Blacklight Software

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Housing

Blacklight work with Microsoft Dynamics 365 to allow social housing providers to improve customer service and operational efficiency by better managing housing related processes and asset and tenant information.

Features

• Organisational business processes in Microsoft Dynamics 365
• Integrations with third party line-of-business systems
• Migration of data from other systems
• All mobile device friendly - responsive design
• Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Marketing, Project Service Automation Modules
• Self-Serve Portals (Dynamics 365 and bespoke .NET)
• Instant reporting through User and System Dashboards
• Ongoing support for Microsoft Dynamics 365
• Integration with existing housing management systems

Benefits

• Business Analysis, Development, UAT, Testing, Training, Go-live
• Microsoft Gold Partner
• Social Housing experience and track record
• Up-skill of internal staff
• One version of the truth through bi-directional integrations
• Increase Customer Satisfaction
• Save costs and time through automation
• Integrations: EDRM, Finance Systems, Asset Management Systems and many more
• Integrations with sector specific software
• Extensive social housing sector domain knowledge

£71.60 a person a month

• Education pricing available
• 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 Dylan.Hayes@blacklightsoftware.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

277275422242782

Contact

Dylan Hayes
01924640350
Dylan.Hayes@blacklightsoftware.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: Yes
• What software services is the service an extension to: Blacklight build solutions upon the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform.
• Cloud deployment model:
  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
  • Community cloud
  • Hybrid cloud
• Service constraints: None applicable.
• System requirements:
  • Processor - 1.9GHz x86- or x64-bit dual core processor
  • Memory - 2-GB RAM
  • Display - Super VGA with a resolution of 1024x768
  • Bandwidth greater than 1MB per second (125 KBps/Kilobyte per second)
  • Latency under 150 ms
  • Windows 11 - Microsoft Edge/Edge Legacy, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome
  • Windows 10 - Microsoft Edge/Edge Legacy, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome
  • Windows 8.1 - Microsoft Edge, Firefox or Chrome
  • Latest versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari
  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/marketing/browser-requirements

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Support Incidents are classified under the below levels depending on severity:; Priority 1: Critical,; Priority 2: Major,; Priority 3: Significant,; Priority 4: Minor.; ; The levels have the following response and resolve times:; Priority 1: 1 hour respond, 4 hours resolve;; Priority 2: 4 hours respond, 8 hours resolve;; Priority 3: 1 day respond, 5 days resolve;; Priority 4: 5 days respond, 10 days resolve.; ; Blacklight Help Desk operates between 8:00AM to 18:00PM Monday to Friday with 24/7 support available at extra cost.
• 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: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Blacklight can tailor support levels to an organisation's support requirements. By default, incidents are assigned one of the below levels in our SLA depending on severity:; ; Priority 1: Critical - The system is unavailable for all users.; Priority 2: Major - The system is unavailable for some users and no workaround exists.; Priority 3: Significant - There is an issue which is impacting some users and no workaround exists.; Priority 4: Minor - There is an issue but users can workaround without impact.; ; The levels have the following response and resolution times:; Priority 1: 1 hour respond, 4 hours resolution;; Priority 2: 4 hours respond, 8 hours resolution;; Priority 3: 1 day respond, 5 days resolution;; Priority 4: 5 days respond, 10 days resolution.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Blacklight provide full transparency and in-depth communication through the life-cycle of the engagement. We provide on-site training and compliment this with further training documentation and training videos. Blacklight also prefer to be on-site for go-live to ensure a smooth transition to a business-as-usual system.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Data can be exported from Dynamics 365 at any point. Blacklight provide training on how to export data and can provide further assistance if required.
• End-of-contract process: Upon culmination of the contract, Blacklight can continue to provide services or aid the customer in the extraction of data or migration to another supplier.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
• Application to install: Yes
• Compatible operating systems:
  • Android
  • IOS
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: Dynamics 365 renders to fit all devices including desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile and is touch responsive.
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Description of service interface: Dynamics 365 is accessible through a web browser but also through mobile and tablet apps.
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Accessibility testing: Microsoft have done extensive testing to ensure that Dynamics 365 is accessible, more details can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/dynamics365/get-started/accessibility/
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: Dynamics 365 offers a rich and mature Web API. The Dynamics 365 Web API allows access to features and data within Dynamics and can be used to develop integrations and transfer data between other systems and Dynamics 365. The Web API is implemented using RESTful APIs. More details can be found here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/mt593051.aspx
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: Open API (also known as Swagger)
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Dynamics 365 is highly customisable, allowing organisations to ensure that all business requirements are met, and not forcing the organisation to conform to set business processes.; ; Blacklight can provide all level of customisations and configurations.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Dynamics 365 is a cloud solution provided by Microsoft. Dynamics 365 solutions are hosted at secure Microsoft Azure Data Centers (Tier 5). Microsoft boast of an up time of 99.99%. The world-wide infrastructure of Microsoft Azure Data Centers ensure that usage is not affected by other users of Microsoft's services.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Dynamics 365 provides various reports and analytics for monitoring usage metrics.
• Reporting types: Real-time dashboards

