Tribal Education Limited

ebs by Tribal

Tribal’s ebs solution is the UK’s market leading Further Education Learner Management Information System (SMS/MIS/SIS), providing comprehensive functionality and efficient information management throughout the academic life of a learner. Tribal also provides a Data Management Service, including ILR submission, reporting and funding helpdesk, compliance, audit support and report writing.

Features

• Curriculum planning, management and reporting
• Enquiries, applications and enrolments management
• Timetable and registers management
• Learner Portal online prospectus, enquiries, applications and enrolments
• Reporting solution with comprehensive set of reports
• ILR management with powerful error checking
• Integrated e-Portfolio solution
• Integrated Business Intelligence dashboard for management KPI reporting
• Additional Learner Support and fund management
• On-demand access to funding, compliance and ebs product expertise

Benefits

• Improved data quality with single-entry, validation and error checking
• Improved efficiency of student transactions through integrated automated processes
• Integrated process from curriculum to funding returns eliminates hassle
• Fully integrated system with once-only data input
• Greater efficiencies with Learner Portal and Agent staff portal
• Comprehensive reporting facilities allow for improved management reporting
• Simple automatic interfacing with third-party systems
• Easy to use applications designed using familiar Microsoft technology
• UK based Support, support portal and Dynamic user community
• Brings additional capacity to small teams without the extra headcount

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

Framework

G-Cloud 15

Service ID

296399551741104

Contact

Fleur Brennan
0330 016 4000
technology.bids@tribalgroup.com

About your service

• Service categories:

  Applications

  Production and operations

  Service industry and public sector operations

  • Education
• Multi cloud support: Yes

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: • • Service downtime required for planned upgrades to the EBS software. Typically, 0.5 days max per release. Out of hours upgrades available at additional cost.; • Non-Production server availability runs between 6am – 9pm - (Production available 24/7)
• System requirements:
  • Access to the internet required to use the service
  • All major browsers can be used to access the service
  • Client machines to run Windows 11 or latest Mac OS

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Yes
• Support response times: Response times are determined by the severity of the issue.; Critical incidents (P1) response time within 30 minutes during a working day; Major incidents (P2) response time within 1 working hour; Important incidents (P3) response time within 4 working hours; Minor incidents (P4) response within 8 working hours ; Standard working hours are Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.30pm. Responses are not provided outside of these hours; Customers may provide an assessment of impact and urgency, used to support incident categorisation, prioritisation and triage.; Customers may request closure of a support ticket at any time. Escalation is available for support tickets
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.2 AA
• 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: All services offered will be supported by a Service Level Agreement suitable to the customer and the service ordered. ; - There are three levels of service available; Essential, Enhanced and Enterprise ; - All support is included in the annual subscription and is not a separate cost; - depending on the level of support required, this will include a Service Delivery manager, Technical Project Coordinator and assigned Cloud Consultant. ; ; If additional out of hours or onsite support is required then this option is available at additional cost.
• Support available to third parties: No

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: The system is provided with a full suite of user documentation. During initiation of the project a full training plan will be scheduled and delivered according to the project timescales. Training if predominantly carried out on site. However, there are online training manuals and recorded training materials available as well.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: The underlying database containing all customer data would be provided to a customer-accessible destination prior to the contract ending.
• End-of-contract process: We would work with the customer to define an exit plan which would involve extraction of data and completion of any outstanding services. The exact nature and cost of this exit plan will vary from customer to customer depending on their requirements.
• Documentation accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AA

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: No
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Description of service interface: Roles based access is a core part of the solution and guides many processes.; ; The solution's role group functionality enables all web portal content to be granted based upon fully configurable rules. All role groups are defined within the system with web portal access being dynamically calculated at login. The system can use either centralised or standalone authentication.; ; It is a responsive design, designed to work on any device. Built using standard HTML and javascript, it can be branded to fit the requirements of the institution/user.
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Accessibility testing: The web portal aims to be compatible with WCAG AA accessibility standards. The institution can customise the portal to ensure any styling that is used is accessible as well as using the programmed solutions. We test with a range of screen readers which all work within our web portal. In order to make our web screens perceivable we aim to provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed to fit the user’s requirements. We aim to make all of our web functionality available from a keyboard so that it is operable by any user. To make our web content understandable we aim to make web pages operate in predictable ways by ensuring that common features work in the same way across the software. We try to help users to both avoid and correct any mistakes on the web pages by providing help text and useful error messaging.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: Users can interact with all core business processes using our API including, for example, a college's admissions process.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: Open API (also known as Swagger)
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: The system is fully configurable, including fields, customer-specific screens and reports. Corporate branding can also be incorporated.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Tribal offers ebs via a public cloud provision through Microsoft Azure.; Our public cloud is a multi-tenanted solution, Tribal use a multi tier design and prevent 'noisy neighbour' performance issues through the use of auto-scaling as required to cope with user demand. As customer use grows dedicated resources can be assigned in order to maintain optimal performance.; We also offer an "essential" service which is available on a shared infrastructure platform.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Data can be exported via reports to various formats, including csv, and via the API.
• Reporting types:
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request
• Resource tagging: No
• FOCUS resource tagging: No

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: Security Clearance (SC)

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: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a CREST-approved service provider
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Encryption of all physical media
  • Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: Database instances will be encrypted including snapshots at rest using an industry standard. Once the data is encrypted, authentication of access and decryption of the data is handled transparently with a minimal impact on performance. Physical access is managed by Microsoft as appropriate as it is a public cloud offering.
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Equipment disposal approach: A third-party destruction service
• Data sanitisation type: Deleted data can’t be directly accessed / Cryptographic Erasure

