BCN Group Ltd

M365 Modern Workplace - Public Sector services

The Microsoft 365 suite revolutionises productivity & secure remote working across the entire public sector, fostering a modern, collaborative, and secure digital workplace.

Features

• Tailored M365 deployments & migrations for all public sector entities
• Secure cloud storage & document management through SharePoint
• Collaboration tools & communication systems through Microsoft Teams
• Advanced security measures to safeguard public sector information
• Secure migration of data to a government accredited Cloud
• Modern Intranet & Internal Site Development
• Secure Access to data & improved data governance
• Continuous technical support & Proactive management
• Microsoft365 Licensing Sales & Support
• Secure remote working through Microsoft Intune

Benefits

• Enhances civic engagement across various public services
• Facilitates remote work for public sector employees
• Ensures data security for all public sector levels
• Streamlines administrative tasks
• Fosters collaboration within and between public sector agencies
• Simplifies IT management for public sector IT departments
• Increases digital literacy among public sector staff
• Provides ongoing support to ensure service continuity
• Enhanced Collaboration through SharePoint for the public sector
• Increased productivity and efficiency through O365 & Teams

£1,000 a unit

• Education pricing 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 ric.kelly@bcn.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

871974335615085

Contact

Mr Ric Kelly
0345 095 7000
ric.kelly@bcn.co.uk

Service scope

• Service constraints: Services are constrained by the limitations of the M365 Platform only
• System requirements:
  • Suitable internet connectivity
  • M365 / O365 Licensing

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Depending on Service Purchased Options: Standard Support Hours - Monday - Friday 08:00 - 18:00Hrs Extended Support Hours - Monday - Friday 07:00 - 19:00Hrs Out of Hours Support - P1 ONLY - 24/7 (Excluding Christmas Day) Priority 1: Standard / Extended Hours - Response Within 30 minutes Priority 1: (Out of Hours) Response Within 60 minutes Priority 2: Standard / Extended Hours – Response Within 2 hours Priority 3 or 4: Standard / Extended Hours – Response Within 4 hours Priority 5: Standard / Extended Hours – Response Within 4 hours
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• 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: Comprehensive Account Management & Support options Availability of the M365 Platform is inherited via Microsoft Support Hours 50+ dedicated support engineers across 3 UK offices provide technical support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. * This includes proactive monitoring and alerting of core services. *Waking Hours = 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday (from manned helpdesk) Ticket Severity All tickets logged to the Service Desk will be allocated a severity level based on the following methodology. This will ensure that reporting on service levels may be achieved to the optimum format. 1 - Catastrophic business disruption 2 - Severe business disruption or user critical issue 3 - Business disruption or multiple user issue 4 - Minor business disruption or user issue 5 - Job or Task Service Desk Staff will evaluate the Incident and allocate a priority level after which it will be assigned to the appropriate staff. This will be based on the required skill set to resolve the incident in a timely manner. As a Microsoft Tier-1 CSP BCN will escalate issues to Microsoft as required for additional support.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: For all M365 Solutions BCN will engage with the customer to identify business requirements & the optimal solution required. Whether that is a migration to SharePoint from other data stores or development of an existing solution, BCN will guide from start to finish. BCN follow the below methodology for delivering projects: Define The first step is always information. We take the time to understand your business. Build We build on our research. Your solution is designed to leverage the insights we learn. Deliver We only ever deliver once we're completely happy and fully tested. Evolve Digital solutions don't stop, they evolve. Metrics & analytics keep pushing you forward.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Continuity of service is important to us for our customers. All customer data is hosted in the customer's tenant & therefore is fully owned by the customer. At the end of any contracted engagement the customer will control the data within M365 & BCN access will be removed as necessary. BCN can support extraction from M365 via multiple methods if required depending on the customer needs.
• End-of-contract process: At the end of any contracted engagement BCN can support handover of any solution to the customer. BCN will remove access to all systems as necessary & terminate any support for services.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Using the web interface: Users can access M365 Services through the SharePoint Admin Portal / M365 Admin Portals
• Web interface accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Web interface accessibility testing: Microsoft are responsible for Web Interface testing
• API: No
• Command line interface: No

Scaling

• Scaling available: Yes
• Scaling type:
  • Automatic
  • Manual
• Independence of resources: Independence of resources is provided by Microsoft using logical tenant isolation. Multiple forms of protection have been implemented throughout Microsoft 365 to prevent customers from compromising Microsoft 365 services or applications or gaining unauthorized access to the information of other tenants or the Microsoft 365 system itself, including: Logical isolation of customer content within each tenant for Microsoft 365 services is achieved through Microsoft Entra authorization and role-based access control. SharePoint Online provides data isolation mechanisms at the storage level.
• Usage notifications: Yes
• Usage reporting: Email

Analytics

• Infrastructure or application metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Other
• Other metrics:
  • M365 Usage & Adoption
  • M365 Security Score
• Reporting types:
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra features and support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: Microsoft

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• 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: ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a Tigerscheme qualified provider or a CREST-approved service provider
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Encryption of all physical media
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: A third-party destruction service

Backup and recovery

• Backup and recovery: Yes
• What’s backed up:
  • Office 365
  • SharePoint
• Backup controls: Purchase additional services from BCN to backup M365 Services.
• Datacentre setup: Multiple datacentres with disaster recovery
• Scheduling backups: Supplier controls the whole backup schedule
• Backup recovery: Users contact the support team

