DISTRICT COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PLATFORM

District Engage

District Engage is a powerful community engagement platform that streamlines engagement projects with a suite of user-friendly participation and reporting tools,

Co-designed with industry experts, District Engage gives you the tools to seamlessly manage stakeholder engagement, drive community participation and deliver key insights to inform critical decisions.

Features

• Advanced Participation Toolbox: Surveys, polls, forums, ideation, map feedback, questions
• Dynamic Mapping Tools: Publish complex spatial data for impactful feedback
• Personalised Dashboards: Dynamic user metrics and tailored reporting widgets
• Comprehensive Reporting: Exportable data and detailed NLP analysis
• Event Management: Effortlessly organise events and manage RSVPs with ease
• Private Consultations: Secure, focused dialogue across agencies and groups
• Embeddable Engagement: Embed engagement tools on external platforms
• Integrated Notifications: Automated notifications for project updates and alerts
• Multi-Language Support: Built for multilingual engagement
• Custom Workflows: Tailored workflows to match your organisation's needs

Benefits

• Simplify Administration: Streamline processes with intuitive tools and custom workflows
• Empower Decision-Making: Gain insights through analytics, sentiment and thematic analysis
• Improve Accessibility: Designed to engage a broad and diverse audience
• Team Collaboration: Seamlessly collaborate across teams and departments
• Foster Inclusivity: Engage diverse communities with comprehensive multilingual support
• Tailor Participation: Flexible options for anonymous, public, and private participation
• Secure Access Controls: SSO, 2FA and team-based permissions
• Data Integrations: Connect with external services and analytic tools
• User Participation: Encourage engagement with personalised subscriptions and notifications
• Improve Outreach: Embed participation tools on external websites

£6,000 to £50,000 a licence a year

• Education pricing available
• Free trial 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 simon@district.au. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

210856147599171

Contact

Simon Shackleton
+44 118 228 6888
simon@district.au

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: None
• System requirements:
  • Supported web browser
  • Internet connect

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: General support questions are responded to within 24 hours, including weekends.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Phone support: No
• 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 users who cannot use chat services, District Knowledge Base provides comprehensive help guides and documentation supported by our service desk. If access to these options is not possible, phone consultations are available.
• Web chat accessibility testing: Web chat is provided by Zendesk, and tested to meet accessibility standards.
• Onsite support: No
• Support levels: Support is included in the standard license, offering access to our Knowledge Hub, in-application support, and service desk. Customers are assigned an Account Manager for the duration of their service term to ensure they maximise the value of our offering.; ; For additional su
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: We provide comprehensive online training and detailed user documentation to assist users with onboarding. A pre-production environment is set up for practical familiarity, supported by our Getting Started guide, instructional videos, and a comprehensive Knowledge Base. If required, we also offer migration services to ensure a seamless transition. Online training sessions are available to address specific questions, and our support team is available for help during the process.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: If a customer does not renew their agreement, they can access and download their data via the admin panel in CSV or XLS format. A full database extract can be provided upon request.
• End-of-contract process: Our service fees cover the costs of end-of-contract processes, and you can export your data through the administration. At the end of the contract term, our services will be decommissioned, and we will dispose of your data in accordance with our data disposal policies.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: Our platform scales and adjusts the user interface to suit most mobile devices.
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Description of service interface: The District Engage admin interface is designed to be intuitive, customisable, and accessible. Its user-friendly layout allows for easy navigation through surveys, maps, and dashboards. Administrators have the ability to personalise reporting dashboards, streamline workflows, and manage permissions efficiently. The public facing front end adheres to WCAG 2.1 guidelines, ensuring that all users, regardless of their abilities, can effectively engage with and review public participation projects.
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 A
• Accessibility testing: We focus on compliance with WCAG 2.1 standards, emphasising keyboard navigability, logical tab order, and accessible form fields.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: API access is provided to facilitate integrating external data services and third-party applications. Access is granted upon request and is contingent upon the business requirement.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: PDF
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Theme: Users can easily customise the visual aspects of their platform by adjusting theme colours and logos, and by modifying static or dynamic content pages. This ensures a consistent brand identity across all engagement activities.; ; Admin: Administrators can personalise their reporting dashboards, configure tailored workflow processes, and refine user permissions to meet specific needs. This offers granular control over the management of surveys and user data. Engagement tools, such as survey questions and maps, are fully tailored to the customer's preferences, with options like custom icons and shapefiles.; ; Enterprise: District Engage's modular architecture enables the customisation of features to meet varying business objectives. Users can also configure workflows to match organisational requirements.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: District Engage ensures user demand is managed effectively through its high availability infrastructure and auto-scaling capabilities. The platform is hosted across multiple physical locations and can scale horizontally to ensure redundancy and reliability. As traffic increases, additional nodes are automatically deployed to handle the load, scaling back down when demand decreases. Additionally, the use of a CDN ensures optimised performance by serving cached traffic from local points of presence, providing an added layer of resilience.; ; A CDN is provided as standard, which further hardens infrastructure hosting as cached traffic is served via the CDN’s local POP.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: District Engage provides comprehensive service metrics that include user analytics, project participation statistics, real-time data on surveys and polls, and geographic insights. The platform's detailed reporting dashboards offer exportable data and customisation, enabling administrators to analyse performance effectively and ensure consultations align with community engagement objectives.
• Reporting types:
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

