Kinetic Solutions Ltd

Room Service

Room Service is used by universities to manage student accommodation and halls of residence from application to halls through to departure, including room allocation, offers, contracts, guarantors, induction, arrival planning, inventory, invoices, payments, incidents, wellbeing, residence life and student events, summer and casual stays.

Features

• Isolated cloud subscription for cyber resilience
• UK data centres with geo-redundant backup and recovery
• Data anonymisation and archiving for data protection compliance
• Managed service for upgrades and patches
• Integration with other university systems
• Advanced data security by user across properties, teams and role

Benefits

• Staff access student data and report issues on any device
• Student self-service reduces back office admin
• Maintain your student portal using our content management system
• Connect with your students using mass email and SMS
• Manage room rates and availabilty to maximise occupancy
• Improve student satisfaction with slick web processes
• Provide management with oversight and control

£30,000 an instance a year

Service documents

• Pricing document

  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 stacey.wright@kineticsoftware.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

614771386433063

Contact

Stacey Wright
01908067000
stacey.wright@kineticsoftware.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: Planned maintenance and upgrages are agreed with each customer on an as needed basis via the help desk. Customer must agree to the Microsoft Customer Agreement for terms and conditions that relate to the Microsoft Azure infrastructure.
• System requirements: VPN will be required for integration with on premise software

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Monday to Friday 9 am to 5.30 pm excluding bank holidays with a 4 hour initial response.
• 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: The support service covers ; (1) support in the use of Room Service via the help desk and our application specialists; (2) upgrades and patches to Room Service including the work to update the software; (3) technical support of the environment including backups, recovery plans, architecture, sizing and ongoing maintenance; Our service includes access to our Cloud Operations team and technical support personnel.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: We provide a full onboarding service, including business analysis, configuration (to speed up deployment), customisation, training and user documentation.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Option (1) we agree a new contract and leave the service in place; Option (2) we move your data to another service, such as AWS, on-premise or a data-centre; Option (3) you extract your data using the tools provided; Option (4) we extract your data in an agreed format (charged)
• End-of-contract process: Services to move your data or provide extraction services are charged per our rate card.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: Student facing websites are designed to work on PC, tablet and mobile. Staff facing services have limited mobile friendly features
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Description of service interface: Room Service has a web browser interface for staff to use for operational tasks, and a power-application accessed via RDWeb for managing configuration, settings and complex back office processing. ; ; Students access Room Service via a student portal using a web browser.
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Accessibility testing: Student portals are tested with screen readers. Portals are customised and branded to specifications agreed with each customer and customers may make their own changes which may break AA guidelines. Customers are responsible for making sure any changes they make to the design meets appropriate accessibility standards. Back office power-apps are not tested and are not 2.1AA compliant.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: Our API allows customers to make calls to our application for common tasks such as fetching students, bookings, rooms, and availability. The API continues to evolve and we work with customers to extend the API as needed.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • PDF
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: The student portal has flexible layout editor using Microsoft Razor and styling using custom CSS.; ; Configuration tools allow customisation of branding for email headers and footers.; ; Reporting tools allow customisation of reports and documents.; ; Users access extensive configuration features to maintain users, roles, teams, sessions, licences, quotas, finance codes, prices, pathways, properties and adverts, inventory, workflow and business process rules, documents, reports, views, interfaces, payment gateways, bank accounts. The design assumes the

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Subscriptions are deployed into unique instances with network segregation.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Active and inactive users each month, aimed at cleaning and removing inactive user accounts.
• Reporting types: Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: Up to Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations:
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • Other locations
• 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 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

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Users run reports to screen and then export the data to Excel. Excel connections (embedded in Excel) connect to the database to provide full access to datasets.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats: XLXS
• Data import formats: CSV

