Democracy Counts Limited

ElectorCount Results - election count module

ElectorCount Results offers a seamless count day management solution. Streamline election result reporting with interactive display, ensuring efficient count day activities and real-time, engaging presentation of election outcomes.

Features

• Manage count processes from receipts of ballot boxes to results
• Automated ballot paper accounts through integration with Polling Management solution
• Automated calculations for verification and count results
• Supports mini count systems and recounts
• Interactive display of results
• Customised reporting and branding of the site
• Live updates to the count progress

Benefits

• Moves away from spreadsheets for enhanced accuracy
• Reduce the risk of delay for count proceedings
• Improved transparency for candidates seeing live count progress on screens
• Enhances professionalism and credibility, leaving positive impression on media
• Builds trust and confidence in election outcome, minimises challenges

£5,500 a licence a year

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 sales@democracycounts.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

171650491696849

Contact

Sales Team
01925 320888
sales@democracycounts.co.uk

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Private cloud
• Service constraints: No contraints when you use our products.
• System requirements: ElectorCount Results Software License

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: We aim to respond to all tickets within 1 hour
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AAA
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: We make best endeavours to answer and close all calls at the initial point of contact. We provide the same level of service to all customers with all calls routed through our product support specialists with technical support queries transferred to our dedicated technical team.; We do provide direct access to support technicians who are trained in the business processes used by our clients as well as the cloud technologies. We hold client services reviews to ensure an Account Plan exists and is documented.
• Support available to third parties: No

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Initially, we kick off the onboarding process with a dedicated project initiation meeting facilitated by our experienced onboarding lead manager. During this meeting, we delve into the client's unique requirements and objectives for implementing ElectorCount Results. This allows us to gain a comprehensive understanding of their needs and tailor our training accordingly. We offer flexible training options to accommodate our clients' preferences. This includes on-site training sessions conducted at the customer premises for a hands-on learning experience. Additionally, we provide online training sessions to cater to remote teams. Throughout the training process, all necessary documentation and resources are provided by Democracy Counts to support the learning experience. Our clients have access to comprehensive training materials that guide them through the setup and configuration of ElectorCount Results. As part of our onboarding process, we also provide clients with access to test data designed to undertake mock count proceedings to instill confidence within the process.; ; Overall, our onboarding approach is focused on delivering a personalised training experience that empowers our clients to effectively utilise and maximize the benefits of our ElectorCount Results product. We are committed to ensuring a smooth transition and successful implementation for all our clients.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: The users own the data and we will provide guidance and assistance in how to extract the data at the expiration of the contract.
• End-of-contract process: We will provide an Offboarding Plan that outlines the timeline and resources Democracy Counts will commit to as well as engagement required by the client. Roles and responsibilities for activities involved in the cessation of services and data transfer, is specified in the Offboarding Plan, including contact details and escalation points for all parties. ; ; We will commence data extraction and provide the Client with their data. ; ; Democracy Counts will then destroy all Client data 2-weeks after the final data transfer and in accordance with the Offboarding Plan, unless otherwise agreed. ; ; In accordance with the Service Contract, the Client must remove any Democracy Counts applications from their network within 2-weeks of the cessation of services and will require written confirmation. ; ; Democracy Counts will provide a full written audit of data destruction in accordance with ISO 27001 and ISO27017.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: Yes
• Compatible operating systems:
  • Android
  • IOS
  • MacOS
  • Windows
  • Windows Phone
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: N/A
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AAA
• Description of service interface: Users are required to login to the service interface with their username and password in order to undertake count day activities.
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 AAA
• Accessibility testing: Testing was completed at pre launch of the software in 2013
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: Users can setup API link between ElectorCount Results and our polling management solution to transfer ballot paper accounts automatically at the close of poll with ease.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: Open API (also known as Swagger)
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: The client can customise branding, count processes, reporting and templates used for declaring the results.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: We hold ISO 22301 accreditation and as such we have a robust Business Growth Plan that is externally assessed annually. This ensures we have plans in place well in advance of any significant growth. We continue to hold the best support staff to customer ratio in the industry.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Real time statistics to enable the buyer to view the latest statistics to support the count process
• Reporting types:
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Up to Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: United Kingdom
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Supplier-defined controls
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: Another external penetration testing organisation
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
  • Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
• 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

