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Community Brands UK Limited

IDaaS - Identity as a Service

Next generation identity management for academy trusts and Local Authorities reselling services to their schools. An innovative cloud-based solution enabling identity management and single sign-on for schools and academia. Accelerate the adoption of your favourite school apps with a simple to use and manage single-sign on solution for all stakeholders.

Features

  • Identity Management with Single Sign-on (SSo)
  • Cloud-based
  • No additional hardware required
  • Automated administration
  • Parents log in using just their email and phone number
  • Provisions G-Suite, O365, Microsoft Active Directory (AD), Azure Active Directory
  • Supports all major Management Information Systems (MIS)
  • Child-friendly login screens and policies for younger learners
  • Log in with pre-printed QR codes for young learners

Benefits

  • Automated administration saves time setting up accounts
  • Automatic integration with school MIS
  • MIS data automatically provisions accounts
  • Bulk permission feature to save administration time
  • The establishment MIS is the 'Golden Record' for information
  • Data is more accurate, timely and relevant
  • Users have SSo across multiple establishments and geographical locations
  • The philosophy is 'update once and reuse many times'

Pricing

£0.55 a unit a year

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

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

7 2 8 2 5 1 3 7 5 7 5 7 1 7 5

Contact

Community Brands UK Limited Jagrajj Atwal
Telephone: 020 7237 8456
Email: jagrajj.atwal@communitybrands.com

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
No
Cloud deployment model
Private cloud
Service constraints
Supports the following browsers:
• Internet Explorer 10+
• Microsoft Edge (latest version)
• Firefox (latest version)
• Chrome (latest version)
• Safari (latest version)
System requirements
  • Supported web browsers
  • Microsoft Edge (latest version)
  • Firefox (latest version)
  • Chrome (latest version)
  • Safari (latest version)

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
Usually within 1 hour and often sooner. Instant response email provides support case reference with technician follow up thereafter
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m GMT/BST, Monday to Friday excluding English Bank Holidays plus support outside this for urgent issues
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
Web chat
Web chat support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support accessibility standard
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Web chat accessibility testing
None
Onsite support
No
Support levels
Support is included without additional cost offering email, telephone and live web chat support during normal UK business hours plus emergency support outside these hours.
Critical - A problem which must be resolved before the end user can continue normal business operations. Response within four (4) working hours of receiving notice of a critical problem being reported.
Serious - A problem which significantly inhibits production but does not prevent operations. Response within within eight (8) working hours of receiving notice of a serious problem being reported.
Moderate - Requirements which do not impede productive use of the Software. Response within seventy two (72) working hours of a moderate problem being reported.
Minor - Cosmetic production problems and general test system problems that do not affect availability of the production system. Response within two (2) working weeks of a minor problem being reported, or if relevant in the next version release. An example of a minor issue, may be an enhancement request or notification of a incorrectly spelt word
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
Online training, telephone training and, where required, onsite training is made available to new users. Sandbox environment is provided to customers to enable them to develop their use of the service, trial before going live etc. Online documentation, FAQs and telephone support are provided
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
On request we can provide copies of their data in suitable formats. All data is securely deleted from our systems following the termination of the contract.
End-of-contract process
There are no additional costs at the end of the contract at all. Upon termination of the contract the services are closed down. Data can be provided in a suitable format should the user request it.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Chrome
  • Safari
Application to install
No
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
SSO services fully and equally supported on mobile devices. Reduced web administration feature set on mobile devices.
Service interface
No
User support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 A
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
Secure RESTful API enables authorised users to retrieve user data to pre-populate other systems ready for SSO.
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
No

Scaling

Independence of resources
The solution is a cloud delivered, multi-tenancy platform hosted in Microsoft Azure North Europe and West Europe regions, delivered as ‘Software-as-a-Service’ (SaaS) and is designed specifically for UK education customers. The service has a ‘high availability’ modular architecture with no single points of failure and uses advanced cloud hosting features including auto-scale and auto-heal. The whole solution is tuned to deliver extremely high performance even to devices on narrowband and congested networks.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
Usage history, data items processed, success or failure reports, date and times of processing, which schools data is received from etc.
Reporting types
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Conforms to BS7858:2019
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
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
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
In-house destruction process

