Polecat - risk intelligence

Polecat: Social, Event and Media Listening | AI-Powered Analysis | Risk & Reputation Monitoring

Polecat turns online and social media data into actionable insights for your business. Identify emerging trends, risks and shifts in public sentiment to drive smarter, faster decisions. Our AI assistant, PolecatX, allows you to talk and ask questions to the insight - all grounded in referenceable fact.

Features

• Real-time global news, event and social media monitoring
• Identify emerging ESG, Risk and Sustainability themes
• AI assistant to answer your questions using factual, referenced insight
• Email alerts for emerging stakeholder, corporate and event based news
• Monitor national & international stakeholders and influencers
• Campaign measurement and effectiveness evaluation through volume, sentiment and impact
• Track over 20,000 international organisations, governments and companies
• Interactive and exportable visualisations that can be shared via email
• API integration, data downloads and data feeds
• Analyse global, public data enriched with AI based metrics

Benefits

• AI assistant can analyse and answer your questions
• Hundreds of topics to analyse, and add your own instantly
• Track issues and emerging risks for any organisation
• Proper sentiment analysis using AI, not just keywords
• Integrated AI to identify most relevant news and stakeholder events
• Save time and effort on analysis and reporting
• AI-driven automated reports provide accurate, repeatable insights
• Integrate data into dashboards & applications for repeatable analysis
• Quickly share insights, campaign reports and intelligence summaries directly in-platform
• Thousands of topics available instantly, no keyword configuration required

£500 to £1,000 a user 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 caroline.skipsey@polecat.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

484925022108397

Contact

Caroline Skipsey
07875883000
caroline.skipsey@polecat.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model:
  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
• Service constraints: The platform is hosted online so there are no constraints to the buyer.
• System requirements:
  • Internet browser & internet connection to view data live
  • Optional - NLA End User Licence to access print media
  • Optional - Login/subscription to view paywall content (e.g. Financial Times)

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: We respond within 24 hours Monday-Friday 9am-5pm GMT. Response times out of hours may vary and take up to 48 hours.; Where service levels need to utilize crisis packages, response times may be agreed and contracted on a bespoke requirement.; Client Partners are allocated to each account and can be contacted by mobile for urgent issues
• 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: 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: We use Intercom for our webchat, a known and widely used plugin.; Accessibility level and details can be found:; https://www.intercom.com/help/faqs-and-troubleshooting/the-intercom-messenger/is-the-intercom-messenger-accessible
• Onsite support: Onsite support
• Support levels: - Polecat offers x1 named Customer Support Manager (Technical Account Manager) for all subscriptions. This includes training, onboarding and ongoing support. There is also an in-app chat.; - x1 named Client Partner are included in enterprise subscriptions, helping with strategic applications of our technology and best practices.; - There is a larger team of analysts and data scientists that can help support.; - More specialised support (e.g. strategic workshops, consultancy, reporting) is available at an additional cost.; All clients have access to webchat during office hours and two support emails.; For teams requiring consultancy in terms of reporting and strategic workshops this is charged based on requirements and time by number and extent of reporting and consultancy daily rates.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: All customers are offered training, in person where possible or online. Polecat also offers an online Help and FAQ section, user guide and manual for our products. In Product tutorial videos are also available to guide users through their initial experience of Polecat's software.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
  • Other
• Other documentation formats: Online Video Tutorials
• End-of-contract data extraction: Data can be exported from the platform via csv files or PNG files. All data within the platform is publicly available.
• End-of-contract process: At the end of the contract if the user does not wish to renew their contract the service will be shut off and the login will become void.; There is the option for the client to export data throughout the contract period.; Polecat will advise the client ahead of any end of contract date, so that the client and relevant users are aware of the termination of agreements.; A final review of service is also possible.; If the client would like Polecat to download data during or post the contract period there would be a nominal hourly analyst rate applied.

