CIPHR

CIPHR Connect - CIPHR HR Secure Human Resources Software as a Service

SaaS Human Resource People Management Software, supporting employee lifecycle management, talent attraction, hire and retention, web based recruitment, candidate onboarding and employment details including absence, pay, performance and appraisal, benefits and remuneration, and documents. Business systems integration, including Active Directory, LMS, payroll, implementation, consultancy and managed services.

Features

• HR & People Management, browser and mobile self-service
• Employee Onboarding, Compliance, Policy acceptance and document management features
• Employee training, Learning Management incl. Content, Performance Management, Online appraisal
• Payroll software, Bureau, outsourced Payroll, Expenses, Benefits, Total rewards, ePayslips
• Absence Management, holiday, sickness entitlements and Timesheet Recording
• Management Information, Standard and Bespoke Reporting, Data Analysis and Dashboards
• Talent Attraction, e-Recruitment, candidate management and candidate onboarding
• Compliance support incl. case management, HR safeguarding and checks
• Configurable options for form creation and field creation.
• Secure role based access with Multi Factor authentication available

Benefits

• Secure public cloud data storage resource data management
• Secure data access and management acessible 24/7 on multiple devices
• Improve performance and retention via effective talent management
• Pay management and processing, reward, benefits, expenses and electronic payslips
• Reduce unauthorised absence via accurate Bradford Factor reporting and alerts
• Provide real time reporting, analytics and Management Information
• Reduce recruitment costs, time to hire and increase retention
• Compliance via employee relations, background checks and secure data management
• Improve employee engagement through learning, content, survey and recognition
• Eliminate paper, using eSign and secure, remote access to documents

£10,000 a unit a year

• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

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

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

256254137051353

Contact

Jade Trickett
01628814000
sales@ciphr.com

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: CIPHR can integrate with a wide range of business systems, including; active directory, payrolls, finance, school management system, LMS, benefits, health & safety, employee recognition and time and attendance.
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: Ciphr is accessed via supported browsers, latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari. Users will require access to the Internet to access the service and to be suitably trained.
• System requirements:
  • Access to the Internet via supported browsers
  • An appropriate account with AdobeSign or DocuSign to use e-sign
  • License with Broadbean/Vacancy Poster to use job board posting

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Responses provided in line with published SLA and subject to priority from under 4 hours to 48 hours. User support is available as standard during working hours (0900-1730) Monday to Friday, excluding UK Public Holidays.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: Web chat
• Web chat support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Web chat accessibility testing: Ciphr utilises Zendesk Chat. Zendesk uses the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT), to publish an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR), which documents an audit of our systems relative to WCAG 2.1 AA performed by a third party accessibility vendor.
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Ongoing communication and relationship management will encompass: support via allocated Ciphr Customer Success Manager through regular meetings and review, service Updates via email, Ciphr Social Media, Ciphr Customer Hub via SharePoint online, ‘update’ communication via email, Ciphr Academy – online learning materials and content, regular online webinars to customers. Ciphr is a 24/7 available solution, subject to any planned downtime covered under the standard Ciphr SLA. Ciphr support is designed to provide clients with a variety of ways of getting the most out of their solutions and included within the annual subscription charge: Customer Care telephone support between 09:00 and 17:30. Monday to Friday (excluding UK bank holidays) , Customer Success support, regular news update bulletins, free legislative and software updates. The Customer Care team can be contacted by telephone, online support portal and live chat. Service Requests are automatically logged and a response, including a reference number will be emailed to the requester. As a subscription-based service, all functional and maintenance upgrades will be covered under the annual subscription fee. ; Ciphr SaaS Service Levels are set out in Ciphr Terms and Conditions. Standard User Support and Technical Infrastructure Support is included as part of the Annual SaaS Subscription Fee.
• Support available to third parties: No

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Full implementation services are available to support robust and flexible project planning, management and coordination, risk management and change control, appropriate systems consultancy, guidance and support, data migration, and comprehensive education and learning via the Ciphr Academy. All services will be delivered remotely.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • ODF
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: The Customer may request a copy of the customer data held by Ciphr on the SaaS Services at any time during a paid Subscription Period. Ciphr shall provide the customer with a copy of the Customer Data in the form of a standard CSV file to an SFTP site at no charge to the customer. Users with appropriate security access can export data in a variety of formats, including Excel, CSV and PDF. Provision of data extracts in any other format will require scoping and services at standard daily rate. In compliance with applicable DPL, on contract end, Ciphr will securely return and/or destroy customer data in its possession.
• End-of-contract process: At the end of the contract the service will be terminated and in compliance with applicable DPL, all customer data and content will be securely returned and/or or deleted.

