NGC NETWORK SERVICES LIMITED

Puzzel Contact Centre

Puzzel Contact Centre offers an omnichannel contact centre (CCaaS) with Voice, Email , SMS, Web-chat, WhatsApp, Social Media all integrated in a single compelling UI. It also offers Speech Analytics, PCI Payments, AI / Chatbot, knowledge base and full integration to other systems via a set of comprehensive open APIs.

Features

• Voice (Inbound & Outbound)
• Email
• SMS
• Web chat
• Social Media including Facebook, Twitter, Trustpilot
• WhatsApp
• Speech Analytics
• API integrations (CRM etc)
• Knowledge Base / Self Service / ChatBots
• PCI DSS Payment Solutions

Benefits

• Lower TCO compared with on-premise solutions
• Rapid deployment and return ion investment
• Immense Scalability by leveraging public cloud vendors
• Single view of customer with one integrated user interface (UI)
• Extensive real time & historical reporting and management information
• Drive a better, frictionless customer experience
• Get insight into customer with contact history and speech analytics
• Flexibility - access anywhere, via any internet device.
• Ease of budgeting: inclusive upgrades and no maintenance costs

£35.00 a user a month

• Education pricing available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  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 andrew.linley@ngcnetworks.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

192449974883527

Contact

Andrew Linley
01133900052
andrew.linley@ngcnetworks.co.uk

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: Yes, but can also be used as a standalone service
• What software services is the service an extension to: Can be stand alone or integrated with an existing on premise or cloud based telephony platform. Such as:; PBX; Public Hosted (e.g. Horizon); Microsoft Teams Voice; CRM (e.g. Salesforce MS Dynamics etc.)
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: Planned maintenance is performed out of office hours and typically has no impact upon customers. Exceptionally users are logged off but can then immediately log on again. Note that many customers use and rely upon Puzzel as a 365 x 24 service.
• System requirements:
  • Device (PC, Mac, laptop, tablet etc) with Internet connectivity
  • A modern browser (all mainstream modern browsers are supported)
  • A suitable Puzzel Contact Centre licence

