INSIGHT DIRECT (UK) LTD

Custom Question Answering (Azure AI Language)

Custom Question Answering enables building FAQ and QnA bots from content. It extracts question-answer pairs from documents and URLs. The service provides natural language query capabilities.

Features

• Enables FAQ bot creation from documents
• Supports URL and file ingestion
• Provides multi-turn conversation support
• Enables active learning suggestions
• Supports custom synonyms
• Provides confidence scoring
• Enables rich text responses
• Supports multiple languages
• Provides REST API access
• Enables integration with bot services

Benefits

• Enables FAQ bot creation from documents
• Supports URL and file ingestion
• Provides multi-turn conversation support
• Enables active learning suggestions
• Supports custom synonyms
• Provides confidence scoring
• Enables rich text responses
• Supports multiple languages
• Provides REST API access
• Enables integration with bot services

• 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 pstenderteam@insight.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 15

Service ID

225032076237773

Contact

Public Sector Tender Team
0344 846 3333
pstenderteam@insight.com

About your service

• Service categories:

  PaaS

  AI Platforms

  • AI software services
  • Search and knowledge discovery

Service scope

• Service constraints: Azure subscription limits and quotas - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/management/azure-subscription-service-limits
• System requirements: Service selection dictates system requirements; consult online pages for details.
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Yes
• Support response times: The Initial Response Time varies with both the support plan and the Business Impact of the request (also known as Severity). For a breakdown of initial response times by several level and business impact, please visit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/plans/response/; Weekend support availability varies depending on your Azure support plan. For more information, please visit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/plans/
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: Yes
• Web chat support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Web chat accessibility testing: We test all our services and support functions extensively with our customers and partner before release.
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Microsoft provides four (4) Azure support plan options, which includes various levels of technical account management and cloud support engineering. The support options and cost include the following:; - BASIC (included for all Azure customers); - DEVELOPER ; - STANDARD ; - PROFESSIONAL DIRECT; - UNIFIED SUPPORT; For more information, visit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/plans/ and https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/unifiedsupport/overview
• Support available to third parties: Yes
• AI chatbot: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Microsoft provides all Azure customers with 24/7 self-help resources, including Microsoft Learn, Azure Portal how-to videos, documentation, and community support. For more information, visit:; - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support; - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/; - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/videos/; - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/community/
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: As a customer, you maintain ownership of your data—the content, personal and other data you provide for storing and hosting in Azure services. Microsoft will not store or process customer data outside the geography you specify, except for certain non-regional services. You are also in control of any additional geographies where you decide to deploy your solutions or replicate your data.; Azure has established internal records-retention requirements for back-end data. You are responsible for identifying your own record retention requirements. For records that are stored in Azure, you are responsible for extracting your data and retaining your content outside of Azure for a customer-specified retention period.; Azure allows you to export data and audit reports from the product. The exports are saved locally to retain the information for a customer-defined retention time period.; For more information on protection of customer data, visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security/fundamentals/protection-customer-data
• End-of-contract process: Microsoft is governed by strict standards and follows specific processes for removing cloud customer data from systems under our control, overwriting storage resources before reuse, and purging or destroying decommissioned hardware. In our Online Service Terms, Microsoft contractually commits to specific processes when a customer leaves a cloud service or the subscription expires. This includes deleting customer data from systems under our control.; ; Please see Data Protection Addendum for full and up to date details about how Microsoft manages your data. https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/docs/view/Microsoft-Products-and-Services-Data-Protection-Addendum-DPA?lang=1
• Documentation accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AA

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Using the web interface: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-portal/azure-portal-supported-browsers-devices
• Web interface accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Web interface accessibility testing: We test all our services and support functions extensively with our customers and partner before release.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: Azure users can set up services and make changes via Microsoft’s API using Azure API Management. To set up a service, users can sign in to the Azure portal, navigate to your API Management instance, and create a resource from the Azure portal menu. Detailed instructions for setting up services are available at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/api-management/get-started-create-service-instance; From the API Management section of the Azure Portal, users can make changes using by selecting ""Add API"" and following the steps listed at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/api-management/add-api-manually; There are some limitations when using Azure API Management. For instance, the maximum number of subscription (API Keys) per service instance is 500. Additional API import restrictions are available at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/api-management/api-management-api-import-restrictions
• API automation tools: Other
• Other API automation tools: Azure API Management
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • HTML
  • Other
• Command line interface: No

