GRANICUS-FIRMSTEP LIMITED

Government Experience Agent (GXA) - The AI-powered digital agent for smarter government experiences

Government Experience Agent (GXA) transforms service delivery for governments, providing always-on and contextually relevant responses to resident questions in easy-to-understand language. GXA is tuned to understand government interactions and accesses only approved agency data to deliver the best possible responses, creating better experiences for residents and lighter workloads for staff.

Features

• Intent aware prompt engineering
• Natural language understanding and multilingual support
• Powered by multiple jurisdiction-specific, curated sources under your control
• WCAG 2.2 AA accessible
• Continuous tuning and human oversight from Granicus experience experts
• Transparent records and retention
• Admin Control Centre to access data insights and adjust branding
• Improved customer experience through better access and faster answers.
• Reduced cost to serve by deflecting calls to digital self-service.
• Increased operational efficiency freeing staff to focus on priorities

Benefits

• Surface the most accurate, consistent, and clear responses 24/7
• Offer citizens faster, WCAG 2.2 AA-compliant, AI-powered answers
• Deploy AI/ML responsibly and confidently
• Free staff time and resources to work on critical priorities
• Maintain control of the source of your digital agent’s knowledge
• Ensure real-time accuracy, policy integrity, compliance and jurisdictional relevance
• Ensure optimised service information
• Leapfrog current service delivery capabilities
• Transform the linearity of traditional citizen navigation and search
• Increase understanding of citizen needs

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

Framework

G-Cloud 15

Service ID

349817599214733

Contact

Asim Ali
0800 048 7518
uksalesteam@granicus.com

About your service

• Service categories:

  Applications

  Customer relationship management

  • Digital commerce
  • Customer service
  • Contact centre
• Multi cloud support: No

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: Granicus Government Experience Cloud (GXC), Granicus govService, Granicus Engagement HQ, Granicus govDelivery, Granicus TMS, Granicus Experience Group (GXG)
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: None
• System requirements:
  • Supported web browser
  • Connection to the Internet

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Yes
• Support response times: Please see our licence agreement for further information.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: Yes
• Web chat support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Web chat accessibility testing: Web chat solution is tested to meet accessibility standards.
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Support is standard and included within the license. This includes full access to our online support desk which can be accessed via our online portal, email, and live chat.; ; Our service includes access to a Customer Experience Partner whose role is to help customers to get the best use of our service offering ideas and sharing best practice and the experience of the user community.; ; Access to our govCommunity portal is also included, providing a collaborative environment to discuss, learn and share with other platform customers.; ; Please see our Service Description document for further details and information about additional support levels.
• Support available to third parties: Yes
• AI chatbot: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: We provide a dedicated project manager to onboard new clients in addition to a dedicated account manager throughout the life of the contract.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: HTML
• End-of-contract data extraction: Should a customer decide to cancel their agreement, the customer's reporting data will be available to download.
• End-of-contract process: Decommissioning is included in the licence cost. Granicus will confirm the date on which customer access will be terminated. ; ; Granicus will then decommission the service in line with its security and decommissioning policies.
• Documentation accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AA

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: The end user interface has been designed/optimised for both desktop and mobile devices. The back office administrator interface, while not designed or tested specifically for mobile devices, allows access to features.
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Description of service interface: The platform includes a browser based web interface which allows users to access the service directly from a web browser.
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Accessibility testing: The platform aims to meet WCAG AA standards utilising standard in-built browser accessibility features.
• API: No
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: GXA has a range of configuration options which include agent name, logo and colour scheme. The source data used by GXA is also configurable and includes web sites, data files and govDelivery.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Government Experience Agent is a SaaS platform based on multi-tenanted architecture and hosted using Amazon Web Services (AWS). The platform has been designed to scale based on overall workload.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: GXA provides an array of reporting options with include interaction volumes, interaction time, success rates, conversion history and more.
• Reporting types:
  • Real-time dashboards
  • 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: Other locations
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 4.0)
• 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:
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
  • Encryption of all physical media
• 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:
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed / Cryptographic Erasure
  • Data Erasure

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Reporting data can be exported via the management console.
• Data export formats: Other
• Other data export formats: PDF
• Data import formats: Other
• Other data import formats:
  • Web Sites
  • Web Pages
  • PDF

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: TLS (version 1.2 or above)
• Data protection within supplier network: TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Availability is 99.9%. Please see our licence agreement for further information.
• Approach to resilience: GXA is engineered for high resiliency through a fully cloud‑native architecture that provides elastic scaling, continuous monitoring, and fault‑tolerant performance. Its reliability is strengthened by performance optimizations such as parallelized processing and caching, ensuring stable operation during peak demand. Multi‑layered safety guardrails and retrieval‑augmented generation keep responses accurate and grounded in agency‑approved content, even under ambiguous or high‑risk inputs. Additional protection—such as rate limiting and bot‑mitigation measures—helps maintain consistent service availability in high‑traffic or adversarial conditions.
• Outage reporting: Service status is communicated via our customer portal, email alerts and sms alerts.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: No
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Access restricted by user permissions and role based access controls.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication: Username or password

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: 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 6 months and 12 months