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: Availability of the M365 Service is leveraged from Microsoft. Service availability <99.9% results in service credits being provided. Microsoft's Service Availability history can be found here - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/office-365-platform-service-description/service-health-and-continuity
• Approach to resilience: Active / Active Design In Microsoft 365, we are driving towards having all services architected and operated in an active/active design that increases resiliency. This design means that there are always multiple instances of a service running that can respond to user requests and that they are hosted in geographically dispersed datacenters. All user traffic comes in through the Microsoft Front Door service and is automatically routed to the optimally located instance of the service and around any service failures to prevent or reduce impact to our customers. Fault isolation Just as the services are designed and operated in an active/active fashion and are partitioned off from each other to prevent a failure in one from affecting another, the code base of the service is developed using similar partitioning principles called fault isolation. Fault isolation measures are incremental protections made within the code base itself. These measures help prevent an issue in one area from cascading into other areas of operation. Fault isolation measures are applied at multiple stages of the development and delivery of a service, including code development, service deployment, load balancing, and database replication.
• Outage reporting: Public dashboards & email alerts

Identity and authentication

• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google apps)
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Entra ID provides RBAC controls into customer SharePoint environments to restrict access to named resources. Following a least-privilege principle access is controlled via the Entra ID of the customer
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
• Devices users manage the service through: Dedicated device on a segregated network (providers own provision)

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: Between 1 month and 6 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: Between 1 month and 6 months
• How long system logs are stored for: User-defined

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: SGS
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 25/06/2020
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: BCN Group activities related to the provision of this service are covered by ISO 27001
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• 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: BCN Group are certified as compliant with ISO27001 by a UKAS accredited certifying body.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: Change requests are raised by the customer or on their behalf by our support team. These are submitted to the change team for review and what-if analysis, the results of which are communicated back to the change owner for review of potential impacts and technical feedback before authorising and scheduling in the work. Upon completion and validation that the change has been successful, relevant documentation and parties are updated accordingly. The Change Advisory Board meet regularly to assess the whole change life-cycle to ensure that safeguards and security remain at the forefront of any changes made.
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Production assets are scheduled for daily, automatic scans with the most recent vulnerability signatures. The results of these scans are collected in a secure, central storage service, and automated reporting makes results available to service teams. Service teams review scan results that report aggregate scan results to provide comprehensive reporting and trend analysis. When vulnerability scans indicate missing patches, security misconfigurations, or other vulnerabilities in the environment, service teams use these reports to target the affected components for remediation. Vulnerabilities discovered through scanning are prioritized for remediation based on their (CVSS) scores and other relevant risk factors - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/compliance/assurance/assurance-vulnerability-management
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Protective Monitoring is provided by Microsoft for SharePoint Services. "Microsoft cloud services are continuously monitored for signs of compromise. In addition to automated security monitoring and alerting, all employees receive annual training to recognize and report signs of potential security incidents. When suspicious activity is detected and escalated, Service-specific Security Response teams initiate a process of analysis, containment, eradication, and recovery" More information can be found here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/compliance/assurance/assurance-incident-management
• 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: BCN's Incident Management process: Upon detection of an incident either internally or by report (telephone/email/portal) it is classified due to its impact and the number of users it affects. Where required, an escalation event is then created triggering the assignment of a Major Incident Manager, re-assignment of technical resource and team leader to provide client updates. Updates are provided throughout a major incident (P1) with an incident report provided within 1 week. Root cause analysis undertaken after the incident has been resolved to help mitigate the likelihood of recurrence. Microsoft's Incident Management processes for infrastructure incidents are found here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/compliance/assurance/assurance-incident-management

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)

Separation between users

• Virtualisation technology used to keep applications and users sharing the same infrastructure apart: Yes
• Who implements virtualisation: Third-party
• Third-party virtualisation provider: Microsoft
• How shared infrastructure is kept separate: Microsoft 365 separates client data into organisational structures such as tenants and subscriptions that are only visible to the client in question. Microsoft are responsible for the hyperscale platform that ensures memory and process separation between clients/users.

Energy efficiency

• Energy-efficient datacentres: Yes
• Description of energy efficient datacentres: Microsoft's Data Centers meet all sustainability requirements: By 2025, Microsoft Data Centres look to shift to 100 percent renewable energy supply. Microsoft Services are up to 98 percent more carbon efficient and up to 93 percent more energy efficient than a traditional enterprise datacenter. Microsoft is investing in a sustainable future through zero environmental impact materials. More information can be found here - https://datacenters.microsoft.com/globe/powering-sustainable-transformation/

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  BCN are committed to working with Data Centre partners that share our values on sustainability and environmental impact. With a focus on partners that invest in energy efficient environmentally minded solutions such as battery storage technology, and intelligent cooling, regardless of the upfront costs. We will always look to host with the most energy efficiency conscious providers. End of Life (EOL) equipment is either recycled appropriately, donated to charitable causes or offered to colleagues in return for charitable donations. Eliminated landfill waste and maximising recycling All EOL equipment is disposed of via our WEEE accredited partner

  Tackling economic inequality

  BCN will create employment and educational opportunities for people from backgrounds that typically find it hard to get employment.

  Equal opportunity

  Women in the Workforce: We always want the right person to be in the right role for the right reasons. We’re pro-actively making changes and ensuring we are aiming to change the status quo in the tech industry and have a more balanced workforce at BCN and more women in our tech. We do this via: Changing recruitment policies Flexible working Support and development opportunities Our aim is to achieve a 50:50 workforce gender balance.

  Wellbeing

  BCN is committed to the protection and promotion of the mental health and wellbeing of all staff. We shall continuously strive to improve the mental health environment and culture of the organisation by identifying, eliminating, or minimising all harmful processes, procedures and behaviours that may cause psychological harm or illness to its employees.

Pricing

• Price: £1,000 a unit
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: No

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 ric.kelly@bcn.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.