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Prometheus metrics are collected from Kubernetes clusters including Azure Kubernetes service (AKS) and use industry standard tools for analyzing and alerting such as PromQL and Grafana.
• Usage notifications: Yes
• Usage reporting:
  • Email
  • SMS
  • Other
• Other usage reporting: Voice Call (Phone call)Mobile Push Notification (Azure mobile app)Webhook (HTTP POST)Secure WebhookAzure FunctionLogic AppAzure Automation RunbookITSM Integration (ServiceNow, BMC, System Center, etc.)Event HubEmail to Azure Resource Manager Role
• Optimising consumption: Yes
• Automatic scaling: No

Analytics

• Infrastructure or application metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Other
• Other metrics: TBA
• Reporting types:
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
• Resource tagging: Yes
• FOCUS resource tagging: Yes

Resellers

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

Staff security

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

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: No
• Datacentre security standards: Supplier-defined controls
• Penetration testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Penetration testing approach: Another external penetration testing organisation
• Protecting data at rest: Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/explore/trusted-cloud/privacy/
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001
• Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation / Secure Erase

Backup and recovery

• What’s backed up:
  • Azure VMs
  • SQL Server and SAP HANA in Azure VMs
  • Azure File Shares
  • On‑premises workloads via MARS, MABS, or DPM agents
  • Azure Managed Disks and VMware/Hyper‑V environments using MABS/DPM
  • Backup data is stored in Recovery Services Vaults
• Backup controls: Users control Azure backups through backup policies, which define the backup schedule, frequency, retention, and backup type. Policies automate when backups run and how long recovery points are kept. Users can also run on‑demand backups for immediate protection. Additionally, Azure Policy can enforce backup requirements across resources to ensure compliance and consistency.
• 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
• Backup and recovery: Yes
• RPO/RTO: Yes

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 employs robust encryption measures to safeguard customer data during transit. Here are the key aspects of data protection:; https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/explore/trusted-cloud/privacy/
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Other
• Other protection within supplier network: Microsoft secures data in transit internally within the Azure network and externally across the Internet to the end user. These include communication through Virtual Private Networks (utilizing IPsec/IKE encryption), Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 or later (via Azure components such as Application Gateway or Azure Front Door), protocols directly on the Azure virtual machines (such as Windows IPsec or SMB), and more.; Additionally, "encryption by default" using MACsec (an IEEE standard at the data-link layer) is enabled for all Azure traffic traveling between Azure datacenters to ensure confidentiality and integrity of customer data.

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Microsoft provides detailed service level agreement (SLA) metrics for all Azure components and services. To review SLAs for individual Azure services, visit https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/docs/view/Service-Level-Agreements-SLA-for-Online-Services
• Approach to resilience: Many Azure regions provide availability zones, which are separated groups of datacenters within a region. Availability zones are close enough to have low-latency connections to other availability zones. They're connected by a high-performance network with a round-trip latency of less than 2ms. However, availability zones are far enough apart to reduce the likelihood that more than one will be affected by local outages or weather. Availability zones have independent power, cooling, and networking infrastructure. They're designed so that if one zone experiences an outage, then regional services, capacity, and high availability are supported by the remaining zones. They help your data stay synchronized and accessible when things go wrong. Datacenter locations are selected by using rigorous vulnerability risk assessment criteria.; ; Furthermore, you have the ability to build high availability into application architecture by co-locating your computer, storage, networking, and data resources within a zone and replicating in other zones. Azure services that support availability zones fall into two categories:; - Zonal services: you pin the resource to a specific zone (e.g.,, virtual machines, managed disks, standard IP addresses), or; - Zone-redundant services: platform replicates automatically across zones (e.g., zone-redundant storage, SQL database)
• Outage reporting: Azure Service Health provides you with a customizable dashboard that tracks the health of your Azure services. In this dashboard, you can track active events like ongoing service issues, upcoming planned maintenance, or relevant health advisories. When events become inactive, they get placed in your health history for up to 90 days. Finally, you can use the Service Health dashboard to create and manage service health alerts that proactively notify you when service issues affect you. Service Health tracks four types of health events that may impact your resources:; - Service issues: Problems in the Azure services that affect you right now.; - Planned maintenance: Upcoming maintenance that can affect the availability of your services in the future.; - Health advisories: Changes in Azure services that require your attention. Examples include deprecation of Azure features or upgrade requirements (e.g., upgrade to a supported PHP framework).; - Security advisories: Security-related notifications or violations that may affect the availability of your Azure services.; ; Azure Resource Health: diagnose / get support for service problems that affect your Azure resources. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-health/resource-health-overview; ; Microsoft also offers public dashboards that provide service status across all Azure regions. ; - https://azure.status.microsoft/en-us/status; ; https://ms.portal.azure.com/#view/Microsoft_Azure_Health/AzureHealthBrowseBlade/~/serviceIssues

