Placecube Ltd

Knowledge Hub Digital Collaboration Groups

Free or low-cost collaboration spaces helping you effectively communicate, collaborate, and connect with stakeholders, partners, and colleagues. Exchange knowledge and experience in secure communities of practice, project groups and workspaces. Groups can be open, access controlled or hidden and include collaboration tools, such as discussions, shared libraries and news listings.

Features

• Activity stream and email notifications: catch up on contributions.
• Identity: add your own logo to raise brand awareness.
• Discussion forum: ask questions, have conversations, problem solve, share experiences.
• Library: upload, share, comment on and organise your content.
• Real-time document collaboration and wiki pages: work on documents together.
• Ideas: generate and vote on ideas, challenges and suggestions.
• Member directory: find and connect with peers and send messages.
• Events: promote, organise and manage forthcoming events.
• Polls: ask your members key questions and share results.
• Administration tools: manage and monitor your group; communicate with members.

Benefits

• Improved efficiency: less email traffic, pooled knowledge and resources.
• Time and money saved: less duplication of effort.
• Acquire new skills: knowledge management, facilitation, digital collaboration.
• Inspire innovation through new ways of working and connected intelligence.
• Trusted, secure (https), UK-hosted, mobile responsive.
• No set up fees, no maintenance, hosting or upgrade costs.
• Quick set up time: can be established within minutes.
• Unlimited data storage and users.
• Expert technical, online and community and knowledge management support.
• Community-led development path and platform-wide upgrades.

£0 to £800 a unit a year

• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  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 jenny.dias@placecube.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

787251527387499

Contact

Jenny Dias
020 8895 6756
jenny.dias@placecube.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: Scheduled maintenance takes place outside of the standard service hours of Monday-Friday 08:30-17:30. Planned maintenance downtime is always advertised in advance, and outside of these windows the service is normally available for use 24x7.
• System requirements: No specific system requirements, but up-to-date web browsers preferable.

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Full email helpdesk facilities are available Monday to Friday 08.30-17.30 (excluding bank holidays). Most emails to our support helpdesk are answered on the same working day and many are answered within 2 hours.
• 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: As stated above, full UK-based helpdesk services are provided Monday to Friday 08:30-17:30 free of charge. Our helpdesk is staffed by a team of experienced community managers, who are not only able to advise on functional use of the Knowledge Hub, but can also provide advice and guidance on how to run a successful online group. See information below covering onboarding for more information.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: There is a broad range of free help resources available to all members of the Knowledge Hub via the help pages. Anyone new to managing an online group is provided with comprehensive information free of charge about how to administer their group together with helpful tips and advice on growing and managing online communities. All group administrators are invited to join the Online Facilitators Community that offers extensive advice not only from Knowledge Hub’s experienced team of community managers but also from facilitators across the wider Knowledge Hub community. Walkthrough webinars are also available for group administrators to familiarise themselves with group features. On-site, one-day training courses covering online community management are available at additional cost. (See Knowledge Hub Digital Community & Knowledge Management Training)
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
  • Other
• Other documentation formats: Video
• End-of-contract data extraction: Any files uploaded to folders within a group library can be easily downloaded in a zip file. A group member list can be downloaded via the group management reports. Other group data can either be manually copied, or could be provided as an encrypted zip file (see next question for additional detail).
• End-of-contract process: When the service is no longer required, subject to legislation, including General Data Protection Regulations, a backup of all appropriate data and file content can be provided on request in encrypted zip format. Any extraction or migration of data would usually carry an additional charge depending on amount of data and format required. Once it is decided that a Knowledge Hub group should be deleted, it will be removed from the site along with its content within an agreed period.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • 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 mobile service is a responsive version of the main site. Web pages are displayed in an appropriate format for the device screen width. The service can be accessed on Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Description of service interface: Accessible via easy-to-use interface available over the internet through web browser.
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Accessibility testing: Third party testing, customer testing, internal testing.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: Knowledge Hub members may use the API to display collaboration group content on external sites. Knowledge Hub Digital Network Clients may also have access to view, create, edit and delete any entity their user account has permissions to perform those actions on.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: HTML
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Group administrators have permissions to add a logo or image to their group to enable it to stand out and identify it with their organisation. Uploading a logo is straight forward using an image picker to select an image file from your desktop. Other customisations such as renaming group elements, or pulling in Twitter and RSS feeds are possible on request, as they can only be done by a Knowledge Hub system administrator. Further customisation options are available to Knowledge Hub Digital Network Clients.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: The service is proactively monitored and auto-scaled.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Group administrators can add a Google Analytics code to their group in order to monitor sessions, visits, page impressions etc. They can access this through their own GA dashboard and account. Group administrators can also access a set of downloadable management reports within Knowledge Hub, providing details of group membership and social activity.
• Reporting types:
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

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
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Supplier-defined controls
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a CHECK service provider
• Protecting data at rest: Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: All data encrypted at rest using AES-256.
• 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: Any files uploaded to folders within a group library can be easily downloaded in a zip file. Other group data can either be manually copied, or could be provided as an encrypted zip file (see previous question for additional detail). The platform also has built-in export tools to download a compressed archive of data (LAR file).
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • Zip file
  • Files can be downloaded in the format they were uploaded.
  • LAR (zip) files
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • Most file types supported for upload to group library.
  • LAR (zip) file

