Civica UK Limited

Civica Housing Choice & Needs

The Civica Housing Choice & Needs Solution is a Cloud hosted integrated suite of modules comprising of a public website and back-office system.

The modules:

Housing Register
Choice Based Lettings & Nomination Based Lettings
Homelessness & Temporary Accommodation
Rents (Specialist TA, Mobile, G&T Sites)
Enhanced Housing Options
Support Gateway

Features

• Efficiencies - Greater efficiencies through online self-service
• Automation - Maximum automation frees up staff time
• Bespoke - Tailored to individual policies
• Market Leader - More LAs using CBL solution than alternatives
• Latest Technology - Completely web-based enables straightforward implementation
• Compliant - Commitment to adapting to sector changes
• Live reporting - Creates statutory reports for UK
• User-friendly - Training new staff is easier
• Visibility - Complete picture of referrals/placements

Benefits

• Creates efficiencies through online customer self-service
• Can be used by LA's/Registered Landlords in the UK
• Maximum automation frees up staff time
• Bespoke tailoring to your lettings policy
• Fully web based hosted service with straight forward implementation
• Highly active user base drives innovation
• Web based for easy partner access
• Provide your tenants with a national home swap service
• Automated Bidding for CBL properties through various media channels
• Full Homeless reporting which is government compliant

£9,020 a licence a year

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 g-cloud@civica.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

465021352099429

Contact

Civica UK Limited
+44 (0) 3333 214 914
g-cloud@civica.co.uk

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: Can also be used as a standalone service .
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: No constraints – All licences to use the software are based on an unlimited user basis for either a geographical area or property count depending on the type of organisation buys the licence.
• System requirements:
  • Our technology is completely cloud based.
  • All aspects of your system's functionality accessed using a browser.
  • No requirement to install any software on individual PCs.
  • Our applications are designed to use minimal bandwidth.

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Support issues can be submitted 24 hours by email and portal. Telephone support is 09.00am to 17.30pm Monday to Fridays excluding English Bank Holidays.; ; Outside of support hours, users can log incidents or service requests 24-7 via a web portal for the Civica Service Desk. Users are also able to monitor the progress of their cases through the portal.
• 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: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: This support service covers software (where you are party to a Supply Agreement with us) or hosting faults (where you are party to a Service Agreement with us) hence providing you with a single number to call if you require support.; ; Priority 1 - Client facing functionality not available - 4 working hours response, 4 working hours fix.; Priority 2 - Other functional of a critical nature not available - 4 working hours response, 8 working hours fix. ; Priority 3 - Functionality of a non-critical nature is not available - 2 working days response, 5 working days fix.; Priority 4 - Minor errors - Next release by negotiation.; Priority 5 - Enhancement Requests - Agreed by negotiation.; ; All systems are automatically monitored using specialist monitoring software, PRTG. This monitoring is performed from a location separate from our dual data centres. The average availability over the period was 99.8% which underlines the excellent reliability of the solution.
• Support available to third parties: No

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Implementing a new ICT system can be a large undertaking we believe that there are two key factors in delivering your project successfully; having the right people to manage the project, and having a proven methodology to drive the implementation.; ; As part of our onboarding service Abritas will undertake a scoping exercise prior to contract signing in order to define the requirements and deliverables of your project. This will include modules and options required any interfacing and data load requirements.; ; The key stages:; ; • Scoping ; • Configuration definition including any interfaces.; • Configuration of system to meet your needs.; • Testing and acceptance ; • Training and go live; ; Our highly experienced project managers are dedicated to implementing systems for clients. All project managers are permanent employees and are thoroughly familiar with our software modules.; ; Training is delivered by our TAP accredited (www.tap-training.com) trainer who has over 8 years IT delivery experience, and is intimately familiar with the system.; ; The provision of a high quality support function is a key area for us. We believe that by delivering a top quality support service through a knowledgeable and professional team we are able to clearly differentiate ourselves from other software suppliers.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Offboarding – We will facilitate the offboarding process at the end of the contract. This will ensure that your data can seamlessly be transferred back to you or to another system. We can provide the data either in a standard format or in the format required by you. Please note that consultancy time spent undertaking the offboarding process will be charged on a time and materials basis at the G-Cloud daily rate.
• End-of-contract process: At the end of the contract the client will either have the choice of extending the contract to the next G-Cloud framework version or converting to our standard rolling contract. Alternatively clients could do out to market and retender for the software. If we were not selected as the preferred supplier then any un paid hosting and service charges for the remaining term would be payable. ; ; We can provide the data either in a standard format or in the format required by you. Please note that consultancy time spent undertaking the off-boarding process will be charged on a time and materials basis at the G-Cloud daily rate.; ; With regards to extending the contracts for a short term period basis post end of contract this can be facilitated in quarterly periods, note however that hosting and service charges may be higher for short term contracts.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: We have a mobile optimised site for CBL bidding.
• Service interface: No
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• API: No
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: The back office is customised to meet the client requirements, so that it meets the housing policy and lettings plans. The front facing customer housing portal is fully content managed by the client.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Civica Housing Choice & Needs is hosted in IaaS on the Azure Cloud.; ; The application and database servers are IaaS, and monitored to ensure the sizing can react to business need dynamically.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Available on request
• Reporting types:
  • Regular reports
  • 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
• 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 once a year
• Penetration testing approach: In-house
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
• 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 can control the display order of fields in the report drilldown and export to make it easier to see and set the fields included in these areas. ; ; Screens have been added to the report builder allowing the drilldown and export fields to be maintained en masse. This page has the option to display fields by export or drilldown order and gives the user a clearer idea of the end result before exporting.; ; Report data can be easily exported to Excel for further analysis if required.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • XML
  • Web Services
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • XML
  • Web Services

