Computer Task Group (UK) Limited

CTG Secure Portal for Communications Data Disclosure

CTG provide custom, secure Information-Disclosure portals delivering workflow automation and self-service between public sector departments, law-enforcement and the private sector. CTG cloud based solutions can be configured to support a wide range of disclosure workflows, including IPA, Auto-Acquire, DRD, FOI, GDPR, DPA, Court Order, Communications-Act and other security sensitive regulations.

Features

  • Fully Configurable solution
  • Configurable Branding, bespoke Service requests and Reporting
  • Future Network and Acquire Compliant
  • On-boarding and Off-boarding services to help smooth the business change
  • Free Opportunity Assessment workshop to help build a potential vision
  • Conference Room Trial (£20,000) to help identify Critical Success Factors
  • A number of API solutions, including Auto-Acquire
  • Interfaces with datastores, including SQL-databases, middleware, SFTP, APIs, CRM-systems

Benefits

  • Fully document and publish your Data Catalogue
  • Full control of internal and external user access
  • Self service and full automation is possible
  • Full Audit trail available for all transactions, including watermarked outputs
  • Deploy product prototypes to support stakeholder engagement and requirement definition

Pricing

£170,000 a licence a year

  • Free trial available

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 haydn.watkins@ctg.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

5 5 3 3 7 6 6 9 6 7 4 1 1 5 0

Contact

Computer Task Group (UK) Limited Haydn Watkins
Telephone: +44(0)1189 750877
Email: haydn.watkins@ctg.com

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
No
Cloud deployment model
Private cloud
Service constraints
Each portal is fully customisable. The product is built and maintained in an agile way which allows CTG to respond quickly to new requirements. The product typically has a new release every three months. CTG publish a roadmap, scheduling future releases to ensure customers know what to expect and when – particularly what the impact on their business will be and how to prepare for it. The content of the releases is driven by the Change-Advisory-Board made up from the user/sponsoring communities. CTG work on the basis of supporting the latest version and and the most recent previous version only.
System requirements
All required Oracle licenses are included in CTG pricing

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
Available 24x7x365
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
Yes
Online ticketing support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 A
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 A
Web chat accessibility testing
None
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
CTG provide a full support service and dedicated Service Management team: • A dedicated Service Manager and specialist support analyst for each customer responsible for SLA delivery • Incident Management via 24 x 7 multi-lingual service desk with online incident logging and tracking facility available to customers via CTG service portal and/or email • Hand-offs to other business customers or suppliers where these have been agreed as being in scope for the managed service • A maintenance and problem management team responsible for ongoing product improvement and defect resolution • A Product and Release Manager responsible for working with customers to agree and prioritise the future change roadmap of the software. The portal application also contains a range of features and functions that provides real time management information on the state of the application from a business perspective. These include: • Current work dashboard showing distribution of work and SLA status • A job management control panel displaying running jobs and potential faults and providing analysis and issue resolution controls • Alerts when an automated task fails for both business users and the support teams • User friendly on-screen warnings advising them of potential delays.
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
CTG’s success in delivering disclosure portals has come from understanding the business change challenges as much as it is about the software required to deliver those changes. The on-boarding method starts right from the initial visioning and design stages, where CTG ensure a business process based approach is used to help all stakeholders understand how the new model will work and identify and plan for the future on-boarding challenges when the final solution is ready for go-live. This ongoing engagement ensures all parties are ready for the change with critical ‘blocker’ issues addressed and all enabling activities identified in an overall on-boarding strategy. Key components include: Data Readiness • Standard load templates and scripts tailored for historic data to be migrated prepared and tested • Historic data extracts prepared and ready for loading Support Configuration • Agreed processes for incident management and service desk support • Agreed standard release management approach Business Readiness • End user training for Requesting Agencies and Information Owners • Delivery of customised user documentation • Support for the integration of new processes with the current operation
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
  • Other
Other documentation formats
Business Acceptance Tool(BAT), interactively demonstrates the system to new users
End-of-contract data extraction
Off-Boarding in the event of service termination is aided by: • Ensuring a contingency non-system based business process is defined alongside the new automated service. Should the service be terminated, these processes can be deployed to continue operations • Providing data extraction functions and supporting documentation that will ensure the customer’s data can readily be extracted for archiving and/or populating to other systems in the event of service termination. This can be further protected through an escrow arrangement if required.
End-of-contract process
Typical contracts include an implementation phase, followed by multi year support deal. An annual support deal is mandatory if the systems is being used in a live environment. If annual Support is not renewed then the agreement terminates, unless the client agrees a bespoke close down period agreement. Additional support activities can be purchased based on need (if required).

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
Application to install
Yes
Compatible operating systems
  • Linux or Unix
  • Windows
Designed for use on mobile devices
No
Service interface
No
User support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 A
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
The system is set up to support the Auto-Acquire interface. If however, no standard interface be available to link CTG systems to data sources, CTG have a generic API that can be customised to interface to any source data system. The standard for this is fully documented to allow a customer or other third party to develop connectors to the CTG interface should they wish to do this for themselves.
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
Open API (also known as Swagger)
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
Most of CTG’s deployments require a level of customisation to meet specific discloser and customer requirements. Connectivity and hosting technical requirements can also have significant impact on costs and therefore there is no standard price for a secure portal.
CTG have a flexible pricing approach which can be tailored to best suit the customer’s budget and preferred payment schemes. These can consider:
• An in initial capital cost for the customisation, deployment and accreditation costs with the ongoing costs based on the level of support required and fixed hosting/software support costs
• Service based costing where a fixed monthly or quarterly service charge over the service period (typically a minimum of 3 years) which covers all costs including the initial set up
• Transaction based costing where a per-transaction charge is agreed (typically subject to a minimum number of transactions being completed per month). Discounts can be applied as volumes increase above agreed thresholds