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • 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: SLAs for service availability mirror the SLA provided by Microsoft for uptime of their infrastructure. Compute infrastructure using single instance architecture and premium storage has a 99.9% SLA.
• Approach to resilience: We use Microsoft Azure data centres which are inherently resilient. Our minimum standard is to deploy single instance VMs with automatic failover in the data centre, with automated daily backups of each VM in full to a second geo-redundant data centre.
• Outage reporting: An internally accessed dashboard/API and email alert.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Security is applied at the database level to restrict access to data on a need to know basis. Access to the application requires a login which is linked to the database level role. Access to the technical infrastructure is restricted to our Cloud Operations team. Access to our support channels is for named domains.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • 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: User-defined
• 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: Between 6 months and 12 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: British Assessment Bureau
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 16/07/2021
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: -
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: Yes
• Who accredited the PCI DSS certification: PGI
• PCI DSS accreditation date: 08/06/2021
• What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover: -
• Cyber essentials: No
• 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: Our Information Management Security Forum is headed by our Chief Transformation Officer and includes representatives from each main department within the business. The ISMF meets monthly to review risk, audit reports, and non-compliance statements. It reviews our business management system at least annually and assesses external and internal influences.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: Our configuration and change management policy sets out the processes we follow. Access to cloud infrastructure services and related access permissions is restricted to specific roles. Our Cloud Operations team is responsible for configuration and change management - general support staff do not have access. The application layer and related upgrades is managed by our support team who take responsbilitiy for application changes. Updated versions of applications are tested for vulnerabilities before general release.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: We use vulnerability testing software to test application vulnerabilities prior to release to customers. If vulnerabilities are found in a current release then these are fixed and issued in a new release, which becomes the new current release. ; ; We run Crowdstrike on all servers to provide 3rd party input into security vulnerabilities.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: We use software vulnerability testing to indentify potenial compromises in our applications. These are fixed prior to release. New potential compromises when identified are fixed and issued in new releases. We have a formal incident response policy and process which treats each incident as it is reported on its own merits - for example assessing whether the incident is a single customer incident or relevant to many customers. We assess critial incidents within 2 hours.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: We have a pre-defined process for incidents which are reported via our help desk. Incidents which relate to Confidentiality, Integrity or Availability of service are escalated; availability issues to our 3rd line team, confidentiality and integrity issues immediately to our compliance team via a specific incident reporting template. The incident compliance team has a template that determines the reporting process.

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

• Fighting climate change:

  Fighting climate change

  Our Climate Commitment - we recognise that climate change poses a threat to the economy, nature and society-at-large, our company commits to take action immediately in order to:; ; Halve our greenhouse gas emissions before 2030; Achieve net zero emissions before 2050; Disclose our progress on a yearly basis; ; In doing so, we are proud to be recognised by the United Nations Race to Zero campaign, and join governments, businesses, cities, regions, and universities around the world that share the same mission.
• Equal opportunity:

  Equal opportunity

  Kinetic is committed to equality of opportunity in employment, with the aims of ensuring that all employees and job applicants are treated fairly and equally and supporting the Company’s objective of providing a working environment that is free from all forms of discrimination. ; ; Our aim is that our workforce will be truly representative of all sections of society and each employee feels respected and able to give of their best. ; ; We oppose all forms of unlawful and unfair discrimination or victimisation. To that end the purpose of this policy is to provide equality and fairness for all in our employment. ; ; All employees, whether part-time, full-time or temporary, will be treated fairly and with respect. Selection for employment, promotion, training or any other benefit will be on the basis of aptitude and ability. All employees will be helped and encouraged to develop their full potential and the talents and resources of the workforce will be fully utilised to maximise the efficiency of the organisation. ; ; Our staff will not discriminate directly or indirectly, or harass customers or clients because of age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, political affiliation or belief, sex, and sexual orientation in the provision of the Company’s goods and services. ; ; The policy applies to all staff within the Company, including employees and other workers, such as agency workers, temporary workers and contractors. All staff are expected to put this policy into practice.
• Wellbeing:

  Wellbeing

  We provide MHFA training for all senior management and team leads.

Pricing

• Price: £30,000 an instance a year
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: No

Service documents

• Pricing document

  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 stacey.wright@kineticsoftware.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.