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Answers and Solutions ltd

Remote Worker Chat Service - QuickChat - Powered by Zulip

A chat service provides a quick simple way of your team exchanging one sentence questions and answers, and if necessary, small files or photo. Because the chats are grouped by subject conversations are easily followed. This platform has a full audit facility. Competes successfully against Slack and MS Teams.

Features

  • Zulip is a chatservice with subject threading and advanced features
  • Subject threading means conversations are kept together
  • Delete message get archieved to an admin account, not removed
  • Cross Platform - One account on Phone and/or PC.
  • Hosted on UK based servers means you control your data
  • Able to take your data with you when you leave
  • Large number of integrations into other platforms
  • 50GB of storage across user base.
  • Low cost
  • Full search facility.

Benefits

  • Message threading makes this Better than email for many applications
  • Integrates with your email - notifications sent for watched topics
  • Low cost platform

Pricing

£8 a user a month

  • 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 Christopher.Wainwright@letsdiscuss.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

6 4 3 7 9 8 2 9 6 2 4 8 5 1 8

Contact

Answers and Solutions ltd Christopher Wainwright
Telephone: 02920733722
Email: Christopher.Wainwright@letsdiscuss.co.uk

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
No
Cloud deployment model
  • Private cloud
  • Community cloud
Service constraints
The software is highly configurable. For all practical purposes, you are unlikely to be constrained by it. It will be installed on a server system dedicated to this solution.
System requirements
  • We offer this ready for use in our hosted environment
  • A web browser is required
  • An optional installable client can de deployed for easier usage
  • A domain name is required but can be provided

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Yes, at extra cost
Support response times
Usually within a few hours, but our SLA will be 48hrs
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
No
Phone support
No
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
None or don’t know
How the web chat support is accessible
This is a accessible product but the supplier has not certified it as such.
Web chat accessibility testing
Tested with people suffering from colour blindness.
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
We shall produce a base system setup. Onsite training may be required.

Please see the Service Leaflet.
Support available to third parties
No

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
TBC
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
The data is held in industry standard format and many 3rd party tools are available to extract the data
End-of-contract process
We will assist with data export, and then we will cease the service.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
Application to install
Yes
Compatible operating systems
  • Android
  • IOS
  • Linux or Unix
  • MacOS
  • Windows
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
The solution can of course be used via an Internet Browser, but it also supports directly installed apps for better performance.
Service interface
Yes
User support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 A
Description of service interface
The interface allow admins to issue rights to users. for example, you may want deleted messages to be retained in the audit logs, data export is possible. These can all be set via the Admin panel.
Accessibility standards
WCAG 2.1 A
Accessibility testing
Colour blindness affects 1:12 men and is thus one of the most important aspects of the accessibility standard. This has been tested with Colour blind users.
API
No
Customisation available
No

Scaling

Independence of resources
The software will be hosted on servers that we own and operate. These can scale out significantly, and additional servers will be added when the need arises.

Our company policy is to over-provision, not under provision.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
No

Resellers

Supplier type
Reseller providing extra features and support
Organisation whose services are being resold
Several Software Products are Combined.

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Conforms to BS7858:2019
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
In-house
Protecting data at rest
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
Data sanitisation process
Yes
Data sanitisation type
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
Equipment disposal approach
In-house destruction process

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
A Chat service is not designed for use where long term data retention is required. In day to day use, users should copy and paste any data that requires retention into another application.
Data export formats
Other
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data import formats
NB: Data import is a chargeable service

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)

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
We aim for 99.9% availability. In the event of an unplanned outage of one or more hours being notified we will provide a week of free operation.