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Initially data is exported to us through a secure FTP. Existing customers either use our internal and secure export service to export data to their preferred print company or they export encrypted data through their own preferred method.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • Excel
  • PDF
  • DOCX
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • .Shp
  • PNG
  • JPEG

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
  • Bonded fibre optic connections
  • Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)
• Data protection within supplier network: Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Urgent - 2 hours | High 4 hours | Medium 1 working day | Low 2 working days (or at an agreed time between ourselves and the customer) We have a public facing monitoring and escalation process in place which customers would be able to action in the event that we failed to meet our SLA.
• Approach to resilience: This information is available upon request.
• Outage reporting: This is agreed on a client by client basis

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Access is restricted through applying security settings based on the login credentials identified through referencing the Active Directory.; Access can be restricted to specific IP ranges.; Clients access to service is dedicated and they can be given appropriate public/private key combinations so they fully control the service, albeit we are able to halt and freeze the service if we believe the service has been compromised.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password

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: User-defined
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: User-defined
• How long system logs are stored for: User-defined

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: QMS
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 19/11/2010
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: N/A
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications: ISO 27017

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards: ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: We are ISO-27001 accredited. On-going compliance is maintained through our Director and Head of Quality and Compliance and reinforced within our specific department through our Head of ICT and Development.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: We record information on our internal QMS. This is ran to ISO9001 standards and as a holder of ISO22301 and ISO27001 we keep records of the potential security impacts and these are assessed by our ISM and are reported to our Board on a monthly basis.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: We use Azure and receive incident/vunerability from a range of sources such as the hosting provider, our AV provider, our enternal pen test provider, access to MSDN /TechNet and our QMS provider.; ; Security threats are assessed on a risk basis and patches are tested/deployed at the earliest opportunity but can be same day in a suitable point overnight.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: We receive information on potential compromises via our Hosting Provider, our own daily inspection of logging information and proactice alarms that we have set to monitor a range of conditions and states that we have set as a way in identify potential intrusion detection
• 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: Independent validation of assertion.

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)

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  At Democracy Counts we are accredited and manage all waste in accordance with ISO 14001. The waste carrier is arranged as part of our office lease. We put general waste in a BIFFA managed bin on site and they manage removal. We shred any documents with sensitive data and are working towards a paperless office environment.; ; Our Cloud hosting SaaS solution is now carbon neutral. We have achieved PAS 2060 accreditation, making it the first carbon neutral hosting company in the UK. All our hosting solutions are powered by hydro-electricity, a green power source that will prevent the emissions from happening in the first place. Our data centre is also 100% carbon neutral, playing our part in minimizing environmental impact and in working towards the objective of achieving net-zero by 2035.; ; We pledge to explore innovative solutions that reduce our carbon footprint and promote energy efficiency, contributing to a cleaner and greener environment for all residents as part of our contract with clients. We are dedicated to implementing strategies and initiatives aimed at reducing air pollution. This includes supporting the adoption of cleaner transportation options, promoting green technologies, and advocating for policies that improve air quality. This will create 50% reduction in car miles on projects. We have staff members based near our clients who can use the public transport for any projects or contract deliveries with clients.

