Ultima Business Solutions Ltd

Ultima IA-Connect – Intelligent Automation and RPA

IA-Connect allows organisations to automate what was once considered impossible. IA-Connect provides intelligent automation, comprising of AI, API and patented NextGen robotic process automation (RPA) for local and native Citrix and Remote Desktop (RDS) automation - helping you innovate by freeing up your teams from the repetitive mundane.

Features

• Legacy applications can be made to be automated
• Designed for Blue Prism or Microsoft Power Automate; full integration
• Over 850+ pre-built actions for rapid ROI
• Patented technology for agentless RPA over Citrix or RDS
• Complete feature parity for local or remote-based automations
• “Double-hop” remote sessions and parallel processing support
• IA-Connect automation workers can reside in Azure, AWS, GCP, on-premises
• Power Automate includes orchestrator and secure credentials manager
• Inspect application for automation and IA-Connect automatically generates code
• • Purpose-built Java isolated-crash-protection-engine for automating Java applications reliably

Benefits

• Improve business productivity and efficiency
• One of few products that automate over Citrix and RDS
• Professional services team with over 20 years of Citrix
• Staff morale boost with reduction on mundane repetitive work
• Digital workers can perform repetitive tasks 24x7
• Reduction in business risk through human error
• Scalable by purchasing additional workers at any time
• No complex firewall rules to manage or expose
• Extend business life into old applications, extracting further ROI
• Improve joiner experience for new staff, creating better first impressions

£300 to £650 a unit a month

• Education pricing 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 publicsectorbids@ultima.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

599038199339811

Contact

Ultima Bid Office
+44333 0158000
publicsectorbids@ultima.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: IA-Connect is designed to integrate and extend to either an existing Blue Prism worker(s) or an existing Microsoft Power Automate flow instance(s). For Microsoft Power Automate, IA-Connect extends the use of the customer’s Microsoft Azure platform for orchestration and secure credentials management.
• Cloud deployment model:
  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
  • Hybrid cloud
• Service constraints: For Blue Prism integration, a Blue Prism licence is required. For Microsoft Power Automate integration, at least 1 Microsoft Power Automate user licence is required at minimum.
• System requirements: N/A

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support response times: 9am-5pm Monday-to-Friday
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 A
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: Yes, at an extra cost
• 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: Compatible with Windows accessibility functions.
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Customers that purchase at least one production worker licence of IA-Connect gain access to our support portal for knowledge base articles and videos as well as installation assistance at no additional charge.; ; For 3rd line software support, token support must be purchased, providing access to our application team at the defined support hours. Full support terms are available through our support agreement, available on request or at the time of purchase.; ; If customers lack support capabilities or require additional levels of support beyond just software support, Ultima Group also offer a managed service that provides 24x7 support as well as full helpdesk capability for joiners, movers, leavers at additional charges.
• Support available to third parties: No

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Once the Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) and the commercial agreement(s) have been signed, IA-Connect is provided for download with a relevant licence key depending on the number of IA-Connect workers purchased. Our team during your onboarding phase can provide installation support for IA-Connect for Microsoft Power Automate or IA-Connect for Blue Prism where necessary.; ; Customers that require getting started with their first process for automation can purchase time-and-material consultancy from our team at an additional cost.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Not applicable, no data held.
• End-of-contract process: On termination of the contract for any reason, the customer shall immediately pay to Ultima all outstanding unpaid invoices and interest and, in respect of services supplied but for which no invoice has yet been submitted, Ultima shall submit an invoice, which shall be payable by the customer immediately on receipt.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: Yes
• Compatible operating systems:
  • Linux or Unix
  • Windows
• Designed for use on mobile devices: No
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 A
• Description of service interface: Web based portal
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 A
• Accessibility testing: Works with Windows accessibility features.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: IA-Connect REST API is fully documented and provides the same functionality as the UI. API can also be utilised via Microsoft PowerShell.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: HTML
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: No

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Not applicable.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: IA-Connect for Microsoft Power Automate provides worker analytics, audit information, heat map and associated stats via the IA-Connect orchestrator, including full audit information of orchestrator usage. The orchestrator is a web app that resides in the customers Microsoft Azure subscription and is only accessible by the customer. A PowerBI connector is coming in a future version of the product.
• 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
• 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: Not applicable.
• Data export formats: Other
• Other data export formats: Not applicable.
• Data import formats: Other
• Other data import formats: Not applicable.

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
• Data protection within supplier network: IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Service credits can be applied where service doesn't meet defined availability. This is agreed at call-off level.
• Approach to resilience: Orchestration provided for worker pooling and resilience. Service backed by Microsoft and/or Blue Prism.
• Outage reporting: There is a public dashboard.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Username and password, and 2FA
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • 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: Between 1 month and 6 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: Lloyd's Register
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 23/08/2022
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: The ISO covers all relevant areas for this software
• 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: ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: All security processes are managed by the Head of Security, reporting directly to Board level. All intelligence/phishing/threats will be reported directly to those responsible who will act immediately.

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 are managed through the change management process.
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v3.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: IA-Cloud provides advanced and automated monitoring capabilities once installed for an Azure subscription or AWS Account that are designed to be cloud native.
• 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: Not applicable to this product.

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

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity

  Fighting climate change

  Fighting climate change; ; Specific targets will be agreed with each customer at contract commencement, such as dedicated hours to a cause, green consultancy, or activities in the local area. However, at a broader level Ultima will deliver wider benefits. Our services are carried out remotely, wherever possible, reducing carbon emissions. Public transport will be encouraged for any mandatory travel. This ensures that customers working with us will have low supply chain carbon emissions. The services provided will also enable our customers to reduce their carbon emissions. For example, reduction of hardware and datacentre reliance through hosting and management. Resources used will be maximised through replicated use, reducing overall impact on the environment. Additionally, for every new member of staff hired, Ultima will plant one tree to offset their carbon footprint. Therefore, through working with Ultima, customers are reducing carbon emissions through a greener supply chain, and through reduction of their own infrastructure.

  Covid-19 recovery

  Covid-19 recovery; ; Specific targets will be agreed with each customer at contract commencement, such as dedicated hours to CV/interview training, work placement targets, or retraining. However, at a broader level Ultima will deliver wider benefits. Working with Ultima will enable cloud services, and therefore, flexibility to effective and reliable remote working for customers. Therefore, those most vulnerable will have better access to IT services and allow efficient social distancing. Furthermore, Ultima is committed to the mental health of those working with us. Support will be offered to anyone working on each customer contract.

  Tackling economic inequality

  Tackling economic inequality; ; Specific targets will be agreed with each customer at contract commencement, such as percentage of SME supply chain, work placement targets, or apprenticeships. However, at a broader level Ultima will deliver wider benefits. By working with Ultima, customers will be spending with an organisation with the flexibility to work directly with SMEs, and can offer this as a choice. Ultima work with SMEs as part of the supply chain. Therefore, customers are supporting SMEs through working with Ultima.

  Equal opportunity

  Equal opportunity; ; Specific targets will be agreed with each customer at contract commencement, such as targeted training, work placement targets, or apprenticeships. However, at a broader level Ultima will deliver wider benefits. Ultima are committed to ending modern slavery. This is demonstrated through the actions outlined in the modern slavery statement. Therefore, by working with Ultima, customers are actively reducing risks associated to modern slavery via their supply chain.

Pricing

• Price: £300 to £650 a unit a month
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• 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 publicsectorbids@ultima.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.