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Customer data is encrypted at rest by default when stored in Azure, and customers can control their own encryption keys in Azure Key Vault. Microsoft engineers rely heavily on logs to provide customer support. Azure has controls in place to restrict access to customer data for support and troubleshooting scenarios should that access be necessary. As part of the support workflow, Microsoft Purview Customer Lockbox puts customers in charge of approving or denying access to customer data by Microsoft engineers. Data encryption, JIT, Microsoft Purview Customer Lockbox provide appropriate risk mitigation to safeguard the confidentiality and integrity of customer data.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Devices users manage the service through: Directly from any device which may also be used for normal business (for example web browsing or viewing external email)

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

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards:
  • CSA CSM version 4.0
  • ISO/IEC 27001
  • Other
• Other security governance standards: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/what-is-a-data-governance/?ef_id=_k_8f5206262c361a453937603366aa0819_k_&OCID=AIDcmm6oh50i8d_SEM__k_8f5206262c361a453937603366aa0819_k_&msclkid=8f5206262c361a453937603366aa0819
• Information security policies and processes: An Information Security Policy exists to provide Microsoft staff and contractor staff with a current set of clear and concise Information Security Policies including their roles and responsibilities related to information assets and security. These policies provide direction for the appropriate protection of Microsoft 365. The Information Security Policy has been created as a component of an overall Information Security Management System (ISMS) for Microsoft 365.; The Information Security Policy is made available to new and existing Microsoft 365 employees for review as part of an information security education and awareness program. ; A version of the Information Security Policy is available for download from the Service Trust Portal (STP) at https://servicetrust.microsoft.com/; ; Azure uses the Microsoft Security Policy (MSP) to govern its information systems, which include the following components:; - Infrastructure: ; - Software: ; - People: ; - Procedures: ; - Data: ; ; Microsoft's risk management aligns to the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework. ERM enables the overall enterprise risk management process and works with management across the enterprise to identify and ensure accountability for Microsoft's most significant risks. ; ; Each online service follows ERM guidance to manage risks across Microsoft services. ; ; For more information, visit: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/compliance/assurance/assurance-governance

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Configuration and change management approach: Azure addresses change management practices through Microsoft's configuration management policy, which is part of the Microsoft Security Policy (MSP) and the Microsoft Security Program Policy (MSPP). Azure implements the configuration management policy and associated controls through a series of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), including the Microsoft Change Management Standard, the Azure Software Change and Release Management SOP, Azure Hardware Change and Release Management SOP. The Azure SOPs cover the change management process around information system design, development, and implementation of changes and align with Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) process.; For additional details, https://servicetrust.microsoft.com/viewpage/FedRAMP
• Vulnerability management type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Azure uses integrated deployment systems to manage the distribution and installation of security updates for Microsoft software. Azure is also able to draw on the resources of the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC). The MSRC identifies, monitors, responds to, and resolves security incidents and cloud vulnerabilities around-the-clock, every day of the year.; Vulnerability scanning is performed on server operating systems, databases, and network devices. The vulnerability scans are performed on a quarterly basis at a minimum. Azure contracts with independent assessors to perform penetration testing of the Azure boundary. Red-team exercises are also routinely performed.
• Protective monitoring type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Azure security has defined requirements for active monitoring. Service teams configure active monitoring tools to provide time alerts to Azure security personnel in situations that require immediate action.; Azure continuously monitors and detects risk in your organization, even when devices aren’t connected to the corporate network. ; Microsoft conducts thorough investigations examining the risky users and Azure Monitor activity logs to confirm the compromise and contain the exposure immediately, taking the required steps to identify and evict the threat actor quickly. ; The Initial Response Time varies with both the support plan and the Business Impact of the request. Please visit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/plans/response/
• Incident management type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v4.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Incident management approach: If Microsoft notices unauthorized access to customer data that's stored on its equipment or in its facilities, or it notices unauthorized access to such equipment or facilities resulting in loss, disclosure, or alteration of customer data, Microsoft takes the following actions:; - Promptly notifies the customer ; - Promptly investigates the security incident and provides customers detailed information about the security incident.; - Takes prompt steps to mitigates and minimize any damage resulting from the security incident.; The Azure security incident management team is responsible for managing security incidents and ensuring the involvement of specialist teams when necessary.
• Post-quantum cryptography secure: No