Pre-notified outages do not qualify for refunds since we will liaise with the customer and choose a time mutually acceptable. Planned works are rare, and will be scheduled for out of hours.
Approach to resilience
This is available on request
Outage reporting
A public dashboard

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
N/A in this document. Management interfaces are provided in our cloud hosting document
Access restriction testing frequency
At least once a year
Management access authentication
Username or password

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information
You control when users can access audit information
How long user audit data is stored for
Between 6 months and 12 months
Access to supplier activity audit information
You control when users can access audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
Between 1 month and 6 months
How long system logs are stored for
Between 6 months and 12 months

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
No
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
Yes
Who accredited the PCI DSS certification
WorldPay
PCI DSS accreditation date
31/10/2019
What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover
We do not store CC details on our servers; CC details are processed by our bank on their PCI DSS certified servers. Our PCI certification was issued with this processing method declared. Most payment processing applications handover to an external CC payment provider, who accepts payment before handing purchase approval back to the application that you would be running on our system. This means that our PCI DSS certification is suitable for eCommerce solutions used by most organisations . If you want to store people CC details on our servers, that can be arranged and our PCI DSS would be amended to suit. Your software solution would need to be PCI DSS compliant. Using a 3rd party processor such as Worldpay [or one of their numerous competitors] is by far the best way to handle PCIO DSS aspects of Credit Card processing.
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
CSA CCM version 3.0
Information security policies and processes
Information security is maintained in house and managed via our Information security policies

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
We use the ITiL Configuration and Change management appraoch
Vulnerability management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Vulnerability management approach
This service will be Pentested before going into live usage. Patches are issued by the software publisher. These are installed on a regular basis.
Protective monitoring type
Undisclosed
Protective monitoring approach
We are subscribed various services that check the integrity of our hosting platform. We run regular Anti-Virus scans. The risks not covered include those from people with valid username/passwords who deface a website / damage data etc. Scanning services that address this risk are available at extra cost.

Our aim is to avoid being compromised. Our response is determined by the type of compromise detected.
Incident management type
Undisclosed
Incident management approach
Users can report incidents via a ticketing system. Reported incidents will be logged and an incident report provided at month end. Reports will not be generated in those months when no incidents occurred unless requested by the buyer.

Secure development

Approach to secure software development best practice
Supplier-defined process

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
  • Wellbeing

Fighting climate change

Our services help climate change by reducing and where appropriate, reducing or even eliminating the volume of home-office commuting necessary. Our data-centres are powered by suppliers who use renewable energy.

Covid-19 recovery

Large in-person meetings by people traveling long distances carries a high risk of spreading Covid-19. Through digital communications, our services are helping towards the recovery through reducing mixing between widely spaced geographical locations.

Tackling economic inequality

We encourage our staff to do pro-bono work for UK-based charities because it allows them to assume high levels of responsibility and thus gain experience not easily obtained in a high-consequence workplace. Staff who are undertaking such activities are still paid a salary; this has multiple benefits. It benefits the people who use the services of the charity being supported. It also benefits the individual who can strengthen their skills in a safe environment.

We also employ people in the regions of the UK still affected by the post-industrial economies. We are able to redistribute economic activity and thus enhance the economic well-being of people in these economically disadvantaged areas.

We actively look for SME sized organisations when seeking suppliers and sub-contractors because they offer better value for money, and are usually staffed by highly motivated individuals. Contracts awarded to Answers and Solutions will help the UK Government in its drive towards its leveling up agenda.

Equal opportunity

Answers and Solutions are committed to equal opportunities and do not discriminate in any way. We provide opportunities for people whose family commitments make it easier for them to fit their work duties around family duties through not prescribing fixed working hours; we work to goals achieved and not the number of hours spent watching the clock. We allow staff to take extended time off during school holidays or when other caring duties require that.

Wellbeing

Self-fulfilled individuals will always make good employees, good employees make for conscientious staff, and that is always good for a Buyer.

We encourage al of our staff to develop their skills and stretch their abilities. We encourage our staff to do pro-bono work for UK based charities because it allows them to assume high levels of responsibility and thus gain experience not easily obtained in a high-consequence workplace. We pay our staff while they do such work.

Pricing

Price
£8 a user a month
Discount for educational organisations
No
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
We offer a free demonstration system. We reset this from time to time.

The demonstration is more than adequate for testing and evaluation. We don't include staff training during the evaluation stage. You should not load live data into the system since we will not be able to migrate it.
Link to free trial
Links and access logins are provided On Request

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 Christopher.Wainwright@letsdiscuss.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.