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
The system allows users to download their data in .csv file format should they require it.
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
99.95% availability under our SLA
Approach to resilience
The technical infrastructure is provided by Microsoft. This includes the physical data centre, Internet connectivity, firewalls, security systems, Local Area Networks and subnets, Load Balancing, Virtual Servers, Web Roles, Worker Roles, Data Disks, Service Queues, Web Application Pools, auto-scaling NoSQL storage, and Elastic SQL collections. This is provided as a ‘Platform-as-a-Service’ upon which we develop and deploy our in-house created and managed software components. The solution is resilient to Azure availability across both European datacentres. Duplicate infrastructure is deployed separately for testing, and separately for pre-production.
Outage reporting
Email alerts to authorised users

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
Access is restricted using permission based roles. Internally these are determined by management based on the function being provided (support, development, sales etc.) and permissions are restricted to an 'as necessary for the role' basis, ensuring no person is able to access data that they do not need to access in order to perform their role. Administrators at school level are also able to set permission levels for their additional users to restrict access to a granular level as required or desired.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
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
At least 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
At least 12 months
How long system logs are stored for
At least 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
Yes
Security governance standards
ISO/IEC 27001
Information security policies and processes
We are accredited to ISO/IEC 27001 and follow the policies and processes included within our Information Security Management System. The Information Security Policy applies to all business functions within the scope of the Information Security Management System and covers the information, information systems, networks, physical environment and people supporting these business functions. The objective of Information Security is to ensure business continuity and minimise business damage by preventing and minimising the impact of security incidents. In particular, information assets must be protected in order to ensure: 1. Confidentiality i.e. protection against unauthorised disclosure 2. Integrity i.e. protection against unauthorised or accidental modification 3. Availability as and when required in pursuance of the Organisation’s business objectives. 1. The Managing Director has approved the Information Security Policy. 2. Overall responsibility for Information Security rests with our Information Security Officer. Internal and external audits are performed every year to ensure policies and processes are being followed and complied with.

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
As part of our ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation, a change management/change recording system is in place. Adequate authorities are in place for the approval and acceptance of change, including risk assessment, and a path for regression is clearly identified.
Vulnerability management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Vulnerability management approach
Risk Assessments and similar analyses of all of our activities that have been identified as relevant to the security of information, have been conducted and documented to ISO/IEC 27001 standard and these are reviewed and updated regularly to identify new or changed risks and vulnerabilities. Appropriate patches are deployed as required and as soon as they become available and have been adequately tested. We monitor appropriate web services, subscribe to newsletters etc. to ensure we keep up to date on any perceived or identified threats.
Protective monitoring type
Undisclosed
Protective monitoring approach
Our ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation requires that we employ protective monitoring and this is audited internally and externally at least annually. We identify potential compromises through continual monitoring of our systems with alerts to warn of any potential issues. In addition, we ask all customers to immediately alert us to any potential issues they indentify. Upon identification of potential issues these are assessed and handled accordingly. Where the assessments indicate a potential threat, we take immediate action to put into place remedial actions to minimise risks and undertake a root cause investigation, enabling measures to be deployed to update systems accordingly.
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
Our incident management process is a key part of our ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation. We have pre-defined processes for common events which enable us to internally escalate any perceived or potential incidents swiftly, minimising risk and enabling us to deploy appropriate measures to resolve issues. Users are able to report incidents via email, telephone or live chat directly to our support team. Incident reports are compiled where required and these are communicated to management and to affected users as necessary.

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

Equal opportunity

Equal opportunity

Community Brands UK are an equal opportunity employer, committed to being a successful, caring and welcoming place for all employees. We want to create a supportive and inclusive environment where our employees can reach their full potential, without prejudice and discrimination. We are committed to a culture where respect and understanding is fostered, and the diversity of people's backgrounds and circumstances will be positively valued. The policy aims to achieve equality by removing any potential discrimination in the way that our employees are treated by fellow employees or Community Brands, including:

•people with disabilities
•people of different sexual orientations
•transgendered and transsexual people
•people of different races
•people on the grounds of their sex
•those of faith and of no faith
•in relation to their age
•in relation to their social class or medical condition
•people who work part-time
•those who are married or in a civil partnership
•women who are pregnant, have recently given birth or are breastfeeding.

Discrimination can be either direct or indirect discrimination. Some of the above are protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 and discrimination is prohibited, unless there is a legal exception under the Equality Act.

Victimisation:

This is not the same as the common meaning of victimisation but is specifically regarding treating someone less favourably because they have complained about or given information about discrimination or harassment, either regarding themselves or someone else.

Pricing

Price
£0.55 a unit a year
Discount for educational organisations
Yes
Free trial available
No

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 jagrajj.atwal@communitybrands.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.