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 v4.0)

Separation between users

• Virtualisation technology used to keep applications and users sharing the same infrastructure apart: No

Energy efficiency

• Energy-efficient datacentres: No

Pricing

• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Depending upon the service there are range of trial offerings available. There is also a free trial of Azure
• Link to free trial: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/free/search/?ef_id=_k_d00f79182b1a1d5b7a5a1f0d4a8f4aaf_k_&OCID=AIDcmm3bvqzxp1_SEM__k_d00f79182b1a1d5b7a5a1f0d4a8f4aaf_k_&msclkid=d00f79182b1a1d5b7a5a1f0d4a8f4aaf

Discount

• Provide your minimum discount applicable to your baseline prices: 0%

Formula for calculating price of your services

• Formula for calculating price of your services:

  Which of the core deployment models you intend to offer

  • Public Cloud
  • Private Cloud

  Public Cloud - Formula for calculating price of your services

  ---

  Total Cost

  The Total Cost for a buyer's call off requirement in a Public Cloud Deployment

  =

  Baseline Pricing

  G-Cloud Digital Marketplace

  Baseline Pricing - Web link

  https://www.gov.uk/digital-marketplace

  -

  Minimum Discounting

  0%

  +

  Onboarding Activity

  Onboarding costs may vary based on your specific requirements, please confirm with suppliers during the clarification process

  +

  Additional sources of cost

  Unmanaged cloud activity can increase costs and risk for public sector buyers. Key drivers include data movement (inter‑region/zone egress, CDN origin fetches, Azure ExpressRoute metered egress, AWS NAT Gateway, Google Cloud Interconnect/NAT), storage and backup (snapshot sprawl, cold‑tier retrieval, Azure Archive rehydration, AWS Glacier tier fees, Google Coldline early deletion), compute/database inefficiencies (oversized instances, unattached disks/IPs, mis‑tuned autoscaling, misaligned reserved commitments), observability/serverless overhead (log ingestion/retention in Azure Log Analytics, AWS CloudWatch, Google Cloud Logging; serverless retries and event fan‑out), licensing/marketplace charges, and governance gaps (untagged resources, idle dev/test).; Insight mitigates these risks with egress‑aware architecture reviews, commitment management, tagging and lifecycle policies, budget alerts, and chargeback frameworks aligned to ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials and NCSC guidance. Changes are validated against performance, security and compliance requirements prior to implementation to avoid service disruption. Typical engagements reduce unmanaged cost growth by 20–30%, improving accountability through transparent reporting and showback/chargeback. Continuous optimisation ensures commitments track actual usage and observability and storage footprints remain controlled, helping buyers maintain predictable budgets, meet governance obligations and reinvest savings into priority services.

  -

  Additional sources of cost reduction

  Insight enables UK public sector organisations to achieve predictable, sustainable cloud cost reductions across Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud. As an Azure Expert MSP, AWS Premier Consulting Partner and Google Cloud Premier Partner, we apply proven methodologies aligned with recognised standards such as ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials and NCSC guidance.; Sources of cost reduction include:; ; Reserved Instance and Savings Plan optimisation to maximise discounts.; Rightsizing and workload alignment to eliminate overprovisioning.; Automated assessments and governance frameworks to detect inefficiencies early and enforce compliance.; Proprietary dashboards for real-time spend visibility and scheduled reviews for continuous optimisation.; ; Our approach combines automation with expert-led reviews, ensuring savings without service disruption or security compromise. Typical engagements deliver 20–30% cost reductions across multi-cloud environments. For example, Insight helped a UK government agency cut Azure costs by 28%, reinvesting savings into public-facing digital services.; Risk mitigation is central to our process: optimisation changes are validated against performance and compliance requirements before implementation. Buyers benefit from transparent reporting, predictable budgets and reinvestment opportunities, all delivered through a structured, repeatable methodology tailored to public sector needs.