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: The platform is accessible via mobile applications though there is no specific mobile app for the platform.
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Description of service interface: The platform allows users and organisations to analyse and interrogate unstructured information in any language, from public sources. This core capability powers Polecat's platform and associated use cases.; Data is displayed in the form of interactive charts and graphs with the ability to drill down into the underlying online articles and social posts. Charts display a range of metrics such as; volume, sentiment and reputation impact to indicate the significance of mentions within online media or social media.
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Accessibility testing: Range of screen readers, magnifiers and built in accessibility tooling on Windows and Mac
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: Polecat offer a API allowing Polecat Intelligence to be integrated into customer and partner BI and LoB applications. The API is configured in the same manner as the core platform; through the configuration of topics and organisations the user wishes to monitor. Data can then be integrated with a range of tooling to support further analysis and decision processes.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
  • Other
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: The service and data can be customised to meet customer requirements, from changing the search parameters in the platform (keywords, topics, sources, geography, languages) to the support offered (additional training, workshops, reporting, consultancy) to build and deliver data solutions via the platform or API.; Customers can also choose to bring in further sources and primary data to house more intelligence together within the platform.; There are also a number of consultancy services to provide further analysis of clients data and to help ensure that the intelligence is actionable for wider audiences within the client's company.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Polecat supports some of the world's largest organisations and has bandwidth to support exponentially more users before any strain is expected upon the system. Polecat runs a high capacity platform distributed across 3 data centres, providing high levels of performance, resilience and redundancy.; For some of our largest enterprise customers we have hundreds of users globally accessing real time data 24/7, 365 days per annum.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Users are able to request detailed metrics through their named contact, for example on logins, interactions with charts and data as well as data downloads.; Metrics include; no of users, no of logins, open rates (email), searches and dashboards most visited/engagement levels, last login dates, time in platform.
• 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: 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: ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a Tigerscheme qualified provider or a CREST-approved service provider
• Protecting data at rest: Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
• 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: All visuals are exportable through the user interface.; Polecat support teams can export data for clients, and provide this is a range of formats (csv, json, etc)
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • Json
  • Xml
  • .pdf
  • .png
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • Json
  • Xml

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)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: We offer 99.5% uptime on our product. Any planned outage required outside of this shall be communicated and agreed beforehand with the customer. Guaranteed levels of availability is agreed with the customer depending on their project requirements and subsequent refunds if these are not met.
• Approach to resilience: Polecat has multiple instances of every service in different zones and backup and backup disaster recover procedures are reviewed periodically by senior members of the Technical team. Further information is available upon request.
• Outage reporting: Outage are reported directly to customers via their Polecat contact via email and through the product chat functionality. Polecat has an incident management policy that can be shared upon request outlining target restoration times on any outages as well as more detailed SLAs agreed within client contracts.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication: Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Each user is given a dedicated username and password. Restrictions on software usage and clearance can be amended as needed, for example ensuring some searches are only visible to certain users, or creating viewer-only users.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: You control when users can access audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: You control when users can access 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

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: No
• 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: Cyber Essentials
• Information security policies and processes: Polecat has mandated information security, data protection and IT management processes. All security policies and processes are reviewed by Polecat's CTO and security incidents are reported to the senior member of the technical team and also reported to Polecat's board.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: All changes to the system are managed, tested and impact assessed by our operations team. This includes hardware, software, and central configuration changes. Polecat follows best practice automated deployment and desired state management processes, providing through life configuration management.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: Threat / vulnerability assessment run constantly through automated tooling, and service assessment. When a vulnerability is found it is impact assessed by our operations team against our defence-in-depth infrastructure design. Urgent patches are manually tested on our sandbox environment and deployed immediately.; Polecat deploys security updates as soon as they are available (or within the next working day) and checks for the available updates daily.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: The infrastructure is constantly monitored by a range of dedicated tooling monitoring all levels in the environment. Polecat has a dedicated operations team reviewing potential incidents.; If Polecat suspects an asset has been compromised, access is immediately revoked, pending a full investigation by a senior member of the technical team.; Incident response depends on the severity with the highest priority incidents responded to urgently.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: Polecat has defined processes for common events. Users can report suspected incidents to their Customer Service Manager over the phone, via email, in the in-app chat via the platform, or to a specific support email. All incidents are investigated, and where applicable a report provided.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Supplier-defined process

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Equal opportunity

  Fighting climate change

  Polecat is able to measure the scale of engagement in climate change related news and online discourse, identify the corporations that feature heavily and interpret the nature of their activities. Measuring the issues and events that relate to a corporation helps identify those contributing in a negative or positive manner and inform strategies to engage more and reduce the climate impact.

  Equal opportunity

  Polecat is able to measure the events and issues that affect a corporation in the public domain from employment sites to social and mainstream media. Identifying issues or public perception against D&I, equality, gender bias etc helps hold companies to account, identify best practice or areas to improve on.

Pricing

• Price: £500 to £1,000 a user a month
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Full Polecat access for a 4 week trial period with Polecat Customer Success support
• Link to free trial: https://www.polecat.com/reputation-management-demo

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