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: One of our service desk agents will take the details of your fault as well as your contact information and raise a case within our incident management system. You will then receive an email with a unique reference number which can be used to track your fault should you need to call us for any updates. Support hours: Email (Mon-Fri 09:00-17:30 excl. UK bank holidays) Phone 0344 980 0344 (Available 24/7/365) Target response time: Severity 0 - 2 hours Severity 1 - 6 hours Severity 2 - 24 hours Severity 3 - 72 hours
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Our service desk agents will detail your fault and raise a case within our incident management system. You will then receive an email with a unique reference number which can be used to track your fault should you need to call us for any updates. Standard SLA P1 - MAJOR SERVICE OUTAGE Total Loss of Service, related business areas are completely affected and unable to operate Target Response Time: 2 hours Target Resolution Time: 6 hours P2 - SIGNIFICANT BUSINESS IMPACT A substantial part of the service is not working or at severe risk of not working The customers' business is significantly affected Target Response Time: 6 hours Target Resolution Time: 12 hours P3 PARTIAL BUSINESS IMPACT • Part of the customers’ service is interrupted or compromised • Services may be working, but performance is degraded and having an impact on customer business operations Target Response Time: 24 hours Target Resolution Time: 3 days* P4 MINOR BUSINESS IMPACT or CHANGE REQUEST • There is a problem with the customer equipment which is non-critical in nature • There is no material impact to the customers’ business Target Response Time: 72 hours Target Resolution Time: 5 days* *these are working days
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Onsite training is provided prior to go live, for both agents and supervisors. On go live, we typically attend on-site, floor-walking for the day to help answer agent questions, etc. All training and user documentation are provided and made available as part of the setup process for all customers. Additional training is always available as part of our ongoing Service Management process.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: All call recordings, call flows and agent data / records (with their agent groups and skills etc) can be exported at any time using SFTP or other similar mechanisms.
• End-of-contract process: All data extraction is included within our licence cost. There will be no additional costs to leave. A full Exit Plan will be produced and allow the customer to take their data in a machine readable format and that all other data will be deleted and purged in line with GDPR and UK Data Privacy considerations.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: Minimal differences. Some functionality may be reduced for supervisors when using a mobile device. Otherwise, the full service is available as normal. We also offer a mobile App for supervisor functionality. Available on Android and Apple app stores
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Description of service interface: The service interface provides access for Administrators and Agents. The interface is accessible by modern browsers. The Administrator Portal gives administrators better control of their day-to-day operations. For example: - Access to reports - Agent set up - Configuration of queue parameters - Configure settings for web-chat & social media - Knowledgebase management The Agent Application allows agents to control use of the service. Using this they can: - Select the device they want to receive calls on - Log in and out of queues - Set their availability status - Configure their dashboard - Access the knowledgebase
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Accessibility testing: Webchat has been tested with an external consultancy company and is WCAG compliant. We do not support testing with screen readers but our services including web chat support are WCAG compliant.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: All functionality can be accessed through our open API. Details are published. This includes all agent and administrator functionality.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: Open API (also known as Swagger)
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Puzzel Contact Centre is fully customisable by agents (for their own interface) or administrators, as appropriate. This is via the use of widgets and tabs on screen to add certain views such as queues as well as integrations. For example, call flows, messages, and the user interface can all be customised. Custom reports can be created. 3rd party integrations (e.g. to CRM and ERP systems) are available, both as standard and as bespoke integrations which can be customised to specific systems.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Puzzel Contact Centre is a multi tenant platform and the architecture is designed to be fully scalable. Agents can be added easily at any time. Full redundancy of the system is provided in geographically diverse locations, and we constantly invest in incremental capacity as required to ensure plenty of 'headroom' is always available to allow peaks of demand. Load balancing across sites ensures that users are not affected by increased volumes.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Full information about the use of Puzzel is provided. This includes standard contract centre MI such as AHT, wait time, number of calls by channel, duration, etc. Full details of the service reports would be covered in the pre-sales engagement and during training.
• Reporting types:
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra features and support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: Puzzel

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

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: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a CHECK service provider
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
  • Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: Microsoft Azure encryption
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
• Equipment disposal approach: In-house destruction process

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Data is exported as: - standard (text) reports - sound files (for call recording) in all standard formats - the result of ad hoc SQL queries as appropriate
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • PDF
  • Excel
• Data import formats: CSV

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: TLS (version 1.2 or above)
• Data protection within supplier network: TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: The availability target for the Puzzel Contact Centre Service is 99.99% with the following exceptions: - Automated Agent/Chatbot and all Social Media Channels has an Availability target of 99.6% - SMS Services has an Availability target of 99.6% - Puzzel Case Management functionality has an Availability target of 99.9% - Puzzel Softphone functionality has an Availability target of 99.9% - Co-browsing and Advanced collaboration has an Availability target of 99.8%
• Approach to resilience: Infrastructure & Resilience: All components in Puzzel's infrastructure are redundant by design. There are three levels of redundancy built into the infrastructure; Component resilience: Every component in the infrastructure has built in resilience within the unit. This might be as double power adaptors, double network cards, mirrored disks more than one CPU etc. Load balancing: All critical infrastructure such as web-servers and application servers are load-balanced allowing operational systems even if components/ servers fail. For components not suited for load-balancing such as databases, advanced synchronization mechanisms are used between the active server and passive servers. This prevents data loss and minimal disruption on fail-over. Geo-redundancy: All systems can be run at full capacity from either DC1 or DC2 allowing a full outage of either of the data centres. DC2 will take on the services of DC1 in case of a full outage of DC1.
• Outage reporting: Email alerts to nominated customer contacts together with a public dashboard showing service availability and status of any ongoing incidents.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Access to functionality is based upon the role and privileges of the user as defined by the system administrator.
• 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: Between 1 month and 6 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: Between 1 month and 6 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: DnV
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: Continuous since 2014
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: 100% of our systems and processes are covered by the certification.
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: No

