent quality and environmental practices. This includes ensuring that human rights are adhered to throughout the supply chain. Phoenix is an ethical employer and is committed to raising its staff's well-being, living standards, skills, and health.; ; These values are upheld in our Supplier Code of Conduct (www.phoenixs.co.uk/about-us/corporate-policies/supplier-code-of-conduct) with our suppliers audited for compliance to ensure our customers are confident they are working with an ethical, social and sustainable supply chain.
• Equal opportunity:

  Equal opportunity

  We are committed to ensuring equality, diversity, and inclusion throughout our workforce and eliminating unlawful discrimination. You can read our Diversity and Inclusion Policy at www.phoenixs.co.uk/about-us/corporate-policies/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-policy. ; ; We are passionate about helping women to advance in the IT industry by providing them with access to and support from other women working within the industry, as well as flexible working for every employee and an enhanced parental leave package. This commitment has proved hugely successful with 32% of positions at Phoenix held by women – well above the 20% industry average.; ; We have also begun our grassroots work by speaking in schools to highlight the roles available within the tech industry and encourage more women to consider careers in tech from an early age.; ; We are proud to be an accredited Living Wage Employer, supporting an important socially responsible policy and investing in our people.In addition to this, when establishing partnerships with parnters, and suppliers, we also check their living wage status to ensure that the message is heard and acted upon by all.; ; We are a proud signatory on the Race at Work Charter which underpins our commitment to take practical steps to ensure that we are tackling barriers that people face in recruitment and progression.; ; We work with our customers and employees to ensure that they can utilise the accessibility options available to them within the technology, apps, and services we all use daily. Whether this is the device they use, the accessibility checker within Outlook or Word, or live captions that can be added to all Microsoft Teams meetings, we ensure that how we work is as inclusive as possible.; ; We are a Disability Confident Committed employer, this scheme supports organisations like Phoenix to make the most of the talents people with disabilities bring to the workplace.
• Wellbeing:

  Wellbeing

  We are committed to creating a compassionate workplace where all employees feel supported personally and professionally by challenging the stigma surrounding mental health, raising awareness, and offering education opportunities. In 2020, we signed Mind’s ‘Time to Change Employer Pledge’ to back our commitment.; ; We ensure that our team are supported, remain in communication with management and each other, and understand that they can speak openly to their managers about their health and wellbeing to encourage discussion about how we can help them. Our programme of activities is run by our internal mental health and wellbeing ambassadors to help promote positive mental health and embed it into the culture of the organisation. ; ; We hold internal monthly calls where employees are invited to openly discuss mental health and wellbeing, covering topics such as: loneliness, body image, Pride month, menopause support, and parental wellbeing. The aim of these sessions is to remove the stigma often associated with mental health by providing a platform that encourages open and honest conversations about mental wellbeing.; ; Each employee at Phoenix is given one hour a month on a Wednesday, to do something that supports their wellbeing.That’s 3,732 hours across the entire company each year dedicated to wellbeing.; ; We have undertaken research and engaged in internal conversations about menopause in the workplace to understand how we can better support our employees with the physical and emotional symptoms of the menopause.; ; We use the Microsoft Viva platform to help our employees manage their digital well-being and understand how they can change how they work to improve well-being across the organisation.; ; We have eight mental health first aiders across the business who are professionally trained to provide mental health support and guidance to members of our team who require it.

Pricing

• Price: £199.93 a user a month
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Please see https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/free
• Link to free trial: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/free/

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at ccs@phoenixs.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.