CLOUD 9 TECHNOLOGIES LTD

Cloud 9 Amazon Alexa Skill

The Cloud 9 Amazon Alexa Skill is a powerful platform to enable residents to engage with their council using an Amazon Echo device. Residents can use natural language to check next bin collection days, get recycling advice, report missed bins and get information on nearby planning applications and local councillors.

Features

• Comprehensive Amazon Alexa Skill branded for your local authority
• Easily check next bin collection days
• Ask for advice about recycling thousands of household items
• Report issues such as missed bin collections
• Full integration with existing CRM and back-office systems
• Get details of nearby council facilities, planning applications and more
• Provides a wide range of council services
• Admin portal to customise responses
• Easy to manage
• Shares data with Cloud 9 Citizen Mobile App

Benefits

• Easy access to council services
• Improve recycling habits and increase recycling rates
• Increase resident satisfaction
• Excellent accessibility with voice channels such as Amazon Alexa
• Great for access to recycling information in the kitchen
• Lower transaction costs
• Reduce missed bin costs

£7,000 to £14,000 a licence 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 jason@cloud9technologies.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

698802960197381

Contact

Jason Hendy
07855309954
jason@cloud9technologies.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: The Alexa Skill is an add-on to the Cloud 9 Citizen Mobile app.
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: None
• System requirements:
  • An Amazon Alexa enabled device
  • A modern web browser is required for the admin portal

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Within 1 hour for P1 priority issues, 2 hours for P2 priority issues and within 4 hours for all other issues. Standard support terms do not include weekends. Weekend and out of hours support available by separate negotiation.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• 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: Full range of support is provided as part of the annual subscription to the platform.; ; P1 Category - 1 hour (target response time), 4 support hours (target resolution time); P2 Category - 2 hours (target response time), 16 support hours (target resolution time); P3 Category - 4 hours (target response time), 7 days (target resolution time); P4 Category - To be addressed in a future release of the software; ; All clients have access to a technical account manager.; All data is backed up daily.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Online training and user documentation is provided when onboarding.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: All contracts with our clients clearly state that the data held in the hosted instance belongs to the client. Cloud 9 Technologies Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) as a data processor.; At the end of the contract, data can be extracted and provided to the client in an agreed format such as CSV or JSON.
• End-of-contract process: Once a renewal has not been taken up your account will be deactivated at the end of your last contracted date. After this we will store data for 1 month, to allow for any data extraction or if you would like to re-take up the subscription. After this 1 month, all data is permanently wiped.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: No
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: The Alexa Skill is available to use on a smartphone using the Alexa app.
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Description of service interface: The user interface is accessible using a supported web browser
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Accessibility testing: The application has been tested by users with accessibility needs
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: The Citizen XP platform has a comprehensive set of API's which permit extensive use of the platform. These provide a range of functions including handling issues reported to the council, address lookups, waste collection information and push notifications for residents.; ; There are also APIs and tools available to import data into the platform from back office systems.; ; API information and documentation is available on request.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: The Alexa Skill is modular by design and functionality can be added as required. Alexa responses can be customised using the admin portal.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: The Alexa Skill is hosted using Amazon Web Services (AWS) serverless technology, ensuring the platform can dynamically scale with demand.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: A wide range of useful metrics are available including the total number of invocations and the number of unique users.
• Reporting types: Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Staff screening not performed
• Government security clearance: None

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: No
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• 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
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: In-house destruction process

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Via CSV files and REST web services
• 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)

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: SLA is based on System Availability of 99.9%. For full details on the SLA see the Service Definition.
• Approach to resilience: The service is hosted on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform and is spread across multiple availability zones for maximum resilience.
• Outage reporting: Email alerts are sent to all customers if there is a service outage

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: No
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Role-based access control governs which users can access functionality in the admin portal
• 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: Users contact the support team to get audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: Between 6 months and 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: Between 6 months and 12 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: No
• Cyber essentials: No
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: No

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: No
• Security governance approach: We use industry standards to operate our data security management. This includes a named Data Security Manager and data security training provided to all staff that deal with client data.
• Information security policies and processes: Security policies are agreed and owned at board level within the organisation and are reviewed regularly. Policies are applied by staff with continuous monitoring.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: All changes are requested and documented through a centralised channel. Change impact analysis is then carried out. The Change Advisory Board assess the change and recommend action. The change is prioritised and scheduled with other requests. During development, integration and regression testing is carried out and the code is reviewed. All code is stored in a GIT version control system and all changes to the codebase are fully auditable.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: We use automated tools to detect code/service vulnerabilities, including in third party components. Potential threats are assessed by the technical team. Critical patches are deployed as soon as possible using automated processes which include relevant QA procedures. Non-critical patches are applied on an ad-hoc basis.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Services are monitored continuously, with alerting to the support team. The support team will assess the potential compromise and undertake corrective action according to the severity threat level. All system activity is logged and available for internal auditing.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: We have an incident management processes for major and minor incidents. Users can report incidents via the support team, who provide support levels according to service level agreements. SLA adherence and average response times are continuously monitored.

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

  Fighting climate change

  The Alexa skill enables residents to easily search for recycling advice for thousands of household items and materials, reducing landfill and encouraging better recycling habits. Councils can also reduce the milage of their waste collection vehicles as missed bin reports can be validated immediately within the Alexa Skill, preventing unnecessary journeys.

Pricing

• Price: £7,000 to £14,000 a licence 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 jason@cloud9technologies.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.