Aareon UK Ltd

Aareon Customer Portal

Responsively designed web portal to enable your Tenants to access, edit their details and manage their tenancy online via a web browser.
It provides an additional channel for your tenants to self-serve and engage with you 24/7, reducing time and admin costs, in-turn freeing up front-line services.

Features

• User-Editable Tenancy and Contact Details
• Raise Requests for Changes, Permissions, Contacts,
• Manage Account and Payments
• Pay Rent
• Tenancy Switcher
• Change and Cancel Appointments
• Report and Request Repairs
• Self-Registration and Password Reset
• Raise Compliments or Complaints
• Report ASB, Graffiti, Fly-Tipping

Benefits

• Empowers tenants to self-serve, extending service delivery to 24/7
• White-label service to match your brand colours and scheme
• Social Media Links and Signposting to Useful Information
• Twitter Feed and Embedded YouTube Videos
• Helps tenants define their own financial assessment and understand affordability.
• Enables tenants to view and manage the repairs themselves
• Upload photos to Requests to ensure first-visit resolutions
• Configuration not customisation to enable fast set up and reliability
• Collect customer engagement preferences and keep customer preferences updated
• Push Messaging and Bulletins to keep tenants updated

£1.49 to £40.10 a unit

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

• Modern Slavery statement

  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 uk.bids@Aareon.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

635409644643738

Contact

Aareon Sales Team
07711593006
uk.bids@Aareon.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: QL Yuneo - it is a web portal and interaction with the QL ERP solution and other Housing Management Systems.
• Cloud deployment model: Private cloud
• Service constraints: Constraints on the use of the Service: ; • Scheduled maintenance events • Service does not support a remote database, distributed database, or live backup. ; ; Causes of non-availability for which Supplier will not be liable: ; • Factors outside Supplier's control • Use of services, hardware, or software not provided or approved by Supplier for use with the Service • Customer’s failure to follow appropriate security practices or Customer caused outages or disruptions • Customer’s failure to adhere to required configurations, use supported platforms, follow policies for acceptable use, or use of the Service in a manner not intended by for Service
• System requirements:
  • Latest Internet browsers
  • IOS; Android;