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: All features can be accessed via supported browsers on any device. For smaller screen devices a mobile optimised site is available for the most commonly used features such as booking time off and checking employee directory details and viewing team absence details.
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: None or don’t know
• Description of service interface: Intuitive UI providing access to different user roles to different areas of functionality and groups of records and data.
• Accessibility standards: None or don’t know
• Description of accessibility: Program to date enables compliance with WCAG2.1AA in common areas (pages allow for keyboard-only interactions; Arias used to allow screen readers to describe each function), with other areas to follow. In addition to current compliance, the Customer, via standard security, can define features available to specific user groups (e.g., in “Time Off”, enabling access to Time Off page supporting text management, whilst hiding the calendar, which, via its visual representation, may not lend itself to aspects of accessibility compliance. ; ; Ciphr is committed to a programme of development, with accessibility considerations/compliance with applicable standards a core tenet of planning, and delivery.
• Accessibility testing: The system has been tested with screen readers (including JAWS), has been assessed in depth by accessibility representatives of existing customers, and has been in use successfully by existing customers.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: Ciphr’s RESTful API facilitates integration with a wide range of different applications. Using industry-standard instructions (known as ‘verbs’) – GET (read data), POST (write data), PUT (update data) and DELETE (delete data) – to interact with other applications via HTTPS. API keys are unique for each client, and for each connection. Extra security can be added with domain name and IP mapping, so only certain machines and users are granted access to data held in Ciphr. API Requests returns data in two formats as required; (XML and JSON). API keys can be purchased individually or via enterprise licencing with configuration services for each key. Customers are able to manage API keys through the user interface to enable and disable as required. Deliverables and associated fees based upon standard available API endpoints only. Changes to fields made available through each key are at Ciphr's discretion, conducted by Ciphr on request and may incur service charges.; Ciphr also offers secure web services, configurable to allow authorised users to download pre-defined data queries. Changes to these queries would be made through the account manager or Customer Care team. These requests would be initiated by the customer and are conducted across port 443 (HTTPS).
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: HTML
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: As a one to many SaaS Service, Ciphr supports tailored customer led configuration vs "customisation". Ciphr is extremely flexible and can be customised through configurable options which include; adding fields, additional pages, tabs and categories of data. Some configurable options are global and others are specific to individual users. Users can configure their own dashboards by choosing which charts and widgets to show and where on the page they are displayed. Workflows can be configured and assigned, reports designed and added to user libraries and on boarding streams created. Configurable options are unaffected by system updates.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: All services are load balanced and support scaling technologies, where appropriate, to ensure that customers actions do not impact the performance of any other tenant within the environment.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Reports on service metrics are available on request but may incur a charge, subject to the specific metric or frequency of request. Day rate listed in the SFIA.
• Reporting types: Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• 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
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
• Penetration testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Penetration testing approach: ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a CHECK service provider
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: All of the customer databases are encrypted using SQL TDE and the encryption strength used is AES256. Databases can only be decrypted on the SQL servers within Ciphr’s cloud by appropriately trained Ciphr support personnel.
• 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: Users with appropriate security access and Report Design licence can export data in a variety of formats, including Excel, CSV and PDF.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • .xlsx
  • PDF
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • .xlsx
  • PDF
  • Microsoft Word
  • Using Ciphr API

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Other
• Other protection between networks: Customer data is stored in encrypted database unique to that customer. Database and service accounts that are unique to each customer. The entire service is supplied behind multiple firewalls that feature IPS/IDS. All traffic into the environment is over secure channels (Port 443, 22). An active protective monitoring solution is installed and configured to provide alerts based on suspicious activity. These alerts are appropriately actioned and responded to by the Ciphr SaaS Maintenance team.
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Other
• Other protection within supplier network: The environment is divided into different network segments that all pass through firewalls with IPS/IDS and strict access control lists. An active protective monitoring solution is installed and configured to provide alerts based on suspicious activity. These alerts are appropriately actioned and responded to by the Ciphr SaaS Maintenance team.