  ---

  Private Cloud - Formula for calculating price of your services

  ---

  Total Cost

  The Total Cost for a buyer's call off requirement in a Private Cloud Deployment

  =

  Baseline Pricing

  G-Cloud Digital Marketplace

  -

  Minimum Discounting

  0%

  +

  Onboarding Activity

  Onboarding costs may vary based on your specific requirements, please confirm with suppliers during the clarification process

  +

  Additional sources of cost

  Unmanaged cloud activity can increase costs and risk for public sector buyers. Key drivers include data movement (inter‑region/zone egress, CDN origin fetches, Azure ExpressRoute metered egress, AWS NAT Gateway, Google Cloud Interconnect/NAT), storage and backup (snapshot sprawl, cold‑tier retrieval, Azure Archive rehydration, AWS Glacier tier fees, Google Coldline early deletion), compute/database inefficiencies (oversized instances, unattached disks/IPs, mis‑tuned autoscaling, misaligned reserved commitments), observability/serverless overhead (log ingestion/retention in Azure Log Analytics, AWS CloudWatch, Google Cloud Logging; serverless retries and event fan‑out), licensing/marketplace charges, and governance gaps (untagged resources, idle dev/test).; Insight mitigates these risks with egress‑aware architecture reviews, commitment management, tagging and lifecycle policies, budget alerts, and chargeback frameworks aligned to ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials and NCSC guidance. Changes are validated against performance, security and compliance requirements prior to implementation to avoid service disruption. Typical engagements reduce unmanaged cost growth by 20–30%, improving accountability through transparent reporting and showback/chargeback. Continuous optimisation ensures commitments track actual usage and observability and storage footprints remain controlled, helping buyers maintain predictable budgets, meet governance obligations and reinvest savings into priority services.

  -

  Additional sources of cost reduction

  Insight enables UK public sector organisations to achieve predictable, sustainable cloud cost reductions across Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud. As an Azure Expert MSP, AWS Premier Consulting Partner and Google Cloud Premier Partner, we apply proven methodologies aligned with recognised standards such as ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials and NCSC guidance.; Sources of cost reduction include:; ; Reserved Instance and Savings Plan optimisation to maximise discounts.; Rightsizing and workload alignment to eliminate overprovisioning.; Automated assessments and governance frameworks to detect inefficiencies early and enforce compliance.; Proprietary dashboards for real-time spend visibility and scheduled reviews for continuous optimisation.; ; Our approach combines automation with expert-led reviews, ensuring savings without service disruption or security compromise. Typical engagements deliver 20–30% cost reductions across multi-cloud environments. For example, Insight helped a UK government agency cut Azure costs by 28%, reinvesting savings into public-facing digital services.; Risk mitigation is central to our process: optimisation changes are validated against performance and compliance requirements before implementation. Buyers benefit from transparent reporting, predictable budgets and reinvestment opportunities, all delivered through a structured, repeatable methodology tailored to public sector needs.