Resellers

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

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: Up to Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: United Kingdom
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: In-house
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
  • Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: In-house destruction process

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Data can be exported from any time from Dynamics 365 by making use of the standard export functionality. Data held within Dynamics 365 can be exported to Excel (and in CSV format), as well as being able to be replicated in a SQL Azure instance.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
• Other data export formats: Integrations to other systems
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • Integrations from other systems
  • Excel Upload
  • CSV Upload

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: For data in transit, all customer-facing servers negotiate a secure session by using TLS/SSL with client machines to secure the customer data. Data is encrypted during transit and while at rest. This applies to protocols on any device used by clients, such as Skype for Business Online, Outlook, and Outlook on the web.
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Other
• Other protection within supplier network: Data is encrypted while in transit and also while at rest.

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Microsoft guarantee 99.9% availability for Dynamics 365. This is financially guaranteed by Microsoft who offer service credits if the Service Level is breached within a given month. These service credits are passed on to the customer by Blacklight.
• Approach to resilience: Microsoft ensure that resiliency and recoverability are built into their applications. Full information can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/enterprise/office-365-data-resiliency-overview
• Outage reporting: Service outages are reported within Office365 in the Office365 Admin Center. Within the Admin Center, users can view any planned maintenance and the service health of their applications.

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: Users are authenticated through their Office365 account or from records within Active Directory.
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Dynamics 365 provides granular user roles and security permissions. Administrator roles can be assigned to relevant users to restrict access to areas of the system.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• 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: Between 6 months and 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: Between 6 months and 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: Between 6 months and 12 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: No
• 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: Other
• Other security governance standards: ISO 9001
• Information security policies and processes: Blacklight use security policies inline with ISO9001. This ensures that information security risk is controlled. The reporting structure follows the hierarchy to the board member responsible for security and governance.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: Microsoft uses formal standard operating procedures (SOPs) governing the change management process. These SOPs cover both software development and hardware change and release management, and are consistent with ISO 27001, SOC 1 / SOC 2, NIST 800-53, and others.; ; Blacklight uses ISO9001 configuration and change management procedures. Blacklight also utilise the ITIL framework and use tools such as DevOps for configuration and change management.
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Files in Dynamics 365 can be stored in SharePoint, where antivirus software is used to ensure protection from any malicious software. ; Microsoft continually monitor the threat landscape to look for new and emerging threats, and ensure the service is protected against these. In response to specific threats Microsoft may make changes to the service to address critical vulnerabilities outside of the usual bi-yearly update cadence. Microsoft provide access to the Microsoft Security Response Center that provides information to customers using Microsoft products.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: The Power Platform proactively monitors the performance of applications against acceptable service performance. Warnings are also generated when an irregular event occurs.
• 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: Blacklight provide a managed service desk that provides reporting and updates to the customer regarding incidents.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: Yes
• Connected networks:
  • Public Services Network (PSN)
  • NHS Network (N3)
  • Joint Academic Network (JANET)

Social Value

• Wellbeing:

  Wellbeing

  Blacklight Software actively promote the wellbeing of staff through several different mechanisms. An employee assistance programme is provided for all staff. Additionally, Blacklight Software encourage staff to partake in activities beneficial to mental and physical health and wellbeing such as exercise, mindfulness activities. This is actively promoted to staff by the use of a mobile app which gamifies the process and allows the selection of rewards.

Pricing

• Price: £71.60 a person a month
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Microsoft offer a free trial of Dynamics 365. Blacklight can help customers who wish to make use of Microsoft's free trial of Dynamics 365.
• Link to free trial: https://trials.dynamics.com/

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