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: System Environment Downtime (SED) is the total number of hours in a calendar month that the System Environment is unavailable for the Customer’s use during System Environment Operational (SEO) Hours and is expressed as a percentage of Systems Environment.; Operational Hours.; SED shall only include those hours of unavailability where the cause of any failure is primarily the responsibility of Ciphr or its contractors.; SED is calculated as the total hours of downtime in a calendar month that have accumulated from Incidents during SEO Hours, (where those Incidents have had downtime more than 5 minutes) plus Planned, Unplanned or Urgent Works carried out during SEO Hours in the same period divided by SEO Hours in the same period times 100%. SED so calculated shall not exceed 3% in any calendar Month.; Expressly excluded from any SED calculations is Downtime due to force majeure, faults in Third Party Software, Customer Software or any upgrade thereto, failure by the Customer to fulfil Customer Obligations or other reasons not within the responsibility of Ciphr and its contractors, including without limitation the Customer or Customer User’s inability to access the System Environment due to a public communications facility or network including the Internet.
• Approach to resilience: The Ciphr SaaS environment takes advantage of Azure Availability Zones (Separate datacentre within the same region that have independent power, cooling, and networking infrastructure.) In an event of a failure in a single zone all traffic is redirected to the remaining availability zones. In addition, we take regular back-up that use Geo-redundant storage (GRS) to replicate the data to a second region 100s of miles apart.
• Outage reporting: The communication of any service outage would initially be handled by our Customer Care team. The method of the communication would typically be via email but dependant on the nature of the outage.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
  • Other
• Other user authentication: Integration with Active Directory and Single Sign on using Azure or Google for authentication is also possible.
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Access to the Ciphr SaaS environment is only granted to certain employees based on their job role in the organisation. Those employees with access only have permissions according to the requirement of the work they will be carrying out in the Ciphr SaaS environment. All of the Ciphr employees are trained to a high standard of awareness in relation to security surrounding the information assets and; SaaS environment in general.
• 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
  • Other
• Description of management access authentication: Integration with Active Directory and Single Sign on using Azure or Google for authentication is also possible.

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 contact the support team to get audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: Between 1 month and 6 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: BSI Group
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 20/10/2023
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: The scope of Ciphr's ISO27001 certification is "The Information Security Management System in relation to the development, provision and support of software and services including all employees, assets and infrastructure in which it operates" and no part of the business is excluded from scope.
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: No

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: Our ISO27001:2013 accredited policies and procedures are enforced contractually. All security incidents are raised to Ciphr's Information security team who then review and record the details of the incident. An appropriate set of actions will then be carried out in response to the incident. These incidents are regularly reviewed at Ciphr's scheduled Information Security Forum meetings which include board level attendance.

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: All changes to the environment are raised, reviewed and approved/rejected through Ciphr's change control policy. This policy has been externally reviewed and successfully accredited to ISO27001:2013.
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: The vulnerability of each asset is addressed according to the effect a security incident would have on an asset or group of assets accordingly and the degree of control/assurance required reducing the vulnerability to the threat. All assets are reviewed on a regular basis to validate that they are appropriately patched and patches are routinely applied on a weekly basis unless required more urgently. Our Information Security team are continually reviewing multiple official sources for news relating to vulnerabilities and threats.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: The SaaS environment is actively guarded 24/7 by a protective monitoring solution. This produces alerts and reports automatically, based on suspicious traffic and activity within the environment. Alerts are then actioned by our Ciphr SaaS Maintenance Team as appropriate depending on its nature.
• 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: Security incident management records are centrally maintained, updated and monitored via the ISMS. All employees are aware of what constitutes an actual or potential security incident, how to report the incident and who to report the incident to. The responsibility for the oversight of breaches of technical and physical security rests with the Director of Information Security and IT.