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
  • Other locations
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• 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 CSA CCM v3.0
  • Encryption of all physical media
  • Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: A third-party destruction service

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Data can be easily exported via the admin interface, allowing administrators to export full project and survey data in XLS and CSV formats. Dashboard widgets can also be exported individually in CSV format or as an image (PNG) when represented as a graph.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • XLS
  • PFD
  • PNG
  • JPG
  • GeoJSON
  • OEmbed
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats: GeoJSON

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: We provide monitoring and on-call staff 24x7 to resolve critical (P1) requests, and we monitor the hosting environment, applications, or both in accordance with the client's requirements.; ; District uses reasonable efforts to respond to and resolve support requests within specified SLA Targets. SLA Targets are determined in accordance with the importance and urgency of each support issue. In the event our response times exceed the SLA Targets, you will be eligible to receive a Service Credit.; ; If services delivered by us in a particular calendar month fail to meet SLA Targets, each Support Issue that does not meet SLA Targets will entitle you to a credit of 5% of your monthly fee, up to a maximum of 100% of the monthly fee.
• Approach to resilience: District is supported by an auto-scaling Kubernetes cluster, which provides complete data redundancy through high availability (HA) and backups. Detailed information is available upon request.
• Outage reporting: Service outages are published on a public dashboard.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Access restrictions are managed through a highly granular permissions system. This system includes team-based super user accounts and customisable roles, allowing administrators to control access based on specific user needs.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • 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: At least 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: You control when users can access audit information
• 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: No
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: No
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • ISO 27001 (Infrastructure)
  • SOC 2 (Infrastructure)
  • IRAP (Infrastructure)

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: No
• Security governance approach: District Engage's infrastructure is managed by Amazee.io, which provides certified governance for ISO 27001, IRAP, and SOC 2 (https://trust.amazee.io/). District Engage recognises the importance of information in its effective operations, and we are committed to providing our customers with a secure information processing environment that safeguards information from unauthorised access, disclosure, and loss. Our Information Security Policy is regularly updated and governs security procedures, best practices, and services.
• Information security policies and processes: We have strict information security policies in place that comply with ISO 27001 standards. Our policies ensure that our clients, employees, and stakeholders have a secure information processing environment. Our Information Security Policy outlines our reporting structure, which requires employees to report information security issues to Senior Management. The Information Security Committee oversees these issues and is regularly audited by the Internal Auditor to ensure continuous improvement.