  ---

• Total Cost: The Total Cost for a buyer's call off requirement in a Public Cloud Deployment
• Baseline Pricing: G-Cloud Digital Marketplace
• Baseline Pricing - Web link: https://www.gov.uk/digital-marketplace
• Minimum Discounting: 0%
• Onboarding Activity: Onboarding costs may vary based on your specific requirements, please confirm with suppliers during the clarification process
• Additional sources of cost: Unmanaged cloud activity can increase costs and risk for public sector buyers. Key drivers include data movement (inter‑region/zone egress, CDN origin fetches, Azure ExpressRoute metered egress, AWS NAT Gateway, Google Cloud Interconnect/NAT), storage and backup (snapshot sprawl, cold‑tier retrieval, Azure Archive rehydration, AWS Glacier tier fees, Google Coldline early deletion), compute/database inefficiencies (oversized instances, unattached disks/IPs, mis‑tuned autoscaling, misaligned reserved commitments), observability/serverless overhead (log ingestion/retention in Azure Log Analytics, AWS CloudWatch, Google Cloud Logging; serverless retries and event fan‑out), licensing/marketplace charges, and governance gaps (untagged resources, idle dev/test).; Insight mitigates these risks with egress‑aware architecture reviews, commitment management, tagging and lifecycle policies, budget alerts, and chargeback frameworks aligned to ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials and NCSC guidance. Changes are validated against performance, security and compliance requirements prior to implementation to avoid service disruption. Typical engagements reduce unmanaged cost growth by 20–30%, improving accountability through transparent reporting and showback/chargeback. Continuous optimisation ensures commitments track actual usage and observability and storage footprints remain controlled, helping buyers maintain predictable budgets, meet governance obligations and reinvest savings into priority services.
• Additional sources of cost reduction: Insight enables UK public sector organisations to achieve predictable, sustainable cloud cost reductions across Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud. As an Azure Expert MSP, AWS Premier Consulting Partner and Google Cloud Premier Partner, we apply proven methodologies aligned with recognised standards such as ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials and NCSC guidance.; Sources of cost reduction include:; ; Reserved Instance and Savings Plan optimisation to maximise discounts.; Rightsizing and workload alignment to eliminate overprovisioning.; Automated assessments and governance frameworks to detect inefficiencies early and enforce compliance.; Proprietary dashboards for real-time spend visibility and scheduled reviews for continuous optimisation.; ; Our approach combines automation with expert-led reviews, ensuring savings without service disruption or security compromise. Typical engagements deliver 20–30% cost reductions across multi-cloud environments. For example, Insight helped a UK government agency cut Azure costs by 28%, reinvesting savings into public-facing digital services.; Risk mitigation is central to our process: optimisation changes are validated against performance and compliance requirements before implementation. Buyers benefit from transparent reporting, predictable budgets and reinvestment opportunities, all delivered through a structured, repeatable methodology tailored to public sector needs.
• Total Cost: The Total Cost for a buyer's call off requirement in a Private Cloud Deployment
• Baseline Pricing: G-Cloud Digital Marketplace
• Minimum Discounting: 0%
• Onboarding Activity: Onboarding costs may vary based on your specific requirements, please confirm with suppliers during the clarification process
• Additional sources of cost: Unmanaged cloud activity can increase costs and risk for public sector buyers. Key drivers include data movement (inter‑region/zone egress, CDN origin fetches, Azure ExpressRoute metered egress, AWS NAT Gateway, Google Cloud Interconnect/NAT), storage and backup (snapshot sprawl, cold‑tier retrieval, Azure Archive rehydration, AWS Glacier tier fees, Google Coldline early deletion), compute/database inefficiencies (oversized instances, unattached disks/IPs, mis‑tuned autoscaling, misaligned reserved commitments), observability/serverless overhead (log ingestion/retention in Azure Log Analytics, AWS CloudWatch, Google Cloud Logging; serverless retries and event fan‑out), licensing/marketplace charges, and governance gaps (untagged resources, idle dev/test).; Insight mitigates these risks with egress‑aware architecture reviews, commitment management, tagging and lifecycle policies, budget alerts, and chargeback frameworks aligned to ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials and NCSC guidance. Changes are validated against performance, security and compliance requirements prior to implementation to avoid service disruption. Typical engagements reduce unmanaged cost growth by 20–30%, improving accountability through transparent reporting and showback/chargeback. Continuous optimisation ensures commitments track actual usage and observability and storage footprints remain controlled, helping buyers maintain predictable budgets, meet governance obligations and reinvest savings into priority services.
• Additional sources of cost reduction: Insight enables UK public sector organisations to achieve predictable, sustainable cloud cost reductions across Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud. As an Azure Expert MSP, AWS Premier Consulting Partner and Google Cloud Premier Partner, we apply proven methodologies aligned with recognised standards such as ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials and NCSC guidance.; Sources of cost reduction include:; ; Reserved Instance and Savings Plan optimisation to maximise discounts.; Rightsizing and workload alignment to eliminate overprovisioning.; Automated assessments and governance frameworks to detect inefficiencies early and enforce compliance.; Proprietary dashboards for real-time spend visibility and scheduled reviews for continuous optimisation.; ; Our approach combines automation with expert-led reviews, ensuring savings without service disruption or security compromise. Typical engagements deliver 20–30% cost reductions across multi-cloud environments. For example, Insight helped a UK government agency cut Azure costs by 28%, reinvesting savings into public-facing digital services.; Risk mitigation is central to our process: optimisation changes are validated against performance and compliance requirements before implementation. Buyers benefit from transparent reporting, predictable budgets and reinvestment opportunities, all delivered through a structured, repeatable methodology tailored to public sector needs.