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 to provide at least a 99.9% uptime service availability level. The service is fully resilient, with no single points of failure throughout the technology stack. The service comes with a 4-hour recovery time objective (RTO) and a 1-hour recovery point objective (RPO). This means that in the event of a major loss of infrastructure, the service would be available again within 4 hours, with a data loss of no more than 1 hour.; Availability excludes agreed scheduled maintenance events, customer-caused or third party-caused outages or disruptions, or outages or disruptions attributable in whole or in part to force majeure events. Any service-impacting planned maintenance work is always performed outside of UK business hours, with adequate notification to our clients.; We take nightly backups of all operating system and user data, with a 35-day backup retention as standard.
• Approach to resilience: Redundancy across all application tiers, spread across multiple physical data centres.
• Outage reporting: Incidents such as an unexpected break in service are reported on directly to members within the Knowledge Hub and via email. We use our KHub Connects group as a place for open feedback about the service. Any member of the Knowledge Hub may report a problem with the service for investigation via our helpdesk, which operates Monday to Friday 08.30-17.30.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
  • Other
• Other user authentication: Users login with a username and password or sign in via federated authentication method, such as Google, Linkedin, or any OpenId Connect provider.
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Access rights to management interfaces within all Knowledge Hub Digital Collaboration Groups are allocated to group facilitators only via defined role permissions.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication:
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
  • Other
• Description of management access authentication: All users have individual access through their email address and their own password, private to them. Authentication is also possible through Open ID Connect.

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: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: UKAS by Bureau Veritas
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 13/07/2020
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: Physical parameters which are covered by AWS our Hosting Partner
• 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: We follow ISMS standards and processes. Placecube have a policy and manual set that all staff must accept sign and adhere to.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: Change Control Policy and Procedure – Specifies the scope and process for change control of our organisation’s information processing facilities for hardware, software and devices.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: All components within the stack (infrastructure and software) are continuously tested for vulnerabilities. We are alerted of any detected vulnerabilities by third party suppliers, and take action on a timescale commensurate with the severity.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Services are monitored continuously, with alerting to the support team, who assess the potential compromise and undertake corrective action according to the severity threat level.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: Managed through our support desk. The CSO and ISO ensure appropriate action taken in accordance with ISO27001 Incident management policy.

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

• Fighting climate change:

  Fighting climate change

  Placecube will be Net Zero by 2030.; ; All employees and associates/contractors work from home, eliminating the need to travel to and from work. Travel to attend face to face meetings is undertaken only when absolutely necessary and journeys made via public transport, unless impractical to do so.; ; We use technology and digital tools to conduct our business, reducing the use of paper and printing. Supplies are procured from environmentally friendly sources. In an effort to tackle economic inequality we recycle computer equipment and mobile devices to benefit those most in need.; ; We encourage employees to adopt environmentally sustainable working practices and to contribute ideas as to how we improve.; ; We have ceased the use of ‘branded goodies’ at conferences and are exploring more environmentally friendly approaches
• Covid-19 recovery:

  Covid-19 recovery

  Minimal Impact due to Virtual working
• Tackling economic inequality:

  Tackling economic inequality

  We work collaboratively and ensure that our clients never pay twice for the same development, actively promoting re-use, and repeatable services.; ; Digital Place is open-source, and non-proprietary, meaning that our customers can choose to resource new digital projects internally, or through local supply chains. Our promotion of local economic opportunities extends beyond the confines of the Authority, for we actively encourage collaboration by making the platform free to use for partner organisations and community groups. The product can be shared at no additional cost - delivering real economic gain for the public purse.; ; Supporting the development of strong integrated communities, through the use of the Digital Place Platform delivers a meaningful impact on local employment and economy – benefiting the wellbeing of those communities.; ; In an effort to tackle economic inequality we recycle computer equipment and mobile devices to benefit those most in need.
• Equal opportunity:

  Equal opportunity

  Placecube embraces diversity, inclusion, and equality through our people. Our actions, supported by our various policies and processes enable this. We are committed to the Living Wage movement, are Disability Confident, and support the Armed Forces Covenant.; We recognise that the social value of place-based, connected, local public service can transform the lives of the most vulnerable in communities and make best use of the public purse, so that ever tightening resources can be focused on priorities and not duplication.; We contribute to the public sector and the not-for-profit sector through our free-to-use open knowledge exchange platform. Through Knowledge Hub, we contribute to best practice sharing and collaboration, supporting sector-led improvement, knowledge retention and skills development.; ; Our product, Digital Place, facilitates and promotes collaboration and knowledge sharing across communities, without location restraints. Our commercial model is designed to remove barriers to growth, so that our customers feel empowered to engage the communities they serve. For example, multi-agency use is part of our standard subscription in order to remove limits on users, enabling collaboration without additional cost.
• Wellbeing:

  Wellbeing

  The company and its leadership team are focused on the mental health and wellbeing of all our employees, clients, customers, partners, and suppliers, which has a positive impact on productivity and wellbeing. We have appointed a Mental Health First Aider to support our objectives.

Pricing

• Price: £0 to £800 a unit a year
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Open and restricted groups are free of charge for public sector and not-for-profit organisations as standard. Private (hidden) groups are £800+VAT per year. A free trial is available to test out all group tools for a period of 30 days.
• Link to free trial: https://khub.net

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  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 jenny.dias@placecube.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.