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

  Ciphr is ISO14001 accredited and operates formal policies and standards in respect of environment and sustainability. In addition to formal company commitments and policy, it is the responsibility of all employees to consider the impact of their actions on the environment and to always act in ways that minimise that impact. Ciphr does the following in order to uphold its commitment to minimising its impact on the environment.; ; The company is committed to reducing and minimising waste wherever possible by evaluating its operations and ensuring they are as efficient as possible. We are committed to recycling and reuse internally, therefore reducing the impact and cost of landfill use caused by the company. The company consider environmental issues as part of its training / induction programme and enlist new recruits’ support in meeting the company’s aim. All staff will be made aware of how / where to recycle during their training / induction.; ; We consider environmental issues when sourcing products and supplies for the company, by choosing environmentally friendly materials for example. We comply with all relevant environmental legislation. We encourage the adoption of similar principles by our suppliers and customers. All service delivery is via remote online activity. Where any office attendance is required (by exception), we promote environmentally friendly travel to work such as car sharing, cycling and public transport. We will always ensure that business travel is necessary, and consider more environmentally friendly options first.

  Tackling economic inequality

  Ciphr is an accredited Living Wage Employer. Ciphr operates formal policies and procedures in respect of compliance with the Modern Slavery Act (2015) to which all employees are required to confirm understanding & acceptance. Ciphr also stipulates equivalent compliance and policies on all its suppliers, and also stipulates such compliance within its own contract with its customers.; ; As an HR specialist, people-centric business, Ciphr operates a comprehensive Apprenticeship Scheme, supports equality of opportunity both locally and nationally, and promotes extensive training & development schemes to facilitate career progression and opportunity. Ciphr operates formal CSR practices, backed by senior management, and supports local and national charitable causes.; ; All obligations relating to anti-bribery, anti-tax evasion facilitation and anti-corruption including, but not limited to, the Bribery Act 2010, the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the Criminal Finances Act 2017, are covered in Clause 15 of our Ciphr SaaS Agreement which can be viewed via Ciphr’s Customer Portal.

  Equal opportunity

  Ciphr is committed to promoting equality of opportunity for all staff and job applicants. We aim to; create a working environment in which all individuals are able to make best use of their skills, free from; discrimination or harassment, and in which all decisions are based on merit.; We do not discriminate against staff on the basis of age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partner; status, pregnancy or maternity, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex or; sexual orientation (protected characteristics).; The principles of non-discrimination and equality of opportunity also apply to the way in which individuals; engaged by and with Ciphr should treat visitors, clients, customers, suppliers and former staff; members.; All individuals engaged with Ciphr have a duty to act in accordance with this policy and treat colleagues; with dignity at all times, and not to discriminate against or harass other individuals, regardless of their status. In addition to policy familiarisation, acceptance and adherence, formal education and learning is provided for all employees as they on board into Ciphr, as well as on an ongoing basis, via the People Team and the online Ciphr Academy Learning platform regarding compliance with applicable law, compliance with policy and with best practice.

  Wellbeing

  As a people focused business, Ciphr is committed to positively supporting employee physical and mental wellbeing. Ciphr utilises its own technology to gather feedback, including but not restricted to, employee sentiment and internal NPS survey.; Ciphr supports via several channels: support work life balance via the offering of flexible working options that suit both employees and the business, gym membership loan scheme, social events, charity/volunteer leave, birthday leave and National Trust membership.; ; Benefits including: private medical and/or dental cover, generous annual leave allowance (plus option to buy or sell leave), automatic pension enrolment, group life assurance, personal development with skills training for the role employees are in, as well as looking at where they want to progress to in the future.; ; Having and promoting a strong culture of health and wellbeing is a key priority when it comes to our people, and we want employees to have access to the benefits, tools and support that are needed to be the best they can be, at home and at work. In addition to the above, as part of our ongoing wellbeing efforts, we having been exploring a range of options to keep us all fit, in mind and body, which now drives a scheduled wellbeing programme, driven by a dedicated wellbeing team. Examples of 2024 activities include regular seminars to cover all aspects of health and fitness – both physical and mental, provided by a specialist third party, plus a set of webinar sessions focused on 'cultivating a positive mindset', again, delivered by a specialist third party organisation.

Pricing

• Price: £10,000 a unit a year
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Pre-agreement/order, Ciphr can provide a vanilla demonstration site for evaluation at no charge, for an agreed set period.
• Link to free trial: URL will be provided on request.

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