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: No
• Security governance approach: Organisational measures (ICO Data Controller No. Z3112257): Our ISMS covers all areas within NGC Networks’ software with overall accountability being held by the Managing Director, supported by the Senior Leadership Team. Local Security responsibilities are assigned at both a company and departmental level. The purpose of the ISMS is to protect information assets from threats, whether internal or external, deliberate and accidental. Ensures: Clear risk-based decisions Information protected against unauthorised access Information confidentiality Information integrity Regulatory and legislative requirements met Business Continuity Management (including testing) ISMS training available to staff ISMS breaches (actual-suspected) effectively managed
• Information security policies and processes: Organizational Measures (ISO27001 aligned and Cyber Essential accreditation soon) Classification-Handling: Information classification used to categorise based on assessment of impact if information were disclosed to unauthorised person, lost or destroyed. Ensures assets receive appropriate protection Scope: Applies to all NGC Networks’ Software personnel, subtractors & TPs. A hoc risk assessments conducted in accordance with the Risk Control process to supplement policy processes. - Collection - Processing - Data Storage, Transit & Access - Retention-Disposal Data Disposal - Electronic data will be disposed of securely in accordance with data classification - Software ensures all suppliers provide evidence of destruction Technical Measures NGC Networks operates a “best practice” framework topology regarding footprint and security systems application. Technical measures include web-based security applications as well as a comprehensive monitoring of environments – Live, Development/Test. Technologies highlights: Watchguard Firebox firewalls (Total Security Suite). IPS, DDOS, Gateway Antivirus, Application Proxies, Policy-based-access, SSL VPN, Web Blocker Watchguard EDPR. Advanced Threat Hunting, APTs, zero-day malware, ransomware, phishing, rootkits, in-memory exploits and malware-less attacks + IDS, firewall, device control, and URL & content filtering capabilities Watchguard Mobile SSL VPN Client. AES-GCM (256 bit) encryption Acronis Cyber Protect Backup. Server backups and DRaaS held in secure data centre.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: Configuration and change management is based upon standard ITIL processes. This includes conducting risk analysis of all changes. All changes go via a change approval board before being released within a scheduled maintenance window held every two weeks.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: Bi - monthly meetings of Puzzel's security team, chaired by the CISO, identify risks based upon: - any operational changes - perceived vulnerabilities - any security incidents. Security patches are promptly deployed in maintenance windows or sooner, if appropriate.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Monitoring of cloud instance including continuous scanning for vulnerabilities, monitoring of intrusion attempts as well as abuse detection. Denial-of-service (DDoS) attack prevention, frequent penetration testing as well as data analytics to make sure that the operation is stable and secure.
• 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: Incident management is based upon ITIL processes. If appropriate, ITIL problem management processes are used to eliminate recurring incidents. Incident reports are provided for all P1 incidents. Users report incidents by ticket, web chat, phone or email via Puzzel's Help Portal.

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

• Fighting climate change:

  Fighting climate change

  NGC takes a scope 1, 2 and 3 approach to managing and measuring CO2e reduction. By looking to our whole value chain (suppliers, clients, our own operations) we can maximise the impact we have way beyond our own scope 1 and 2 operational levels. Examples from our own operations: • We are installing EV chargers to encourage Evs • We recycle • We partner with Ecologi and 'plant trees' • We will plant a tree for every subscription we get from the G cloud framework Examples from our value chain (scope 3) NGC has always supported our own staff and those of our client organisations with cutting-edge technology and, vitally, a supporting culture to allow them the flexibility they need to deliver results while eliminating unnecessary CO2e by: ● Supporting remote working ● Reducing the need for F2F meetings ● Eliminating the need for cost on-site hardware held by each individual client ● Moving clients to cloud offerings that offer much higher ESG standards as part of their core offering
• Covid-19 recovery:

  Covid-19 recovery

  NGC takes a value chain approach to measuring social value in the performance of a contract. Working in a high-tech, high-growth sector we’ve are a light touch organisation in terms of physical footprint, while creating a highly resilient organisation that’s a vital stakeholder in the community, especially through Covid-19. We support our own staff with cutting-edge technology and, vitally, a supporting culture to allow them the flexibility they need to deliver results while: • Eliminating unnecessary CO2e • Supporting remote working for wellbeing, mobility and/or Covid resilience with top-tier tech, culture and processes • Exposing our staff to worldclass client projects and cutting-edge skills acquisition for the global marketplace • Building up a talent pool of rare skills in Yorkshire and the North of England area thus bringing lasting value that endures many years past staff tenure with us We employ 42 people in Yorkshire and the North of England area and have plans for expansion that G-Cloud contracts would support and expedite. - We employ locally, using local recruitment companies and we often employ staff who are not trained in telecoms to train our in-house. - We provide send staff on industry specific supplier training. - We are in discussions with local colleges and LEP regarding apprenticeships/ sourcing candidates from these education institutes Beyond simply our own ESG footprint we have an impact that is disproportionate for our size on the social value our clients deliver to the world. Almost all of our work with clients is aimed at creating resilient organisations that are more efficient and ready for the digital age. Our work with Schools has been particularly relevant to resilience and recovery during Covid as we provide the vital infrastructure that facilitates online learning and community support platforms.
• Tackling economic inequality:

  Tackling economic inequality

  NGC is committed to tackling economic inequality. We seek to treat, and pay, everyone fairly and consistently, creating a workplace and business environment that is open, transparent and trusted.
• Equal opportunity:

  Equal opportunity

  Equality practices We have a range of policy documents - and practices that flow from them - designed to remove social, cultural and economic barriers to Equity in the workplace. They include: • Equal opportunities • Whistle blowing • Bribery • Anti-money laundering Beyond legislative compliance, however, we also encourage ‘CLEARR vision’ (collaboration, leadership, excellence, agility, respect and responsibility) to underpin our culture and how we do business. These values are embedded throughout our business and set parameters for how we expect people to behave with colleagues, clients and the world at large. We seek to treat everyone fairly and consistently, creating a workplace and business environment that is open, transparent and trusted. Workplace practices and what we do for clients: We support our own staff with cutting-edge technology and, vitally, a supporting culture to allow them the flexibility they need to deliver results while: • Eliminating unnecessary CO2e • Supporting remote working for wellbeing, mobility and/or Covid resilience with top-tier tech, culture and processes • Exposing our staff to world-class client projects and cutting-edge skills acquisition for the global marketplace • Building up a talent pool of rare skills in Yorkshire and the North of England area thus bringing lasting value that endures many years past staff tenure with us. Remote and hybrid working ensures Equality in practice for many client organisations, too. We also help facilitate businesses to allow their staff to work from home via the infrastructure and functionality we deliver: • to reduce the need for arduous and repetitive work – feeds into wellbeing • To facilitate different ways of working within organisations, e.g. schools – feeds into neurodiversity and accessibility • To reduce the need for F2F meetings – feeds into decarbonisation, resilience, recovery, back to work for people with parenting, mobility &other vulnerable groups
• Wellbeing:

  Wellbeing

  NGC is committed:; • To developing a healthy, motivated workforce who are able to deliver a high-standard of support to our customers ; • To help ensure that our organisation promotes the health and wellbeing of all staff members, recognising the impact work can have on employees’ stress levels, mental and physical health; • Develop and maintain a positive health and safety culture through regular communication and consultation with staff; • To recognise that excessive hours of work can be detrimental to staff health and effectiveness and to agree on flexible working practices where possible without affecting customer support levels; • To communicate the importance of a work-life balance to all staff, and to ensure that all policy updates are communicated regularly; • To encourage staff as individuals to accept responsibility for their own mental, physical and emotional wellbeing; • To comply with all statutory requirements; • To respond sensitively to external pressures which affect the lives of staff members; • To provide staff with training to deal positively with stressful incidents and provide them with a sense of confidence to deal with emergencies via training; • To improve staff development, co-operation and teamwork by creating effective leaders; • To make staff members aware of the channels which can be used to manage and deal with stress or work-related health and wellbeing issues

Pricing

• Price: £35.00 a user a month
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: No

Service documents

• Pricing document

  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 andrew.linley@ngcnetworks.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.