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: - We have standardised processes for moving various elements of our services from stage to stage in their lifecycle; - The processes are assessed by members of our in-house security SIG (intentionally cross-team to prevent siloing of security)
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Our solutions providers monitor vulnerabilities in their parts of the solution and notify us as required. We monitor relevant mailing lists/RSS feeds to receive alerts about security problems. The appropriate experts review security notifications to determine their applicability.; ; While direct patches can only be applied when available, we sometimes apply virtual patches (via Fastly) within days, if not hours, before direct patches are available. ; ; We monitor the security alerts for the programming languages we use (including libraries) and monitor OWASP.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Internal monitoring tools as well as those from hosting providers, such as AWS GuardDuty, are used to detect any potential Indicators of Compromise (IoCs). In case an IoC is detected or notified in some other way, a rigorous response plan is put in place. This plan contains steps for identification, containment, eradication, recovery, and after-action reviews. The response time is determined by the level of threat posed to our customers.
• 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: We have established standard procedures for common occurrences. Users can submit incident reports through our service desk. Incident reports are available on request and typically provided in PDF format.

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
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  As a software company, we recognise the importance of reducing our carbon footprint and protecting the environment. Our commitment to sustainability is reflected in our documented Environmental Policy, which outlines our efforts to minimise our impact on the environment.; ; We believe that remote working arrangements, minimal impact open plan office designs, and the provision of infrastructure for our staff to minimise their individual carbon footprints are key to achieving our goal of reducing our carbon footprint. As an early adopter of these practices, we have been able to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions significantly.; ; Moreover, we utilise remote communication software extensively to minimise emissions from travel and transportation during project delivery. This approach not only helps us reduce our carbon footprint but also allows our staff to invest the maximum available time in our clients, thereby optimising the quality and quantity of our project delivery.; ; We believe that by taking these steps, we are doing our part in the fight against climate change.

  Tackling economic inequality

  At District Engage, we're dedicated to building social impact software that empowers governments and organisations to tackle economic inequality. Our platform enables transparent and inclusive participation, helping policymakers understand the unique needs of all citizens. District Engage bridges the gap between communities and decision-makers by fostering open dialogue through tools like surveys, forums, and comprehensive reporting. This empowers marginalised voices to influence policies, ensuring equitable economic development. Our commitment to user-centric design ensures that diverse perspectives drive impactful change, making meaningful strides towards reducing economic disparity.

  Equal opportunity

  We have an Equal Opportunity Policy that addresses discrimination and equal treatment of diverse groups. It covers matters such as diversity and inclusion for a business of our size and nature. We also have a Grievance and Dispute Policy in place to address any concerns around diversity or inclusion.; ; As a small business in the information technology industry, we understand our options for making a significant impact on diversity, reconciliation, and self-determination are limited. However, we have a company-wide approach to recruitment that prioritises inclusion and diversity. Our recruitment approach adheres to principles enshrined in our Equal Opportunity Policy. Our HR and interviewing staff give weight to matters of diversity and target disadvantaged and minority groups when recruiting for all roles.; ; We provide training and ongoing education for new and existing staff on the importance of inclusion, diversity, and equality in the workplace. We employed a professional HR manager to help with implementing these programs.

  Wellbeing

  We understand the importance of promoting employee wellbeing. We have implemented a comprehensive well-being policy that focuses on physical, mental, and emotional health. Our policy includes regular health check-ups, access to fitness facilities, and flexible work arrangements to help employees maintain a healthy work-life balance. We also provide mental health resources, such as counseling services and support groups, to help employees manage stress and other mental health challenges. Additionally, we encourage employees to take breaks and recharge during the workday, and we prioritise a positive and supportive work environment. By prioritising employee wellbeing, we aim to create a healthier, happier, and more productive workplace culture that benefits both our employees and our company's overall success.

Pricing

• Price: £6,000 to £50,000 a licence a year
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Free trials are offered for 4 months to enable users to effectively evaluate the platform through launching and completing a public consultation. All consultation tools and reporting features are available, limits are applied to projects, admins, and registered users. Please take a look at the pricebook for more information.

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 simon@district.au. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.