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: Granicus has many security policies and processes that support both ISO 27001:2013, the NCC Cloud Security Principles and FedRAMP (based on NIST 800-53r4), covering everything from physical security to system communications to vendor security. Processes are created for each NIST 800-53 control family and are documented on an internal wiki site.; ; All employees are required to sign an Acceptable Use Policy that spells out the requirements. Failure to follow the security policies/processes can result in disciplinary action from Human Resources, up to and including termination.; ; Please contact us for specific details.
• Software Security Code of Practice: No

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: Tickets are created for all changes. These tickets include information on potential customer impact, QA steps, and a backout process. The changes are all reviewed at change management meetings and must be approved before being implemented. Changes are also reviewed for potential security impact.; ; Individual physical components are tracked through a combination of an asset inventory and through the ticketing system that identifies the components that are changing.
• Vulnerability management type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Infrastructure is scanned on a monthly basis. A ticket is created for each identified vulnerability for tracking throughout the lifecycle, and an internal remediation timeline is set depending on the severity. Teams meet weekly to review the vulnerabilities and identify timelines and ensure that issues aren't missed.; ; In addition to scanning, Granicus subscribes to the UK National Cyber Security Centre, US-CERT and individual vendor security mailing lists so we are notified when important vulnerabilities are identified. Tickets are created for each of these as well and follow the same process as scans.
• Protective monitoring type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Granicus utilises both network and host-based intrusion detection systems that send logs to a centralised location for proper correlation.; ; If a compromise is suspected, the incident response team is mobilised to investigate and confirm/deny the actual breach. If a breach is confirmed, the customer support team reaches out to all impacted customers. A root cause analysis (RCA) is then provided after the remediation.
• 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: Incident management is performed in accordance with Granicus’s ISO27001 accredited incident management process which identifies the flow from incident detection to remediation, including many high-level processes.; ; Customers can report incidents to support. This kicks off the process, which includes automatically generating a ticket and beginning the triage process.; ; Internally, a detected incident is reported to customer support so that the team can communicate to any impacted customers.; ; For impactful incidents, after it is remediated, a root cause analysis (RCA).
• 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: 1%
• Between £1,000,001 and £2,500,000: 2%
• Between £2,500,001 and £5,000,000: 3%
• Over £5,000,001: 5%

Non-mandatory Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: A-LIGN
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: Wednesday 19 March 2025
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: N/A
• ISO 28000:2022 certification: No
• ISO 9001 certification: No
• Quality management systems (QMS): Yes
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: No
• Cyber Essentials Alternative: In relation to the services you do not have a current and valid Cyber Essentials certificate which has been awarded by one of the government approved Cyber Essentials accreditation bodies but you are working towards gaining it, and will be in a position to confirm that you have been awarded a current and valid Cyber Essentials certificate by one of the government approved accreditation bodies within 12 months of the date of award.
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Cyber Essentials Alternative: None of the criteria
• 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

    • New or retained jobs on the contract workforce in the relevant area that meet the criteria set out in MAC 1b, 1c and 1d
    • 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
    • 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
    • Payment of more than the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage (as appropriate) to the contract workforce
    • 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
    • Understanding of in-work progression issues affecting the market, industry or sector relevant to the contract, and in the supplier’s own organisation and those of its key sub-contractors
    • Measures to support in-work progression to help people in the contract workforce, to move into higher paid work by developing new skills relevant to the contract
    • Support for educational attainment relevant to the contract, including training schemes that address skills gaps and result in recognised qualifications
    • Volunteering opportunities for staff
    • Understanding of the modern slavery risks and issues affecting the market, industry, sector or country (of origin or of source) relevant to the contract, and the workforce in the supplier’s own organisation and those of its key subcontractors
    • Measures to identify, mitigate and manage modern slavery risks relating to the contract and how these will be implemented
    • Outline policies and practices to be applied to or put in place for the contract to mitigate and manage modern slavery risks, including: Pre-employment checks, recruitment practices. Workplace conditions, safeguarding plans and processes in place and regular monitoring with relevant groups considered, which may include sampling

  • 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 2: Skills for growth: Supporting growth sectors and addressing skills gaps.

    • Understanding of employment and relevant skills issues, and of the education and training issues relating to the contract. Illustrative examples: demographics, skills shortages, new opportunities in high growth sectors, geographic/local community and skills/employment challenges
    • Support for educational attainment relevant to the contract, including training schemes that address skills gaps and result in recognised qualifications

  • 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
    • 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

  • Mission: Break down barriers to opportunity: By reforming our childcare and education systems, to make sure there is no class ceiling on the ambitions of young people in Britain

    Policy Outcome 6: Employment and training: For those who face barriers to employment

    • Understanding of the issues affecting inequality in employment, skills and pay in the market, industry or sector relevant to the contract, and in the supplier’s own organisation and those of its key sub-contractors. Measures to tackle inequality in employment, skills and pay in the contract workforce

  • Mission: Build an NHS fit for the future: That is there when people need it; with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers; in a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer.

    Policy Outcome 8: Increasing productivity through physical and mental wellbeing: In the supply chain and communities in the relevant area.

    • Understanding of issues relating to health and wellbeing, including physical and mental health, in the contract workforce
    • Understanding barriers to access to health and social care services or employment opportunities e.g. digital inclusion

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