Data-in-transit protection

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

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Civica's standard service hours are 24x7, during which time we guarantee an availability of 99.5% (excluding any planned maintenance).
• Approach to resilience: Available on request.
• Outage reporting: Infrastructure related scheduled maintenance will not occur between 07:00 and 19:00 Monday to Friday excluding English Bank Holidays. Maintenance will be arranged with a minimum of 3 working days’ notice, and will include a detailed description of the planned works, planned outcomes, and a detailed back-out plan, unless otherwise stated. Unplanned outages will be notified via the Civica Service Desk.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Two factor authentication.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)

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: At least 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: Alcumus ISO QAR
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 06/10/2022
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: We meet the full requirement of the ISO/27001 accreditation.
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: Yes
• Who accredited the PCI DSS certification: Viking Cloud
• PCI DSS accreditation date: 11/08/2023
• What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover: Scope is limited to CivicaPay service
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • ISO27701
  • ISO22301
  • PCI-DSS
  • Cyber Essentials

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards:
  • ISO/IEC 27001
  • Other
• Other security governance standards: ISO27701 - Privacy Management; ISO22301 - Business Continuity; PCI-DSS; Cyber Essentials
• Information security policies and processes: In order to provide a wide range of services to public and private sector organisations, Civica maintains an active information security programme. This programme requires regular internal and external audit inspection of both physical and logical data protection structures. The policies and procedures are aligned to ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials certifications.

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 hosted assets metadata is stored in a Configuration Management Data Base. This data base is access controlled to authorised staff only. The CMDB provides information essential to the secure hosting of client critical services.; ; Civica's Change Management process ensures that all changes are considered and planned, and appropriate, and that there is a clear audit trail of all changes. Any changes are assessed through ISO27001 to ensure that they don't have a potential security impact.
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Civica has vulnerability management processes in place for ISO27001 and PCI-DSS. These processes are externally audited on an annual basis to ensure continued compliance. For external vulnerability scanning, Civica employs the services of an external ‘CHECK’ approved provider to perform an annual penetration test against the external management IP interface. Supporting this, Civica is also certified to the CESG approved Cyber Essentials scheme. For high value financial hosted system, Civica also maintains a PCI-DSS v3.1 certification. In scope systems are subject to month internal and external vulnerability scans as well as a full penetration test twice a year.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Civica take a proactive approach to information security through a process of continual monitoring and review. As part of a documented risk assessment methodology to identify and manage information security risks a dedicated security team update the risk register monthly. Civica has a network monitoring solution in place ‘OpsView’ as well as a full antivirus and anti-malware solution. These technologies check the hosted services for errors, infections and unexpected network traffic and are support by Cisco IPS/IDS at the perimeter layer. This monitoring service provides defence in depth, against compromise, by detecting infections and suspicious networking activity within the environment.
• 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: Civica have developed an Incident Management process (PRM07) under ISO 20000 standards which details both the Incident and Service Request Management processes. ; ; The Civica Service Desk manages end user Service Requests, Incidents and Requests for Change (RFCs) which can be logged by e-mail, telephone and web portal. Monthly customer reports will detail incident information.

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: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  As a company, we’ve made an ambitious commitment to achieve Net Zero Carbon emissions by 2040 (or sooner) by supporting our customers net zero ambitions, creating software with inbuilt sustainability and reducing our own impact.; ; Our Carbon Reduction Plan demonstrates our ambition to become industry leaders in reducing our environmental impact in support of the UK’s Net Zero Target. Underlining this ambition, we are focusing not only on our direct emissions sources but also actively engaging with our wider supply chain to understand, measure and develop meaningful emissions reductions targets in line with our Net Zero Target.; ; We are accredited to the ISO14001 Standard and to support delivery of our commitment our Environment, Social Value and Governance provides clear focus for the ongoing development of our environmental policy.; ; • We develop innovative software-based services that reduce power requirements.; • We help customers opt for more sustainable choices, through digital platforms/apps which remove paper, support flexible/agile working, underpinned by cloud-based services employing energy efficient technology.; • We support carbon neutrality with workforces/facilities to reduce carbon consumption over 10-years.; • We prioritise the use of green energy in Civica owned facilities within the next 10 years.; • We promote recycling through our ‘Zero to Landfill’ and ‘Zero Print’ schemes.; ; Our commitment to continue to promote with employees and customers a much greater responsibility and leadership in eliminating unnecessary single-use plastics; we will continue to look to make more innovative and systematic changes to further reduce our use of single-use plastics across the organisation and to openly share our outcomes and learnings.; ; We undertake SECR Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting on our environmental footprint and the progress we are making to becoming Net Zero. ; ; Our commitment to fighting climate change will help deliver the policy outcomes for fighting climate change under PPN 06/20.

