Simitive Ltd

Teaching Allocation Management Service (TAMS)

TAMS reduces the effort required for the capture of time bound activities including teaching and assessment and its associated academic workload. Module leaders plan timebound activities ensuring that students from different disciplines can attend all required courses without conflicts, and academic allocations meet contractual commitments by week, month and year.

Features

Real time scheduling of time bound activities
Compliance with working time limits (weekly, monthly, annual)
Planning and management of teaching and assessment activities
Staff working time, availability management
Matching of specialist skills and certifications to teaching activities
Team delivery management and reporting
Multi Year planning and reporting
Real time analytics and dashboards
Overview and reporting of academics delivering teaching activities
Identification of times of overload for staff and students

Benefits

Evidence and manage compliance of teaching time by week/month/year
Provides a single collection point for workload and timetabling data
Intuitive planning tool for teaching and assessment activities
Support for block teaching or different hours of delivery
Identification of conflicts reducing timetable clashes for students and staff
Provides real time information to inform data driven decisions
Management teams plan and allocate resources to accommodate peak times
Ensuring days end at an appropriate point for students commuting
Identify points of high and low rates of resource utilisation
Identification of conflicts from joint/shared delivery of modules or courses

£6,000 a user a year

Education pricing available

Service documents

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Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

Contact

Simitive Ltd Devinder Whelan
Telephone: 0117 9117950
Email: devinder.whelan@simitive.com

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: Academic Workload Allocation Management System (WAMS)
Activity Based Costing (ABC)
Living Review
Cloud deployment model: Private cloud
Service constraints: Simitive systems are ‘locked’ during defined maintenance windows. There are no requirements for other downtime as the system is architected to provide 24 x 7 availability.
System requirements: A vendor supported internet browser

Access to the internet

User support

Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
Support response times: Support calls are handled in line with the below standard SLAs.

Severity 1: Critical system problem or issue. 15 minutes from receipt of notifcation.

Severity 2: Time critical problem or issue. 60 minutes from receipt of notification.

Severity 3 & 4: Non critical system problem or issue. Acknowledgement within 24 business hours from receipt of notification. A process will be agreed with the customer.

The above are for standard UK business hours (Monday to Friday 0900 to 1700 excluding bank and public holidays). Additional support hours including weekend support is available on request.
User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
Online ticketing support accessibility: None or don’t know
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: Standard support is available Monday to Friday (0900 to 1700) excluding Bank and Public Holidays. Support calls are handled in line with standard SLA. Standard support is provided as part of the annual license fee, and no additional costs are payable by client. Extended support service, up to and including 24x7 support and managed services are available on request. Costs for extended services are based on the number of client licenses and the scope of the service. Simitive have a Support manager who is responsible for ensuring SLAs are met and to conduct regular service reviews.
Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started: All projects follow Prince2 methodology, which defines the scope of the project and the required work-streams are established, for example SSO, data imports and framework alignment. During the design and implementation, Simitive project managers work closely with the client. Simitive provide the following types of training: On-site for system administrator on a train the trainer approach. On-line training for system administrator using remote technology. User guides and training guides.
Service documentation: Yes
Documentation formats: PDF

Other
Other documentation formats: Word

Excel
End-of-contract data extraction: Users can extract their data at any time via the application. In addition at the end of the contract client data is returned to the client in a format agreed with the client and deleted from Simitive systems. Any systems used in the provision of the services are cleansed to industry best practice standards.
End-of-contract process: At the end of the contract client data is returned to the client in a format agreed with the client and deleted from Simitive systems. Any systems used in the provision of the services are cleansed to industry best practice standards. There are no additional costs at the end of the contract.