  Covid-19 recovery

  Democracy Counts has been steadfast in its commitment to enhancing workplace conditions, especially in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. From the onset of the pandemic, we swiftly transitioned to remote working, thereby promoting social distancing and ensuring the safety of our staff. ; ; Throughout this period of remote working, Democracy Counts has prioritized the well-being of its employees by offering free access to mental health services for those affected by the pandemic. We recognize the importance of supporting the physical and mental health of our team members during these challenging times.; ; Furthermore, we have extended our support to our clients in managing and recovering from the impacts of COVID-19. For instance, during the initial set of elections amid the pandemic, we provided comprehensive COVID-19 risk assessments and risk management plans to all our clients. Additionally, recognizing the need for innovative solutions, we introduced scanning bureau facilities to facilitate remote operations when organisations were unable to be physically present at the office due to COVID-19 restrictions.; ; By embracing remote working practices, prioritizing employee well-being, and providing valuable support to our clients, Democracy Counts has effectively contributed to the COVID-19 recovery efforts. We remain committed to promoting workplace conditions that support the ongoing recovery from the pandemic and to adapting to new ways of working that prioritize safety, efficiency, and resilience.

  Tackling economic inequality

  We are committed to enhancing the skills and capabilities of local residents from our client contracts through targeted and locally apprenticeship opportunities. Our goal is to empower individuals with the skills needed to access meaningful employment and contribute to the community's growth. Through funded courses, we have election and canvass courses on Educ8 and can train local residents to the level required for them to be capable of applying for our client’s election and canvasser duties.

  Equal opportunity

  As an employer, we actively promote equality, strive to reduce social inequality, and ensure that all individuals are provided with equal opportunities for advancement, free from discrimination or bias based on factors such as race, gender, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, or age. Our employment practices adhere to the highest standards as outlined in our documented Quality Management System, subject to regular audits and scrutiny as part of our annual ISO 9001 certification process.; ; We are proud to affirm that all our employees are compensated above the national living wage, and none are engaged under zero-hour contracts. Our workforce is valued, motivated, and diverse, with access to comprehensive opportunities for training and skills development, contributing to the delivery of exceptional service quality.; ; Moreover, we offer a range of benefits to our staff, including:; ; Graduated holiday entitlement that increases with length of service.; Enrollment in our pension scheme after three months, with contributions from both the company and the employee.; Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) in accordance with Department of Work & Pensions guidelines.; Maternity and Paternity Leave.; Provision for Death in Service.; Private Healthcare.; Perkbox incentives and discounts.; Parental Leave.; ; To ensure continuous growth and development, our employees undergo regular six-month development reviews conducted by senior management. These reviews provide an opportunity for constructive feedback, recognition of exceptional performance, and identification of areas for further development. ; ; We are proud to have achieved Investors In People certification since 2020, reflecting our commitment to fostering a supportive and inclusive workplace environment. Through our management development programme, we actively encourage staff from diverse backgrounds, including minority groups, to aspire to managerial roles, enabling career progression and advancement within our organization.

  Wellbeing

  Our commitment to improving health and wellbeing within our contract workforce is paramount. To ensure the holistic wellness of our staff, we have implemented a comprehensive private medical healthcare package that encompasses various facets of physical and mental health support.; ; Firstly, all our employees have access to a robust private medical healthcare package, which includes 24/7 access to GP services. This ensures that our staff can receive timely medical attention and consultations, promoting preventive care and addressing health concerns promptly.; ; In addition to physical health support, we prioritize mental health services for our staff. Recognizing the importance of mental wellbeing, we have implemented initiatives to support our employees' mental health needs. This includes access to counseling services, mental health resources, and support networks.; ; In addition to our comprehensive private medical healthcare package, we prioritize the overall wellbeing of our staff by fostering a healthy balance between work and social life. Recognizing the importance of flexibility in accommodating various personal and professional commitments, we are committed to incorporating flexible work schedules for our employees.; ; We understand that maintaining a healthy work-life balance is essential for overall wellbeing, productivity, and job satisfaction. Therefore, we encourage our staff to work collaboratively with their managers to establish flexible work arrangements that suit their individual needs and preferences. ; ; By providing both physical and mental health support through our private medical healthcare package, we aim to create a supportive and inclusive work environment where our staff can thrive both professionally and personally. Our commitment to improving health and wellbeing extends beyond the workplace, demonstrating our dedication to the overall wellness of our workforce.

Pricing

• Price: £5,500 a licence a year
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: No

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 sales@democracycounts.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.