Mandatory certifications

• Mandatory certifications:

  Are you are bidding to offer IaaS and/or PaaS as a reseller or are you in sole control of the infrastructure

  Reseller

  Cloud service suppliers you intend to resell with evidence

  Organisation 1

  Organisation name

  AWS

  Website address/upload for organisation

  Website address

  Website address

  https://partners.amazonaws.com/partners/001E000000UfalBIAR/Insight%20Enterprises

  Organisation 2

  Organisation name

  Microsoft

  Website address/upload for organisation

  Website address

  Website address

  https://marketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/partners/8bc78177-662b-440b-ae00-bbc5bf193536/overview

  Organisation 3

  Organisation name

  Google

  Website address/upload for organisation

  Website address

  Website address

  https://cloud.google.com/find-a-partner/partner/insight-direct-uk-ltd

  Organisation 4

  Organisation name

  Salesforce

  Website address/upload for organisation

  Upload

  Upload

  Provided

  ISO 9001 certification

  Provided

  ISO 27001 certification

  Provided

  ISO 20000-1 certification

  Provided

  Are you reliant on the Cloud Service Provider for some accreditations

  Yes

Cyber Essentials

• Do you have a Cyber Essentials Plus certificate?: Yes
• Cyber Essentials Plus certificate Number: Cd8b1a78-44c7-4bb0-84d6-59a7506f3bba

Non-mandatory Standards and certifications

• ISO 28000:2022 certification: No
• Quality management systems (QMS): Yes
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Other security certifications: No

Social value

• Section B - Commitment for Future: Delivery:

  • Mission: Kick start economic growth. To secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 - with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off.

    Policy Outcome 1: Fair work: That offers fair wages and good working conditions. Help people get a job, stay in work, and progress in their careers, with good employment opportunities across the country. Notes: Where there is a large proportion of labour costs in the contract, commercial teams should consider MAC in Outcome 1 as a priority

    • Providing opportunities for, and measuring and monitoring of, staff workforce conditions over time, including employee engagement, involvement in decision-making and satisfaction and adapting to any changes in the results, with clear processes for acting on issues identified
    • Plans to engage the contract workforce in deciding the most important workplace issues to address
    • Ensuring new workers are informed of their right to join a trade union
    • Monitoring of employee engagement rates (by protected characteristic) and, where necessary, the development of actions to ensure all voices are heard across the diversity of the workforce
    • Employment contracts that reflect actual hours worked; steps taken to ensure employees understand their contracts and have the ability to review and adjust them if actual hours regularly exceed contracted hours
    • Activities that support an environment where staff are educated about, and feel empowered to, address their physical wellbeing
    • Activities that support an environment where staff are educated about and feel empowered to report and address bullying and harassment
    • Activities to cascade good practice on fair working conditions throughout the supply chain
    • Offer a pay and leave entitlement to all eligible staff who become kinship carers, ideally equivalent to statutory adoption pay and leave
    • Payment of more than the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage (as appropriate) to the contract workforce
    • Monitoring and reporting of gender and ethnicity pay gaps and plans to address them where necessary
    • Entitlement to sick pay for the contract workforce, with provision in place for any staff who do not meet the earnings threshold for statutory sick pay, payment of sick pay from day one of absence and payment of staff on the contract workforce who are off sick a replacement income of 100% of their usual earnings for as long as possible
    • Plans for an appropriate income replacement policy for staff who are required to spend time away from work to care for a sick dependent or close relative

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 pstenderteam@insight.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.