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Data can be exported via reports to various formats, including csv, and via the API.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats: JSON/XML
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats: JSON/XML

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
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: We offer a minimum 99.5% availability, assured by contractual commitments. Exact SLAs will vary from client to client and their desired uptime.
• Approach to resilience: Public Cloud:; The public cloud provides the ability to place instances (servers) in multiple locations composed of Regions and Availability Zones. Availability Zones are distinct locations that are engineered to be insulated from failures in other Availability Zones and provide inexpensive, low-latency network connectivity to other Availability Zones in the same Region.; ; By deploying the web, application and database instances in separate Availability Zones, the solution is protected from failure of a single location. The region consists of more than one Availability Zone, is geographically dispersed, and is located in separate geographic areas.; ; Private cloud:; Available on request
• Outage reporting: Service outages are reported through both our support portal and direct contact from the appropriate service delivery manager who is assigned to the client. The method of communication will be agreed with the specific client, but could include email alerts, direct phone calls to a specific support contact, etc.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication: Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Access in management interface and support channels is managed on a Role based Access Control system (RBAC) as with the rest of the system. In this way you can control which areas of the system and support users have access to.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication:
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get 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: 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: ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: Tribal has been an ISO27001 certified organisation since 2009 and all of our development and delivery services will be delivered from locations which are specifically ISO27001 certified. The accreditation process included a review of Tribal’s Information Security Management System (ISMS) and our overall policy for handling data including how it is collected, held and maintained.; We have local security forums for all of our offices, which feed into our central Information Security Governance forum which reports to the board. We have permanent Quality and Security Managers who form part of this board.; As well as our regular certification revalidation process (carried out by external evaluators) we regularly test our systems and processes with a series of internal audits to ensure that policies and processes are being followed.
• Software Security Code of Practice: Yes

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: For our software solutions, Tribal has a structured Change Control process for managing requests for change and enhancements. All Requests for Changes (RFCs) are raised via the Service Desk and go through internal vetting by the respective support team before gaining authorisation from Tribal. Regular Change Advisory Boards meet to review Emergency and non-standard changes. Details of all changes are provided to the Service Manager to review and will obtain final approval from the Contracting Body before proceeding. The Contracting Body will be involved in the change Process at each stage and included in any post implementation review as required.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: As part of our ISO27001 processes we have a risk/vulnerability assessment procedure which will be undertaken on any new customer site and service.; Patches will be deployed depending on the severity of the problem and the level of testing required.; Information about potential threats is found based upon initial and recurring risks assessments, internal procedures and known threats highlighted by both the industry and users.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Our managed service includes the proactive monitoring of all services to identify potential compromises.; Based upon the nature of the compromise we would then respond to the agreed SLA.; The speed of the response will be determined by the severity of the incident.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: Our ISO27001 processes include a defined Incident Management process. All personnel are responsible for reporting incidents to the Information Governance Committee (IGC) or Security Forum representatives as quickly as possible. We have a formal Incident Report Form which staff use for recording the details of the incidents.; Security weaknesses will be recorded on a spreadsheet for tracking purposes. Any person can identify weaknesses, which will be managed by the Quality team in conjunction with the Security Forums and IGC as appropriate.
• 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)

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Pricing

• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: No

Discount percentage by annual call-off contract value (excluding VAT)

• Less than £250,000: 0%
• Between £250,000 and £500,000: 0%
• Between £500,001 and £1,000,000: 0%
• Between £1,000,001 and £2,500,000: 0%
• Between £2,500,001 and £5,000,000: 0%
• Over £5,000,001: 0%

Non-mandatory Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: LRQA
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: Tuesday 2 May 2017
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: Nothing relating to the proposed products/services. The certification applies to the secure development, implementation, hosting and support of all proposed services including ebs, Maytas, K2, Dynamics, Engage and Semestry. It covers all Tribal entities including Tribal Education Ltd at all Tribal office locations including within the UK.
• ISO 28000:2022 certification: No
• ISO 9001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO 9001 certification: LRQA
• ISO 9001 accreditation date: Tuesday 2 May 2017
• What the ISO 9001 doesn’t cover: Nothing relating to the proposed products. It covers all quality processes relating to secure development, implementation, hosting and support of all proposed services including ebs, Maytas, K2, Dynamics, Engage and Semestry. It covers all Tribal entities including Tribal Education Ltd at all Tribal office locations including within the UK.
• Quality management systems (QMS): Yes
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Please provide your Cyber Essentials Certificate Number: E0426c22-3c8e-4eb9-adde-4865fa8d0e3e
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Please provide your Cyber Essentials Plus Certificate Number: Eea76e94-f3f4-47c7-9573-625a58f07ead
• 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
    • 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
    • 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
    • Volunteering opportunities for staff

  • Mission: Make Britain a clean energy superpower: To cut bills, create jobs and deliver security with cheaper, zero-carbon electricity by 2030, accelerating to net zero

    Policy Outcome 4: Sustainable procurement practices: Reducing carbon footprints, minimising waste, and promoting the use of clean energy and green technologies.

    • Understanding of opportunities for additional environmental benefits delivery in the performance of the contract, including working towards net zero carbon emissions and use of clean energy and green technologies
    • Collaborative ways of working with the supply chain to deliver additional environmental benefits in the performance of the contract, including working towards net zero carbon emissions and use of clean energy and green technologies
    • Delivery of additional environmental benefits through the performance of the contract, including working towards net zero carbon emissions and use of clean energy and green technologies
    • Understanding of how to influence staff, suppliers, customers, communities and/or any other appropriate stakeholders through the delivery of the contract to support climate and nature protection and improvement

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