Civica UK Limited

Civica Managed Service for Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Unlock the full potential of the AWS cloud platform with our comprehensive professional managed services. We the complexities of AWS infrastructure, platform, and software-as-a-service offerings so you can concentrate on your services and users. Our solutions cover AWS infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, and software-as-a-service, including microservices, databases, serverless computing, and application transformation

Features

  • Managed service underpinned by a Service Level Agreement (SLA)
  • Security cleared staff with SC, BPSS, NPPV3, DV Clearance
  • Monthly/quarterly reporting, service reviews, service adoption, transition, migration projects
  • Cloud service monitoring, patching, configuration and optimisation
  • DevOps and service configuration using CloudFormation, TerraForm, Ansible and Chef
  • Up to 24/7 service desk, on-call and support engineering
  • Elastic Cloud Compute, Lambda, VPC, CloudFront, Glacier, RDS, VMWare
  • EC2 Auto-Scaling, AWS Migration including SnowBall, PrivateLink and DirectAccess
  • Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), S3 Storage Service, Container Services, IAM
  • Redshift, RDS,Machine Learning, Beanstalk, DBaaS

Benefits

  • Certified partner status: expert certified Cloud architects and engineers
  • 15+ years of public sector experience
  • Flexibility, the service adapts as your organisation grows and matures
  • Expert advice on AWS, including design, migration, configuration
  • Security cleared staff maintain Information Security
  • AWS experts with Agile and ITIL experience
  • Cost benefits through flexible resourcing model
  • Delivers efficiencies by using tried and tested tools
  • ISO 27001, 27018, 20000, 9001, PASF 14001 certified, Cyber Essentials+
  • Supports portals, web applications, legacy integration/modernisation, enterprise content management

Pricing

£1 a unit a month

Service documents

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 13

Service ID

4 9 4 9 5 5 9 4 1 5 6 1 4 5 0

Contact

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

Service scope

Service constraints
None
System requirements
None

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Yes, at extra cost
Support response times
Civica offers four levels of support ranging from core working hours (9am to 5pm Monday to Friday excluding English public holidays) to full 24x7 support. Our Silver service response times depend on the severity of the incident and are as follows:
a) Severity Level 1 (Critical) - 1 hour to respond, 1 day to resolve.
b) Severity Level 2 (Severe) - 1 hour to respond, 3 days to resolve.
c) Severity Level 3 (Disruptive) - 2 hours to respond, reasonable 5 days to resolve.
d) Severity Level 4 (Minor) - 2 hours to respond, reasonable efforts to resolve.
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
Civica offers four levels of support with the following support hours:
1) Platinum: Full 24*7 support service suitable for the most business critical applications.
2) Gold: On-call 24*7 support service appropriate for public facing applications that are utilised 24*7.
3) Silver: 8am to 5:30pm Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays. This extended hours model is targeted at customers requiring cover for a flexible working day.
4) Bronze: 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday excluding public holidays.
The Civica Digital Service Desk is contactable from 8am to 6pm on UK working days.
The Service Desk responds to questions depending on the Severity Level of the call as follows:
a) Severity Level 1 (Critical) - the reported problem causes a halt to the client’s core business processes and no workaround is available.
b) Severity Level 2 (Major) - the reported problem causes degradation of the client’s core business processes and no reasonable work-around exists.
c) Severity Level 3 (Intermediate) - the reported problem impacts the client’s operational environment, but does not affect core business processes. A work-around is available.
d) Severity Level 4 (Minor) - a non-critical problem is causing some disruption, but with little or no impact on the client operation.
Support available to third parties
No