Using the service

Web browser interface: Yes
Supported browsers: Microsoft Edge

Firefox

Chrome

Safari
Application to install: No
Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service: By necessity the responsive design of the system alters the look of screens to facilitate clarity on smaller devices.
Service interface: No
User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
API: Yes
What users can and can't do using the API: The system is capable of integrating with any system via its APIs. Simitive runs version 1.0 live REST API web service; secured with HTTPS and oAuth using a JSON format (other formats can be supported). This API allows a client to programmatically create/read/update user records and associated information. Commonly connected systems are HR, Student Records, Timetabling, Research, Finance.
API documentation: Yes
API documentation formats: Open API (also known as Swagger)
API sandbox or test environment: Yes
Customisation available: Yes
Description of customisation: The system can be customised to allow individual organisation branding, terminology and import of any data including job description, grade and any other relevant information to support policies such as equality and diversity. Individual displays can be customised to different types of users and roles to ensure the content is relevant and engaging for all staff types. Within the system, there is customisation the client can configure. For system changes, Simitive support staff or consultants will be required to perform an impact analysis and make the required changes. Most Simitive modules allow extensive configuration by the client without recourse to Simitive

Scaling

Independence of resources: Simitive systems are delivered via a massively scale-able architecture based on Amazon EC2. Each client's instance is isolated from all others to ensure that there can be no effects across clients.

Analytics

Service usage metrics: Yes
Metrics types: Service metrics are provided both within the system, through standard reports and Simitive Account Managers carry out service reviews with Clients on a regular basis.
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 Security Clearance (SC)

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: 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 CHECK service provider
Protecting data at rest: Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0

Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402

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: The system has a standard export function that allows users with appropriate permissions to support all data from the system. Individual workloads can be saved as pdf. The reporting tools, for individuals with the right security permissions, allow users to export data into excel spreadsheets. The data held within the system can also be exported to a data warehouse. The API is a bi-directional and will allow data to be written back to key systems as required.
Data export formats: CSV
Data import formats: CSV

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: Simitive systems are guaranteed to deliver 99.5% availability with service credits should this level not be achieved. Over the last 4 years Simitive has delivered 100% availability.
Approach to resilience: Available on request
Outage reporting: Simitive monitor all systems continuously for any potential outages. The systems architecture automatically replaces failing items before an actual outage occurs.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed: Yes
User authentication: 2-factor authentication

Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)

Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)

Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Users do not have access to management interfaces.
Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
Management access authentication: 2-factor authentication

Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)

Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)

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: At least 12 months
Access to supplier activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get 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: BSI
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 03/12/2023
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: All areas of Simitive business and operations are covered
ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
CSA STAR certification: No
PCI certification: No
Cyber essentials: Yes
Cyber essentials plus: No
Other security certifications: Yes
Any other security certifications: AWS FTR Certification

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: Simitive have formal information security policies (certified to ISO27001) which are owned by the Managing Director and form an integral part of the company's standard operations. The policies and processes cover internal as well as service delivery security.

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 changes to the Simitive cloud require approval by two Directors. Any changes are subject to impact assessment prior to any action. As a user of Amazon EC2 Simitive are subject to and controlled by the certified standards and regulations that form part of Amazon service.
Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Vulnerability management approach: Simitive carry out continuous threat analysis and all patches are applied inline with industry best practice and providers recommendations.
Simitive environments are assessed and certified by AWS and meet the requirements of the Company's ISO27001 Certification
Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Protective monitoring approach: Simitive systems are monitored constantly for any potential compromises through a suite of monitoring tools. As soon as a potential compromise is identified the instance or instances potentially affected are locked whilst detailed examination is carried out. Depending on the outcome of the investigation remedial actions are carried out and any changes made before the instance is reactivated. All actual or suspected incidents are managed and recorded in conformance with Simitive ISO27001 policies and standards
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: Simitive have standard tested processes for incident management. In the unlikely event that an end user is aware of an incident before Simitive it can be reported by email, phone or client portal 24x7. For any incident a report is produced following appropriate investigation and resolution which will be shared with any affected clients.

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: No

Pricing

Price: £6,000 a user a year
Discount for educational organisations: Yes
Free trial available: No

Service documents

Request an accessible format

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Teaching Allocation Management Service (TAMS)

Features

Benefits

Pricing

Service documents

Framework

Service ID

Contact

Service scope

User support

Onboarding and offboarding

Using the service

Scaling

Analytics

Resellers

Staff security

Asset protection

Data importing and exporting

Data-in-transit protection

Availability and resilience

Identity and authentication

Audit information for users

Standards and certifications

Security governance

Operational security

Secure development

Public sector networks

Social Value

Pricing

Service documents