Sponge UK

Spark Learning Management System

Spark is a powerful cloud-based Learning Management System that supports businesses to roll out training at scale. It has an intuitive user interface for learners that gets right to the point, if there is development opportunities, they will see those in a simple dashboard so they know where they are.

Features

• Customisable branding
• Manage different training instances from one console
• Create organisational hierarchies
• Integrate with external HRIS systems
• Allocate training items from modules, to live events to documentation/policies
• Report and audit completion and training consumption
• Manage Performance Evaluations
• Certificates of competence and completion
• Host SCORM 1.2 and xAPI based modules
• Manage live training events

Benefits

• Easy-to-use LMS which can be mastered in under 45 minutes.
• Rule based automation you can trust to run
• Ability to configure Spark the way you want
• Immediate insights using our manager/learner dashboards
• Responsive & mobile optimised
• A 99.99% platform uptime rate
• Rigorous standards for information security and ISO27001 compliance
• Geo-location detection and languages
• Facial recognition
• Add documents, news articles and libraries

£3.00 to £10.00 a user a year

• Education pricing available
• Free trial available

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 ben.barker@spongelearning.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

758789711453548

Contact

Ben Barker
+44 (0)332 4430 37
ben.barker@spongelearning.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: Sponge will perform maintenance on products and systems on a regular basis. These maintenance tasks update the capabilities of our products and adding value. This product maintenance is normally non-disruptive. Where maintenance requires the system to be offline, e.g., database changes, we will use reasonable efforts to notify clients in advance and display the status on our public status page.; ; Unplanned outages are managed by Sponge’s technical teams, who follow a designated incident management process, based upon ITIL methodology. Disruptions to service are communicated automatically through subscription to the status page. Status updates are triggered via continuous product monitoring services.
• System requirements:
  • Operating Systems: Windows 10 with the latest updates installed
  • MacOS X with macOS 10.9 or later
  • Android 10 or higher
  • IOS 14 or higher (minimum iOS 11)
  • Processor: Dual-core 2Ghz or higher (Intel i3/i5/i7 or AMD equivalent)
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM or higher
  • Storage: 2GB free space or higher
  • Stable Internet Connection: Broadband wired or wireless(5G/4G/LTE)
  • Speakers: built-in, USB plug-in, or wireless Bluetooth
  • Webcam: Some content may require a webcam/HD webcam, built-in/USB plug-in.

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Typically within 1 hours. We have an SLA of 24 hours to pick up email requests. ; There is no support on weekends.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: None or don’t know
• Phone support: No
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: The current support cost is bundled into any LMS sale, and is not charged for separately. Therefore there is not up-front separate support cost. Details on the scope of support is here:; https://support.spongelearning.com/hc/en-gb/articles/18291365449501-Sponge-Client-Support-Terms; ; Sponge would make an account manager and/or a customer success manager available to discuss any issues or technical requests. That account management person would have access to Sponge's technical team.; ; Cloud support is provided through Sponge's DevOps resource. This is a Sponge resource that would action requests or investigate incidents. They would not be assigned to a client directly but allocated tasks within Sponge.; Sponge Client Support Terms; About this article; This article applies to customers with an active subscription on a Sponge hosted product. Sponge reserves the right at any time to modify this document, including new or addition.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Sponge will provide a dedicated Onboarding manager to assist and advise with platform setup and solution design as part of an Onboarding process. Sponge can assist with data imports and content uploads. Any documentation can be shared during the onboarding process.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Bulk training record export as CSV.
• End-of-contract process: At the end of contract a report of training activity is provided as a CSV and and Bespoke content is provided as standard. Data is removed from the system after 6 months of termination.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: The system will scale to the screen size and this can result in horizontally displayed items appearing vertically. We adhere to web standards for mobile use.
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: None or don’t know
• Description of service interface: We use our API library as a service interface and the LMS front end to host services for ecommerce, and search queries
• Accessibility standards: None or don’t know
• Description of accessibility: On request
• Accessibility testing: N/A
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: We offer a restful API library that allows users to do the following: manage users, manage organisational hierarchy and manage compliance rules
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Through our Super-admin permission:; -Logo and login page background. ; -Colours used for buttons and text. ; -URL and Sending email address.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: We have various monitoring tools in place to flag capacity risk. We have a Priority matrix that is applied with Service Level Agreements based on any identified bugs and timelines to fix them. This can be made available upon request by the customer.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: No

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Staff screening not performed
• 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: 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: Encryption of all physical media
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
• Equipment disposal approach: A third-party destruction service

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Downloadable CSV export
• 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: RPO, RTO, and any SLAs are described for our products in the https://support.spongelearning.com/hc/en-gb/articles/18291365449501-Sponge-Client-Support-Terms; ; There are no financial penalties based on system unavailability. Any such arrangement would be negotiated at a client level if required.
• Approach to resilience: All components have automatically managed redundancy
• Outage reporting: Public Dashboard and email alerts

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication: Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Dedicated management permissions system built into Spark.
• 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 have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: No audit information available
• How long system logs are stored for: Between 1 month and 6 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: British Assessment Bureau
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 25/04/2023
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: N/A - All of our security processes meet this standard.
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• 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: ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: ISO/IEC 27001; ISO 22301, ISO14001, ISO9001

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: All changes go through code review and acceptance testing before being released in production. Functional and regression testing is performed.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: "Describe your vulnerability management process?; Include details of how:; ; how you assess potential threats to your services; how quickly you deploy patches to your services; where you get your information about potential threats from" Vulnerability analysis is applied to the source code, with all findings reviewed and remediations planned as appropriate. Third party penetration tests are carried out annually by a CREST-approved supplier.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Sponge has documented procedures for Incident management and disaster recovery. Systems are monitored for availability and performance. The status of Sponge products may be viewed at https://status.spongelearning.com/
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: Sponge has documented procedures for Incident management and disaster recovery. Users can report incident via usual support channels. Incidents reports are provided via Sponge support portal.

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

  Wellbeing

  Wellbeing

  We have a wellbeing team that promotes health and wellbeing, including physical and mental health. For example, a subscription to healthcare services and lunchtime yoga sessions.

Pricing

• Price: £3.00 to £10.00 a user a year
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: We have a demo platform that can be branded for a specific customer, We can provide access to content overviews as well. Typically we offer demo access for up to 2-weeks. We will not offer the full modules or learning experiences and limited management functionality over the tool.

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 ben.barker@spongelearning.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.