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
During initiation the Civica Delivery Manager (DM) assesses what help, support and training users require to start using the service. The DM works closely with the customer to agree an on-boarding plan that ensures users are ready to start using the service, typically priced from the SFIA rate card. The on-boarding plan may incorporate the following: Support Documentation – availability and access to online user support documentation and resources. Cloud Induction Training for system administrators and online product help. Provides the skills to run cloud services. Cloud Standard Training in the core system for system champions and end users. Covers system administration, security and cloud service monitoring/managing. Cloud Specialist Training – advanced training for system champions. This may involve Accredited Courses from Amazon Web Services. Cloud Training Packages, tailored package of training for specific business requirements for system administrators, business managers, and end users. The Delivery Manager also facilitates skills transfer throughout the project and provides access to Civica Knowledge Sharing activities including supplier briefings, Webinars.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • Other
Other documentation formats
Videos & online training
End-of-contract data extraction
Termination period depends on the payment model. When paying per user per month, customers may terminate their G-Cloud service with 30 days’ notice. When buying an enterprise licence, the minimum term is a year. Customers can terminate their service by contacting Civica in writing. Customers may request all associated data is extracted and provided securely to a destination of their choice (see pricing for charges associated with data extraction). If no data extraction is requested, then the associated data will be deleted within 5 working days of service termination. The three step off-boarding process is: 1. Termination Notification – one month termination notice sent; 2. Data Extraction – Optimal Data Extraction for Test Migration; 3. Service Termination – All Data Wiped.
End-of-contract process
For monthly contracts, Civica require 30 days’ notice to terminate a G-Cloud service. When buying an enterprise annual licence, the minimum term is a year and 3 months’ written notice must be provided. At the end of the contract, the service will be turned off unless the customer decides to extract their data as per the extraction process detailed above. Customers will be credited for any amount that has been paid beyond the termination date once the service has been terminated subject to minimum terms.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Using the web interface
Users are able to commission and use the full spectrum of AWS services through the web interface. Full details of the services available can be found here: https://aws.amazon.com/
Web interface accessibility standard
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Web interface accessibility testing
None
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
The majority of operations which can be performed using the web interface can also be performed using the API.
API automation tools
  • Ansible
  • Chef
  • OpenStack
  • SaltStack
  • Terraform
  • Puppet
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
  • HTML
  • ODF
  • PDF
  • Other
Command line interface
Yes
Command line interface compatibility
  • Linux or Unix
  • Windows
  • MacOS
  • Other
Using the command line interface
The AWS Command Line Interface allows customers to control multiple services from a command line and enable simple scripting.

Scaling

Scaling available
Yes
Scaling type
  • Automatic
  • Manual
Independence of resources
AWS is a hyper-scale public cloud with multiple worldwide data centres providing suitable scale and independence of resources to ensure there is no contention between customers.
Usage notifications
Yes
Usage reporting
Email

Analytics

Infrastructure or application metrics
Yes
Metrics types
  • CPU
  • Disk
  • HTTP request and response status
  • Memory
  • Network
  • Number of active instances
Reporting types
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards

Resellers

Supplier type
Reseller providing extra features and support
Organisation whose services are being resold
Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Conforms to BS7858:2019
Government security clearance
Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Asset protection

Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
Yes
Data storage and processing locations
European Economic Area (EEA)
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
Another external penetration testing organisation
Protecting data at rest
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
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

Backup and recovery

Backup and recovery
Yes
What’s backed up
Most AWS services can be backed up
Backup controls
Backups are configured by the customer so full control can be retained over the type, schedule, location and retention of backups
Datacentre setup
Multiple datacentres with disaster recovery
Scheduling backups
Users schedule backups through a web interface
Backup recovery
  • Users can recover backups themselves, for example through a web interface
  • Users contact the support team

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
AWS has a contractually guaranteed availability of 99.9% based on 24 x 7 availability (higher availability is available depending on configuration). Civica’s service desk is available 09:00am – 5:30pm UK Working Days. If you would like service levels to apply outside of normal service hours, then please contact us with your requirements. Civica will act as the customer’s agent to liaise with AWS to resolve issues. AWS pay service credits directly if the platform does not meet pre-defined service levels. Civica will pass onto the customer any service credits received from AWS.
Approach to resilience
AWS has been designed to maximise reliability and minimise negative impact on their customers. The have built significant redundancy into their services, which allows them to deliver high availability to their customers. AWS have worked to ensure customer data is intact and unaffected by any form of resilience failure. AWS have engineered resilience from the infrastructure upwards, for example, they make use of peer replication between data centres to ensure that there are always multiple copies of all data.
Outage reporting
A public interface is available to see if there are any service outages. The AWS portal also provides more specific details of any outages which might impact the customer's services.

Identity and authentication

User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google apps)
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
AWS allows a number of different was of performing authentication and authorisation. Specific configuration is up to the customer.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least once a year
Management access authentication
Username or password
Devices users manage the service through
Dedicated device on a segregated network (providers own provision)

