Socitm Advisory Limited

Improve Delivery

Provides insight into how your ICT service operates and its relative size.

By comparing your organisation with your peers, you will identify whether you have the correct level of staff, are investing in the correct end user devices or could benefit from a different operating model.

Features

• Complete at your own pace
• Assign additional users to complete aspects of survey
• All data saved on entry
• Results available with 48 hours of completion
• Interactive reporting to drill down into results
• Compare against over a decade of historical data

Benefits

• Questions and metrics developed specifically for public and third sector
• Examine relative size of ICT service
• Investigate levels of staffing
• Review staff turnover
• Compare provision of ICT hardware
• Compare the overall size of your network
• Compare takeup of flexible working
• Review adoption of governance standards

£1,195 a unit 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 Advisory.sales@socitm.net. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

531856030130526

Contact

Juliet Gurney - Director of Sales
01604 709 456
Advisory.sales@socitm.net

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Private cloud
• Service constraints: No Service Constraints
• System requirements: Desktop PC with upto date browser

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Within 24 hours - Monday to Friday
• 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: No
• Support levels: Organisations are provided with an Improve Manager, who is their single point of contact with the service.; ; The Improve Manager will handle all queries, and escalate any issues to technical staff as required.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Organisations will be asked to provide the email address of a 'Product Owner' who will receive the invitation to begin using the product and then take responsibility for it's submission. Following the survey, organisations are provided with a URL for their results, along with online videos explaining how to use dashboards.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • PDF
  • Other
• Other documentation formats: Online video guides
• End-of-contract data extraction: If requested, Socitm will provide spreadsheet containing the results of the survey.
• End-of-contract process: Data is retained by Socitm and used anonymously to provide future comparisons.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: No
• Service interface: No
• User support accessibility: None or don’t know
• API: No
• Customisation available: No

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Service is hosted on cloud servers, which will be scaled up as required.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: No

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Staff screening not performed
• Government security clearance: None

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations:
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• Penetration testing frequency: Never
• Protecting data at rest: Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: In-house destruction process

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Organisations may contact Socitm, to request their data.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats: .XLS
• Data import formats: Other
• Other data import formats: Not Applicable

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: Other
• Other protection between networks: Data submitted on a field by field basis to maintain anonymity
• Data protection within supplier network: TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: The service is delivered via Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Power BI. Thus, it reflects their SLAs
• Approach to resilience: Datacentre provided by Amazon Web Services
• Outage reporting: Primary users of the service will be informed by email, if the service experiences a major outage.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication: Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Not applicable, there is a single level of access to service.
• Access restriction testing frequency: Never
• Management access authentication: Username or password

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: No audit information available
• Access to supplier activity audit information: No audit information available
• How long system logs are stored for: Less than 1 month

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: Yes
• Other security certifications: No

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: No
• Security governance approach: Undisclosed
• Information security policies and processes: The IT help desk must be alerted if something is wrong with computer hardware or applications. These problems can indicate more than just a coding error and may be an indication of a security breach, corrupted data or system unreliability.; ; Users must promptly inform the help desk about suspected information security problems including social engineering, virus or malware infection, denial of service, loss or damage to equipment.; ; If Socitm experiences a cyber crime incident, an investigation must be carried out to determine the cause and effect of the event. The Chief Executive Officer may lead the investigation but may call in additional expertise if required. The results of the investigation will assist with Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery planning.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: The system development manager is solely responsible for evaluating any changes in online services.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: We monitor and log all activity, and review the logs weekly. Logging and alarms for service interruptions are in place. If vulnerabilities are identified, we patch within one working day. We stay up to date by actively participating in tech communities and regularly reviewing alerts from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, etc.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: We monitor and log all activity, and review the logs weekly. Logging and alarms for service interruptions are in place. If vulnerabilities are identified, we patch within one working day.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: Undisclosed

Secure development

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

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Fighting climate change:

  Fighting climate change

  Fighting climate change and environmental sustainability present challenges and opportunities for Socitm Advisory and our customers. To minimise the negative and maximise the positive impact that our working practices have on the environment, we have committed to several priorities, including carbon footprint reduction, eliminating the use of single use plastics, and maximising the environmental benefits of remote delivery. ; Our commitment to improving our environment in any way that we can is demonstrated in our aspiration to be “regarded as an environmentally conscious business in line with our industry sector” by 2025. Indeed, our choices relating to travel, meeting locations and remote technology are all part of our investment to becoming carbon minimal by the end of 2022. ; Our roadmap for environmental sustainability is not limited to carbon footprint reduction but has a broader reach through our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme. We regularly encourage environmental awareness among our employees and develop programmes, we reuse, recycle or donate 100% of our e-waste, including computers and servers. ; Our commitment to environmental extends to our customers too, where we engage in programmes supporting local green agendas and ensure that our work does not negatively impact local environments. ; Our Socitm Woodland Programme – which is a designated plot of land that will allows us to plant trees for significant work moments. This is used to recognise a staff promotion, the delivery of a piece of work for a client, the onboarding of a new partnership. Whist giving recognition to other, this also allows us to impact positively on the environment.; We constantly reflect on how the company operates and its guidance to staff and associates. We consider the impacts of our working practices on the economy, the environment, and its broader social impacts at Board level on a quarterly basis.
• Covid-19 recovery:

  Covid-19 recovery

  Throughout and beyond the Covid 19 pandemic we have continued to focus on this area for our business and clients. During the pandemic we were able to provide continuous service to all our customers, including delivering projects that supported clients to implement solutions to maintain and adapt services for communities. All our programmes/projects have been delivered and continue to be delivered remotely adapting to reflect our clients Covid policies and approaches. We have been able to hold conferences, one to one meetings, and group meetings by using Teams and other tools. Our core IT infrastructure is hosted via the cloud, this allows us to access via the internet remotely allowing continuation of work ensuring our delivery of services to our customers is not impacted. Where resources are impacted due to absence of work, we are able to back fill resource who will have access to document, there causing minimal risk of service.
• Tackling economic inequality:

  Tackling economic inequality

  Our vision to tackling economic inequality as an organisation via;; Employment ; When committing to a long-term Programme, we prefer to build a team of permanent Socitm Advisory employees. When looking to attract new staff to a Programme, we ensure that any external facing collateral (job specifications, adverts, editorials) are screened to ensure there is no unconscious bias. We are participants, on a national basis, in schemes to promote opportunities for disadvantaged people. ; We invest in Graduate and Apprenticeship programmes, which enable graduates, or career changers and apprentices the options to build on their careers. ; Learning and Development ; We invest in the development of our staff and colleagues with many planned interventions to provide the levels of support needed to promote and assist with employees’ learning journeys, including corporate coaching and mentorship scheme and partnering with Udemy allowing access to instant learning content. We also access learning via our sister company Socitm through training programmes such as the Leadership programme, Top Talent and Empowering Women. ; Supplier Diversity ; Socitm Advisory is supplier agnostic, which makes us totally independent and impartial throughout. ; We have a number of alliance service providers that we use these ranging from niche organisations to SME to larger organisation. Where there is a specific requirement to sub-contract a service for larger programmes we would look to engage with local organisations. ; We ensure suppliers are paid promptly to protect their economic viability and we provide support through our finance team to speedily resolve payment issues.; Security; We utilise industry best practice systems ensuring data and information required for client delivery is securely backed-up to enable business continuity. All our data is stored in the cloud. We are cyber essentials plus accredited and all our employees attend yearly GDPR/Data protection awareness training.
• Equal opportunity:

  Equal opportunity

  Our current employee diversity is on par with industry standards with a male to female ratio of 67:33. We also currently have 21% of employees with an ethnic lineage, above the national average of 11% in the UK ; By 2025 we will have: ; ; • Equal opportunities for all employees to grow their skills and enhance their careers. ; • Diversity at all levels of our organisational hierarchy. ; • A rich diversity that reflects our customers and their communities.; ; Ensuring equality we have in place flexible working, allowing us to attract talented consultants who are returning back to work after a period of absent, along with those that have other life commitments. Ensuring work/life balance for all.; ; To enable us to reach our future state we have five supporting goals, these cover the more specific areas of:; ; • Resourcing, attraction and talent development.; • Equal pay.; • A gender-balanced workforce.; • Leadership.; • Disability confidence.; ; We have very strong corporate values shared by all and we consider ourselves a family as much as a company. We are all driven to ensure commitment to fair and equal pay onshore, near shore and offshore. Ensuring we provide remuneration at above both minimum and living wage levels for our staff. ; ; We regularly review our pay award and compensation protocols to ensure we are always keeping our terms and conditions refreshed and relevant to our markets. We actively invest in graduate and apprentice schemes to and apply the same code of commercial conduct to those roles also. We invest in the development of all our staff and colleagues with many planned interventions to provide the levels of support needed to promote and assist with employees’ learning journeys, such as a corporate coaching and mentorship scheme and partnering with Udemy to provide access to instant learning content.
• Wellbeing:

  Wellbeing

  The wellbeing of our people is extremely important to us. We have invested in and implemented a fantastic programme offering an Employee Assistance Programme, mental health support tools and e-learning training, accompanied by internal initiatives led by our own people. 100% of our people are covered by the programme, and family members have access to counselling and support. We strive to continue to break the stigma surrounding mental health by fostering a workplace environment where people feel comfortable engaging in open, honest dialogue about mental health. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wellbeing Team have allocated over 150 hours of their time to talk about wellbeing and mental health, including attending workshops, taking part in training and designing the Wellbeing Programme itself. We have a dedicated team of Wellbeing Champions who meet fortnightly to ensure we cover all areas of wellbeing, our employees are invited to join the wellbeing sessions which have included topics around, financial, diversity, managing sleep, exercise. We also encourage our employees at all levels to share their experiences on topics that would not normally be discussed, this has encouraged openness across all areas highlighting you are not alone. This effort is not limited to our people, however, as we continue to promote the wellbeing agenda to keep out colleagues, partners and customers happy, healthy and engaged.

Pricing

• Price: £1,195 a unit 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 Advisory.sales@socitm.net. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.