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Aareon Help Desk support service is provided from 08.00 to 18.00 Monday to Friday excluding public holidays. All calls or email queries are handled by the central help desk on the Aareon computerised logging system. Each call or email query is allocated a standard Priority Level for any application incident with response times as follows: Priority 1 1 working hour Priority 2 2 working hours Priority 3 4 working hours Priority 4 1 working day Weekend support can be arranged on request at additional charge. Further details of the Aareon Support service are set out in the Aareon Supplier Terms
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• 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: Aareon Help Desk support service is provided from 08.00 to 18.00 Monday to Friday excluding public holidays. All calls or email queries are handled by the central help desk on the Aareon computerised logging system. Each call or email query is allocated a standard Priority Level priority as follows: ; ; Priority 1 System is down with no workaround ; ; Priority 2 Customer’s core operations not affected but Business Critical Function not available for more than one user. ; ; Priority 3 The Customer’s core business is unaffected but the issue is affecting efficient operation by the majority of users of non-core functionality ; ; Priority 4 The Customer’s core business remains unaffected but the issue is affecting efficient operation by the minority of users of non-core functionality. ; ; Priority 1 Response: 1 working hour Target Resolution: 4 working hours ; ; Priority 2 Response: 2 working hours Target Resolution: 1 working day ; ; Priority 3 Response: 4 working hours Target Resolution: 2 working days ; ; Priority 4 Response: 1 working day Target Resolution: 5 working days ; ; All support queries will be allocated to a support engineer or technical consultant as determined by the severity. ; ; Further details of the Aareon Support service are set out in the Aareon Supplier Terms
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: We optimise delivery through our standardised, productised software. This means that we can deliver more streamlined implementations in a tried and tested way to deliver your benefits faster. We also advise and recommend on rollout strategy based on your operational and technical environments, complexity and the number of products being introduced or retired. Our fixed-price onboarding packages include the services required to get you operational using our software. These services are Installation, Kick-off, Configuration Onboard and System Admin Training, Testing Support, Live Migration, Go Live Support and Project Co-Ordination. By Default our onboarding services are remotely delivered, and we provide a suite of product, configuration and training documentation.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • PDF
  • Other
• Other documentation formats: Wiki
• End-of-contract data extraction: The Aareon Customer Portal is a front-end view and data processing tool connected to various other systems, such as your Housing Management System, which holds the original and completed task data. Therefore typically it is only transactional data which is stored in the service. If required at the end of service, this data can be exported from the database for customers upon request. Any documents generated by the Portal which are stored in our Information Portal Document Data is typically held in the connected system(s) data store e.g. Housing Management System database. The customer can request us to extract any data stored as part of the service, during, or at the end of the contract. Contractual rates apply for consultant support to extract data on request.
• End-of-contract process: All data stored in the cloud is available for the customer to download as required. A copy of the data can be provided on request in a format to be agreed prior to deletion at the end of the contract. Additional charges apply for an Aareon consultant to support the extract of data if required and on request. Additional chargeable support is also available on request.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: Yes
• Compatible operating systems:
  • Android
  • IOS
  • MacOS
  • Windows
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: Phone calls not possible from desktop and therefore option disabled.
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Description of service interface: Management focused web portal used to configure and manage service features.; Operations focussed web portal used to monitor mobile working process
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Accessibility testing: As part of our internal testing we use Wave to check for accessibility conformance. We have also verified compatibility with Browse Aloud.
• API: No
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Customisation is only required when connecting to a Housing Management System not provided by Aareon, to ensure it is fully integrated.; Customisation would need to be discussed during the onboarding process and would be at standard chargeable rate as shown on the SIFA document.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Currently the solution is load balanced between different update and fault domains (zones). The application is stateless, so if one fails the solution continues to function. Scaling can be applied up or out as required.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: We can provide a monthly report on infrastructure which hosts the software and can include metrics detailed below (as appropriate): * Uptime/availability metrics (any downtime during period) * Storage performance and capacity reports * Network bandwidth report * Monitoring alerts * Tickets dealt with during each period, including metrics on tickets dealt with against relevant SLA’s
• 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
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Supplier-defined controls
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a Tigerscheme qualified provider or a CREST-approved service provider
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
  • Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: Client applications: data is encrypted at rest. Hosted data: data is encrypted using SQL encryption methods supported by physical access control (see above)
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: A third-party destruction service

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: The customer may make a request to Aareon to perform this on their behalf as a chargeable service (based on SFIA rates).
• 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: TLS (version 1.2 or above)
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • Other
• Other protection within supplier network: Data at rest encryption

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Aareon’s support hours are 08.00 to 18.00 Monday to Friday excluding public holidays. Aareon shall ensure that access to the Cloud Software will be available 99.95% of the time during these support hours measured over each calendar month (Availability Commitment). Service levels for incidents relating to availability of the Cloud Software (e.g. connectivity to data centre, etc.) are as follows: Priority 1 Complete failure preventing the software being accessed Priority 2 Major operational issue Priority 3 Minor disruption to customer operations Priority 1 Response: 30 minutes Target Resolution: 4 working hours Priority 2 Response: 2 working hours Target Resolution: 1 working day Priority 3 Response:1 working day Target Resolution: 5 working days Where the Cloud Software service fails to meet the Availability Commitment Aareon shall issue service credits calculated as a defined percentage of the prorated monthly charge for the Cloud Software annual charges for every 1% below the Availability Commitment up to a maximum of 50% of such prorated monthly charge, calculated using the following formula: Service Availability % = (Maximum available hours – Service 0utage Hours) / Maximum available hours (Further details of the calculation are set out in the Aareon Supplier Terms)
• Approach to resilience: Available on request.
• Outage reporting: Service affecting outages are notified to affected customers using their registered contact and preferred method of contact - email or by phone.; Service affecting outages would also be posted on our customer wiki page.; ; A report will be produced following any unplanned outage, describing the outage including timeline of events, root cause analysis and any action plan to prevent reoccurrence.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: User access is controlled through system defined permissions. A user can be restricted to only those interfaces they need as part of their role.
• 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: No audit information available
• 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: User-defined