  Tackling economic inequality

  Civica is committed to building an inclusive and diverse culture that tackles inequality in employment, skills and pay. We promote equal opportunity through all our activities and ensure rights for all employees are always protected. We are listed as a 2020 Financial Times Diversity Leader and we are a ‘Gold’ Investors in People company. ; ; We have increased our focus and commitment to ensure we proactively implement equal and non-discriminatory treatment to all our workers. We have implemented a Diversity & Inclusion Strategy and have a Diversity and Inclusion Lead to drive the implementation of this strategy. This aims to tackle inequality in recruitment practices, team development, skills and pay through the following actions:; ; • We are a Living Wage accredited employer.; • We recruit locally to where services are delivered.; • We are committed to developing the skills of young people near our client’s businesses e.g., for a local authority, we have developed a programme of engagement workshops for young people with the potential for digital work experience. ; • Our staff act as mentors for Youth Enterprise schemes in schools/universities.; • We are a member of the 5% club, an industry-led initiative focused on creating momentum behind the recruitment of apprentices into the UK workplace. ; • Over 2.5% of our workplace is made up of apprentices or graduates and we intend to increase this to 5% by the end of 2025.; • We provide our own apprenticeship programme for managers, giving them access to training and development that may not be accessible outside the workplace.; ; Our commitment to building an inclusive and diverse culture will help deliver the policy outcomes for tackling economic inequality under PPN 06/20 and will dramatically improve job prospects and increase earning potential for the young and job seeking communities.

  Equal opportunity

  Civica is committed to providing equal opportunities and building an inclusive and diverse culture. The more diverse our workforce, the more informed the decisions we can make for our customers, supporting the communities in which we work. ; ; We are proud to have been ranked as one of the top European companies for workforce diversity and equality, as chosen by in the Financial Times in 2020.; ; We are committed to building and maintaining an inclusive and supportive culture where diversity thrives:; ; • To ensure our recruitment practices support the attraction and hiring of diverse candidates, all vacancies are advertised on multiple Diversity & Inclusion platforms. ; • We run attraction campaigns targeting females and BAME applicants. We use a process of anonymised applications, competency-based questions and scoring to remove bias. We also use decoders to ensure job advertisements use gender and culturally neutral language. We also ensure mixed panel interviewing.; • We advertise vacancies on https://disabilityjob.co.uk/ and share diversity statements on all job adverts.; • We have made training on diversity and inclusion mandatory.; • We aim to ensure increased diversity of new starters in technology/sales/leadership roles by 10% per annum over the next 3 years.; • We aim to ensure that at least 50% of shortlisted people are being considered from a diverse background for roles above £35k.; • We promote affinity groups within the company who represent a group of people linked by a common characteristic, often underrepresented, or historically excluded, which acts as a ‘safe space’ for such individuals. This identity could be related to race, gender, sexual orientation, language, nationality, physical or mental ability, socioeconomic class, family structure, religion, amongst others.; ; Our commitment to providing equality of opportunity will support the delivery of the policy outcomes for equal opportunity under PPN 06/20.

  Wellbeing

  Civica actively promotes a mentally healthy workplace and workforce integrating mental health and general wellbeing in all that we do from recruitment, appraisals to strategic management.; ; Through our Health and Wellbeing Policy and 40+ Mental Health Champions we encourage a flexible and realistic work/life balance. Our HWP provides a foundation to support both the mental and physical health of our staff through: ; ; • Employee Assistance Programme and online Wellbeing Hub, which provides 24/7 access to websites, e-mail, phone and face-to-face counselling on all personal issues.; • Aviva DigiCare+ Workplace App providing external mental health consultancy.; • Mental Health Champions who support colleagues’ wellbeing in the workplace.; • RedArc Personal nurse service.; • Management Coaching - managers are trained in GROW (Goals, Reality, Options and Will) and in being Health and Wellbeing Advisors, supporting employees with mental/physical health needs.; • Health assessments/advice aimed at improving physical health.; • Cycle to Work scheme to aid physical and mental health.; • Weekly fruit drop for offices, encouraging a healthier diet.; • We provide free eye tests for all VDU users, encourage staff to take advantage of NHS flu vaccinations services, and support people wishing to use the NHS Stop Smoking Service.; ; We also support our customers’ and communities’ through The Civica Foundation, our home for all charity, community, volunteering and social value. Our Days of Difference initiative gives every Civica employee 3 days a year to make a difference to charitable or community causes. Our employees can use this individually, join-up as a team or take part in Civica coordinated events. ; ; Suppliers/subcontractors are subject to Civica’s Sub-contractor Selection Process as defined in our ISO9001 QMS, which includes criteria for assessing health and wellbeing policies.; ; Our commitment to providing equality of opportunity supports the delivery of the policy outcomes for Wellbeing under PPN 06/20.

Pricing

• Price: £9,020 a licence a year
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: No

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 g-cloud@civica.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.