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 receive audit information on a regular basis
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
Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
Alcumus ISOQAR Ltd
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
4th May 2016
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
Civica's ISO27001 certificate covers the full breadth of services that we deliver. The certificate does not extend to the inner workings of the AWS Data Centres but these are covered by AWS's ISO27001 certificate.
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
Yes
CSA STAR accreditation date
05/11/2019
CSA STAR certification level
Level 3: CSA STAR Certification
What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover
AWS services only
PCI certification
Yes
Who accredited the PCI DSS certification
PCI Standards Council
PCI DSS accreditation date
01/12/2019
What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover
AWS in scope services only https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/services-in-scope/
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
ISO/IEC 27001
Information security policies and processes
Civica is ISO27001 accredited. It has 15 years of experience in delivering highly-secure, business critical services for public sector clients, including the development and management of several national critical systems. All of Civica’s activities are carried out under its ISO27001-compliant Information Security Management System (ISMS) which defines the secure operating procedures for every single aspect of Civica’s operational processes, including its engagement with partners such as Microsoft. Microsoft are themselves ISO27001 accredited and Civica has worked to ensure this service offers seamless operational security coverage. Ultimate responsibility for Civica’s security policies rests at board level; day-to-day operational responsibility is held by Civica’s Head of Security who manages a team of Security Administrators involved in supporting operations and technical owners. Operational security for this service is assured by the internal service owner, with the support of the security team.

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
AWS performs configuration and change management according to recognised international standards. Further details can be found on the AWS website here: https://aws.amazon.com
Vulnerability management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Vulnerability management approach
AWS performs detailed vulnerability management, more details of which can be found here: https://aws.amazon.com
Protective monitoring type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Protective monitoring approach
More details of the protective monitoring processes in place at AWS can be found here: https://aws.amazon.com
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
More details of the information management processes in place at AWS can be found here: https://aws.amazon.com

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 v3.0)

Separation between users

Virtualisation technology used to keep applications and users sharing the same infrastructure apart
Yes
Who implements virtualisation
Supplier
Virtualisation technologies used
Other
Other virtualisation technology used
AWS specific
How shared infrastructure is kept separate
Users are separated using virtualisation technologies to ensure there are logical boundaries between each consumer.

Energy efficiency

Energy-efficient datacentres
Yes
Description of energy efficient datacentres
Please contact Civica for details.

Social Value

Fighting climate change

Fighting climate change

Civica’s Environment and Social Governance team provides clear focus for the ongoing development and implementation of our environmental policy, which is supported by our ISO 14001 environmental standard. We are committed to working with our staff, customers, suppliers and partners to recognise and reduce the impact we all have on the environment. This goes hand-in-hand with optimising our services to support environmental and community initiatives.

Through the delivery our services, we support fighting climate change by:
- Helping employees improve their own environmental footprint at work. Initiatives include: environmental policy training; Single use plastic reduction; electric vehicle salary sacrifice; cycle to work scheme; solar panel and LED lighting installation; tree planting scheme, offsetting carbon emissions. We also encourage and advise employees on positive activity at home and in their personal lives.
- Working with suppliers to deliver environmentally sound processes and incorporate sustainable criteria into product/service specifications.
- Operating socially responsible purchasing, considering sustainable procurement, environmental and social effects and reduced consumption.
- Selecting suppliers, goods and services that demonstrate environmentally sustainable, socially responsible and ethically sound standards.
- Leading by example/raising awareness with customers via activities such as: reducing our single use plastic consumption by 70% within the next 5 years; prioritising use of green energy in our facilities; promoting recycling through our ‘Zero to Landfill’ and ‘Zero Print’ schemes; working towards carbon neutrality with workforces and facilities to reduce carbon consumption over the next 10-years.
- Working with customers to develop innovative software-based services that reduce property/power requirements.
- Meeting/exceeding environmental legislation through ISO audits.

We have a Carbon Reduction Plan in place and a commitment to achieve Net Zero by 2040 at the latest. We are reviewing our energy mix and the materials we use, and working with partners to plant a Civica Forest.
Covid-19 recovery

Covid-19 recovery

In the spring of 2020, Civica were an early signatory to the C-19 Business Pledge. We focused on safeguarding our people and communities and ensuring the successful ongoing provision of our business-critical software and services.

Supporting customers: Alongside business as usual for our customers, we have worked hard to support the national and local level response through practical, innovative and updated software capability. We have delivered a range of new capabilities quickly, such as those listed below, and continue to provide system advice, configuration and data insights to ensure effective action.
- COVID-19 App (the first of its kind in the UK and Ireland) was developed and launched with the Northern Ireland Department of Health, and helped reduce the pressure on the 111 helpline.
- Developed local track and trace solution for London Borough of Redbridge, enabling it to support localised contact tracing/escalations.
- Community Helper software - built on the iCasework platform to help local authorities co-ordinate rapid support for vulnerable people while minimising safeguarding risks.
- Our Trac e-recruitment software was used to help NHS recruiters get the right candidates into posts quickly and fast-track DBS checks.
- Supporting social housing tenants - assisted teams to re-focus resources and provide vital support to tenants.
- Supporting Revenues and Benefits teams - software solutions for the two largest UK government measures, Business Rates Grant fund and the Council Tax Hardship fund.