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: QMS International Ltd
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 16/12/2020
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: The scope of the Management System applies to the following:- ; ; The provision of management software for organisations concerned with UK social housing including all aspects of development, support, implementation and hosting
• 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: ISO 9001:2015

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: Processes are audited annually and the process is overseen by our Security & Compliance Manager.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: The Change Management process focuses on technical change at both a hosting provider shared infrastructure and our solution level, the primary objective being to enable change to be planned and implemented with minimal risk and disruption to live IT services. For larger, higher risk changes, approval from a Change Advisory Board (CAB) is required, incorporating representation from Change Management, Technical specialists and Business Owners. They will establish an interface in to Aareon’s Change Management processes and the wider CAB, as required.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: Microsoft Azure Monitor is used for real time detect and notification of any security incidents and malicious behavior on the monitored infrastructure. Security alerts are triaged and on detection of a security incident immediately respond to quickly remove any threat. Rulesets are modified to continually improve security alerting. Process and analysis of security alerts throughout the agreed service hours.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Microsoft Azure Monitor is used for real time detect and notification of any security incidents and malicious behavior on the monitored infrastructure. Security alerts are triaged and on detection of a security incident immediately respond to quickly remove any threat. Rulesets are modified to continually improve security alerting. Process and analysis of security alerts throughout the agreed service hours.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: Incidents are logged, categorised and then validated to ensure the reported incident is correctly logged to ensure quick and accurate triage. Incidents are assigned and investigation begins by examining the type, cause, and assessing possible solutions. Once the incident is diagnosed the appropriate remediation steps are actioned. Incident resolution involves eliminating threats and understanding root cause. Depending on incident type and severity this may require multiple stages of investigation to ensure incidents do not reoccur. Following incident closure a root cause analysis report may be provided on request.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Fighting climate change:

  Fighting climate change

  By implementing a green consultancy policy, whereby all customer-based work is delivered remotely, Aareon UK seeks to Influence staff, suppliers, and customers through the delivery of the contract to support environmental protection and improvement, cutting down on travelling, environmental pollution and use of energy in delivery of our services.; ; By delivery of tenant facing applications and portals as part of our Services, our customers are able to communicate directly with their tenants, avoiding the use of paper communications or personal meetings, and ensuring timely notifications are received by both the tenants and any mobile workers or contractors, reducing waiting times and wasted journeys. In addition, this results in the reduction in use of energy and other resource rich items, thereby reducing damage to the environment and unnecessary use of valuable resources.
• Covid-19 recovery:

  Covid-19 recovery

  Financial and time bound investment to support both the physical and mental health of all our employees and their families affected by COVID-19 to help in reducing the impact on health and care services by:; ; • Investing in the physical and mental health and wellbeing of employees by implementing weekly sessions within the business with wellbeing organisations to deliver sessions on a multitude of topics ranging from dealing with mental health through to healthy eating/keeping fit topics.; ; • The measurement of employees physical and mental health and wellbeing engagement overtime and the adaptation of processes in place to assist the workforce and this is done via direct surveys and engagement with the direct line management team.; ; Aareon UK also looked to massively improve the workplace conditions for a hybrid working system that fully supported the COVID-19 recovery efforts which includes social distancing, remote working and travel arrangements with the employee base.; ; • Detailed feedback and discussions with the employees in deciding the most important workplace conditions for them to work in and the delivery of a strategic plan to address the changes.; ; • Detailed list of actions to fully modernise and improve the workplace conditions which looked at social distancing, remote and flexible working (hybrid) arrangements and an emphasis on mental health and wellbeing whilst working both in the office and remotely.; ; Aareon UK has also reduced the risk to our employees and their customers by implementing a green consultancy policy whereby all customer-based work is delivered remotely across to reduce the risk of infection and transmission to both employees and customers alike.
• Tackling economic inequality:

  Tackling economic inequality

  At Aareon we have a strong ethos embedded in social value, and our company value statement is around making tenant lives better. ; ; Within the context of tackling economic inequality, we have the below policies or initiatives: ; • Supply Chain - we have long term business partner relationships supported by contractual commitments from our sub-contractors with whom we work to develop solutions for our customers. ; • Innovation - our team collaborates with both formal and open source communities to keep up to date with the latest new technologies as well as part taking in proof of concepts projects to validate new innovations. We also attend relevant industry conferences to keep updated on latest trends and releases. As part of the Aareon Group of companies we have subsidiaries across Europe and we meet and share new ideas, innovations, trends and technologies across the group. We are also planning to collaborate with other suppliers and partners to customers to provide data feeds too allow our customers to integrate data that will allow them to do more predictive AI for properties e.g. solar energy usage, fault or replacement prediction for things like boilers, radiators ; • Future Proof - We are a Microsoft partner we develop and deliver infrastructure in MS Azure, as Microsoft are an industry leader in of infrastructure, industry supply chains and services. All our infrastructure systems are unpinned my Microsoft. ; • Cyber Security - We have adopted the technical standards and best practice as an advocated by the National Cyber Security Centre and are currently renewing our certification. We also regularly run simulated exercises recommended by National Cyber Security Centre to ensure our staff are trained and keep up to date. We also have a specific cyber insurance policy.
• Equal opportunity:

  Equal opportunity

  Aareon UK recognise the value that serving military personnel, both regular and reservists, veterans and military families contribute to both our organisation and our country and are proud to be signed members of the Armed Forces Covenant.; ; As part of the covenant, Aareon UK have pledged the following:; ; • To uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant by endeavouring in our business dealings that no member of the Armed Forces Community should face disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services compared to any other citizen.; ; • By demonstrating our commitment by recognising the value serving personnel, reservists, veterans and military families bring to our business and to our country and we will seek to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, by:; ; o Promoting the fact that we are an Armed Forces-friendly organisation, to our staff, customers, suppliers, contractors and wider public.; ; o Supporting the employment of veterans, recognising military skills and qualifications in our recruitment and selection process; working with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP) to support the employment of service leavers.; ; o Supporting the employment of service spouses and partners.; ; o Supporting our employees who are members of the Reserve Forces; granting additional paid/unpaid leave for annual Reserve Forces training; supporting any mobilisations and deployment; actively encouraging members of staff to become Reservists.; ; o Supporting Armed Forces Day, Reserves Day, the Poppy Appeal Day and Remembrance activities.; ; o Supporting Armed Forces charities with fundraising and supporting staff who volunteer to assist
• Wellbeing:

  Wellbeing

  At Aareon our company ethos is fundamental to all we do, it’s always about the people. Our staff, customers and their tenants are fundamental to our culture and values. ; ; Examples of positive social value we have delivered for customers: ; ; In 2020 customers nominated their Christmas charity projects, and we held an employee vote to select the top 4 projects to donate Christmas Kindness Cash. In 2021 all of the nominations were so deserving we didn’t vote we instead upped our budget and donated to all 12 of the nominated projects for ’12 days of Christmas Kindness’. ; ; Aareon is pleased to support dedicated fundraising initiatives for charities close to our heart. This has included contributing to hardship funds, domestic violence organisations, Alzheimer’s UK, mental health charities, homelessness sponsored sleep outs, disabled children’s skiing trips and special needs drama groups. ; ; In 2022 we officially launched the Aareon Charity Committee. Lead and run by employee volunteers who are passionate about giving back and making a difference. Our chosen charity for 2022 is Bowel Cancer UK, with a starting donation from Aareon and planned events throughout the year. Every year a new Aareon Charity of the year will be chosen through an employee vote. ; ; Additionally, internally we have a very strong programme of Wellbeing support: ; Recognition Schemes; Perkbox - Perks & Discounts; Personal Development Plans; internal training and learning with an hour per week devoted diary time to personal development. ; ; Since Covid and lockdown we have a weekly Q&A and Social for employees and adopted a very flexible hybrid working approach providing good Work/Life balance. ; ; Specifically, for health & wellbeing: ; • Wellbeing Webinars for all employees every month ; • Medical Schemes (Hospital and Cash Plans) ; • Employee Assistance programme via Perkbox ; • Mental Health Toolkit and Training; • RTW interviews ; • Wellbeing Action Plans

Pricing

• Price: £1.49 to £40.10 a unit
• 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

• Modern Slavery statement

  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 uk.bids@Aareon.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.