Scaling

Independence of resources
Typical performance attributes are: • 95% of automated requests to be returned with 60 seconds • 99% of automated requests to be returned within 60 seconds • 80% of web pages to load in less than 3 seconds across any working week In terms of portal availability CTG’s hosting partner, AQL, has a network that is designed to be fault-tolerant and is load-balanced in a high availability configuration. The network service has resilient, multisite presence. Each site has multiple connections to various mobile network service and transit providers and a resilient ring connecting each of its points-of-presence.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
No

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

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
No
Datacentre security standards
Managed by a third party
Penetration testing frequency
At least once a year
Penetration testing approach
‘IT Health Check’ performed by a CHECK service provider
Protecting data at rest
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Encryption of all physical media
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 system outputs are presented in JSON, XML, PDF and CSV formats. Data extraction is possible and would be subject to a bespoke agreement, but this is considered a highly unusual task and would be based on client specific requirements.
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
Other data export formats
  • JSON
  • PDF
  • XML
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
Other data import formats
  • JSON
  • XML
  • PDF

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)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
Service Levels are specific to each portal implementation as they can have a significant effect on the cost of operating the service. CTG portals are typically specified for (and achieve) over 99.5% availability with 24x7 responses to mission critical outages with business hours for other incidents. In terms of portal availability CTG’s hosting partners have networks designed to be fault-tolerant and load-balanced in a high availability configuration.
Approach to resilience
In terms of portal availability CTG’s hosting partners have networks designed to be fault-tolerant and load-balanced in a high availability configuration.
Outage reporting
CTG maintains open communications with clients and will plan outages to provide resilient and security updates as and when appropriate.
The application has a system wide message bar that can be used to communicate planned outages as required.
Service levels will be discussed during the quarterly account meetings to ensure client satisfaction.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
The application can only be accessed via PSN.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • 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
User-defined
Access to supplier activity audit information
Users have access to real-time audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
User-defined
How long system logs are stored for
User-defined

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
Yes
Any other security certifications
  • UK Government audited and rated CTG Policies and Procedures compliance
  • UK Government has issued Security Aspects Letter to CTG
  • CTG has ISO9001:2015 certification and is audited annually
  • CTG has aligned it's internal secuity policies with ISO27001
  • CTG partners are ISO27001 certified

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
CTG has a Security Aspects Letter (SAL) for provision of Communications data and IP resolution, signed and agreed with UK government. This covers data handling and management across the organisation.
CTG uses the SAL to maintain Standard Operating Procedures to cover the Security policies and processes to which CTG adhere. Staff are required to read and sign to say that they understand the processes and policies. These processes and policies are reviewed annually, and updated as appropriate, requiring staff to read and sign again.
On a wider level CTG operates Security policies aligned with ISO27001 and requires all staff to read and be tested against its standard security policies on an annual basis.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
Each portal is fully customisable based on CTG’s existing workflow application and therefore will have its own agreed maintenance and release schedules. CTG publish a roadmap setting out a schedule for future releases to ensure customers know what to expect and when – particularly what the impact on their business will be and how to prepare for it. The content of the releases is driven by the Change Advisory Board (CAB) made up from the user and sponsoring communities. It will usually be expected for a client to take each major release within 12 months of it being available.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
Actively monitor and assess patches issued by software suppliers and regularly test and apply patches to maintain security (quarterly).
Critical threats are patched immediately.
This is validated by external penetration testing every six months.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
Penetration testing is completed at least every six months, both by ourselves, our clients and UK Government.
Critical issues are acted upon immediately.
Standard ITIL processes are operated as part of application support, incidents are managed based on severity, ranging from p1 = hours, to P3 = days.
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
CTG provide a full support service and dedicated Service Management team for their disclosure portals. The team covers the full range of ITIL service management processes and comprising:
• A dedicated Service Manager and specialist support analyst for each customer responsible for SLA delivery
• Incident Management via 24 x 7 multi-lingual service desk with online incident logging and tracking facility available to customers via CTG service portal and/or email
• A maintenance and problem management team responsible for on-going product improvement and defect resolution

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)

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks
Yes
Connected networks
  • Public Services Network (PSN)
  • Other
Other public sector networks
Future Service Networks

Social Value

Fighting climate change

Fighting climate change

CTG UK have baselined their Carbon Footprint, and have published a Carbon Reduction Plan on their UK website, targeting Carbon Neutrality by 2040.
Covid-19 recovery

Covid-19 recovery

N/A
Tackling economic inequality

Tackling economic inequality

N/A
Equal opportunity

Equal opportunity

CTG has a published Equal Opportunity policy.
Wellbeing

Wellbeing

CTG is independently certified as a Great Place To Work, best workplace for Wellbeing 2022.

Pricing

Price
£170,000 a licence a year
Discount for educational organisations
No
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
CTG offer prospective customer’s a free of charge Opportunity Assessment over 2 business days. Building a picture of the current operation, challenges and risks and introducing new ideas. CTG run a workshop building potential vision – identifying key benefit areas whilst being realistic about costs, business impact and overall feasibility.

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 haydn.watkins@ctg.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.