Supporting employees: We proactively provide guidance and support for our people, from keeping remote workers engaged, to our mental health champions and free-to-access Employee Assistance programme. We have adopted a blended working model enabling colleagues to work safely and flexibly at various locations and hub offices, enhanced how we communicate, and continue to look for new ways to share ideas and inspiration.
Tackling economic inequality

Tackling economic inequality

Create opportunities for entrepreneurship and help organisations to grow:
Civica is committed to working with its customers to deliver value into the community by supporting young people, developing skills and mentoring businesses to attract inward investment and growth that brings with it employment and skills.

We support innovation through our NorthStar innovation lab, a company-wide initiative focused on enhanced client outcomes by applying fresh ideas on data, automation and new technologies. We work with our customers to co-create public services that are fit for today and for the future. Our Civica NorthStar innovation lab creates physical and virtual opportunities for us to jointly explore trends and technologies.

Create employment and training opportunities:
Civica is a member of the 5% Club, and aims to have 5% of its UK work force as either apprentices, graduates or work experience students by the end of 2025. We employ apprentices and graduates into a number of different disciplines and locations, with a focus on ensuring they are long term employees of Civica.

Support educational attainment:
Learning and development is at the core of the Civica Quality Management Framework. We believe in investing in our people and are proud of our Investors in People Gold accreditation and in being a top rated Glassdoor Employer.

We run our own Civica Academy for employee development and skills enhancement, which delivered over 220,000 hours of training during 2021. We provide our own apprenticeship programme (team leader level 3) for our aspiring and current managers that are considered stars of the future.

We are working on building some new apprenticeship standards such as the UX degree apprenticeship. This will benefit not only Civica’s Digital Team but all companies and customers that need UX talent.
Equal opportunity

Equal opportunity

Civica is a 2022 Financial Times Diversity Leader and is ‘Gold’ Investors in People accredited, demonstrating our commitment to promoting equal opportunity by tackling inequality in employment, skills and pay in our workforce. We proactively implement equal opportunities for employment and personal development among diverse groups and local areas, and ensure rights for all staff are always protected. This is led by our Group Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) team, championed by our CEO who is also our Chief Diversity Sponsor. The strategy and policy manages:
- Interview training, focusing on unconscious bias/equal opportunity.
- Anonymising CVs and ensuring interview panels represent minority groups.
- Using a decoder to ensure job advertisements use gender and culturally neutral language.
- Attracting/recruiting from minority backgrounds/disadvantaged groups across the organisation, especially into under-represented areas.
- Advertising vacancies in a wide variety of places and diversity/disability portals (including; BME jobs, Disability jobs and LGBT job sites), to increase gender diversity and ethnicity.
- Company-wide Diversity & Inclusion network, including affinity groups relating to under-represented groups.
- Mandatory Diversity & Inclusion training for all staff.
- Pay equity reviews addressing inequality and UK gender pay gap.
- Flexible Working to encourage higher uptake for women, working parents and disabled groups.
- Partner with a social innovator company to help recruit and support employees with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

We gather and analyse data on our performance from regular surveys such as ENPS, IIP, Pulse survey, employee engagement surveys.

Our D&I team monitor the take-up, use and effectiveness of our measures, such as the number of new recruits from minority backgrounds, women, parents and diverse groups, and provide statistics for our Annual Review on performance against targets. For example, we report on the number of people attending training sessions and the split of male to female attendees.
Wellbeing

Wellbeing

Civica actively promote a mentally healthy workplace and workforce through our 40+ Mental Health Champions (MHC) and our ‘Health and Wellbeing’ policy, encouraging a flexible and realistic work/life balance. We integrate mental health and general wellbeing in all that we do from recruitment and ‘First Impressions’ to appraisals and strategic management.

Our ‘Health and Wellbeing’ policy and programme for all employees provide a foundation to support both the mental and physical health of our staff. Examples include:
- 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’ physical and mental wellbeing through: Employee ‘Donate-a-Day’ to local charities; Local events organised through “Charity Champions”; Directors providing guidance to local community health and wellbeing projects; Supporting social housing tenants to re-focus resources and provide vital support to tenants.

Suppliers/subcontractors are subject to Civica’s Sub-contractor Selection Process as defined in our ISO9001 Quality Management System, which includes criteria for assessing health and wellbeing policies and their promotion.

Pricing

Price
£1 a unit a month
Discount for educational organisations
No
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
AWS provides a free tier option to trial there service. More details can be found here: https://aws.amazon.com/free/ If you'd like to take advantage of this in a tailored proof of concept them please contact Civica Digital.
Link to free trial
https://aws.amazon.com/free/

Service documents

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.