IRIS SOFTWARE LIMITED

IRIS ParentMail

Parental engagement system supporting school communications with over 4 million parents, reliably and professionally, every day.
Offering a flexible and user-friendly dashboard, reducing costs and workloads and improving relationships.
Wraps all school to parent interaction into one easy-to-use free mobile app, helping busy parents stay on top of school life.

Features

• Free mobile app for parents
• MIS Integration
• Instant, in-app messaging with no character limit
• Read receipts for messages
• Send attachments straight to parents’ phones
• Send out, collate, chase and report on digital forms
• Arrange, book and collate parents’ evening appointments
• Online payments solution
• Automatic payment reminders

Benefits

• Consolidates parent engagement into one place
• Strengthens home/school partnerships
• Streamline processes and reduce time-consuming administration
• Eliminates paper-based communications from schools and homes
• Reduces supplier and print related costs
• Eliminate handling cash at school

£9.87 a user a year

• Education pricing 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 BidTeam@iris.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

887302544082876

Contact

Bid Team
0344 225 1525
BidTeam@iris.co.uk

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: IRIS Biostore, IRIS Reach
• Cloud deployment model: Private cloud
• Service constraints: None known
• System requirements:
  • Internet connection
  • Modern browser

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Any new ticket is responded to within 10 minutes to confirm the ticket has been created and advising the user of the ticket reference number.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: None or don’t know
• 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: None or don’t know
• How the web chat support is accessible: N/A
• Web chat accessibility testing: None
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Our support KPIs are: 90% of inbound calls answered within 30 seconds. 88% of tickets resolved within 48 working hours (tickets worked in order of priority), 92% ticket satisfaction.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: A full implementation and training service is provided by our team to ensure smooth onboarding.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: HTML
• End-of-contract data extraction: CSV export upon request.
• End-of-contract process: The customer account is marked for deletion and automatically deleted 30 days after the end date.

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: Fully responsive view so is mobile friendly.
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: None or don’t know
• Description of service interface: Service cloud
• Accessibility standards: None or don’t know
• Description of accessibility: N/A
• Accessibility testing: None
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: An API connection can be created to the schools' cashless catering system to allow the transfer of balance and meal information.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: Open API (also known as Swagger)
• API sandbox or test environment: No
• Customisation available: No

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Infrastructure is built to withstand loads over and above normal usage, especially around snow day communications.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: No

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: None

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: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
• 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 SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: 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: 99.9% uptime
• Approach to resilience: Backup data centres are in place to take over if an outage occurs
• Outage reporting: Monitoring software alerts our teams, if an outage occurs we have a Critical Incident team to manage communications to customers

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: All users have permission-based privileges.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication: 2-factor authentication

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: BSI
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 31st October 2021
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: N/A
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: Yes
• Who accredited the PCI DSS certification: Self-assesed SAQ-A PCI DSS
• PCI DSS accreditation date: 31/02/2022
• What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover: N/A
• 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: IRIS has a full suite of policies and procedures, included but not limited to:; IRIS Group Data Protection Policy; IRIS Information Security and Acceptable Use Policies Summary; IRIS Data classification and handling policy; Personal data incidents reporting procedure; Engineering Personal Data Breach Policy

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: An internal Change review board reviews and approves each change to our software
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: Internal and external PEN tests are completed annually to determine any vulnerabilities
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Mulitple software continually monitors our environments with alerts to the relevant people in place.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: As per IRIS incident management policies and procedures

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

  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Equal opportunity

  We are committed to ensuring equal opportunities at IRIS. Our CEO, Elona Mortimer-Zhika, celebrates diversity in our workplace and expects the culture and environment of IRIS to be based on mutual respect and free from discrimination. We are committed to delivering a competitive and fair employment environment. We put equality, diversity, and inclusion at the forefront of our decisions, monitor progress, take action to continually improve, and be transparent with our findings. We have a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination based on protected characteristics and any allegations of discrimination will be dealt with in line with our Disciplinary policies. We have several wellbeing groups, including Unique which provides support for physical or mental health conditions or neurodivergent people. We provide a variety of training schemes to all employees, regardless of any protected characteristic, and encourage progression through our organisation.; ; We are passionate about gender equality and are committed to building a diverse workforce. We have continued to invest in our range of programmes to support gender equality and support the women of IRIS so they can reach their full potential. These initiatives ensure that we continue to focus on making IRIS a great place to work, enable our people to flourish, improving gender pay equality and providing equal opportunity for all. IRIS Groups championing of women in leadership has been recognised as a Great Place to Work for Women. The executive team comprises of three female leaders and 11 male leaders. ; Our Modern Slavery Policy sets out the ways in which we identify and manage the risks of modern slavery as a business, including risk assessment, risk mitigation and staff training. IRIS reviews all material suppliers and assesses whether any risks of slavery or human trafficking arise.

  Wellbeing

  We are committed to engaging, supporting and empowering our workforce. We create an environment where they feel part of a team; from regular global company updates to social evenings and charity events. We’re a UK Best Workplaces™ for Wellbeing. We have over 40 Mental Health First Aiders, have a weekly workplace support group and offer a free Employee Assistance Programme and bereavement counselling. We have several wellbeing groups and celebrate diversity. We offer colleagues a cycle scheme, private medical insurance and reduced gym memberships. We hold company fitness challenges and provide free fitness sessions. We’re proud to be a Real Living Wage employer, provide UK cost of living support, offer a tech and car scheme and give access to money coaches, workplace ISAs and pension, life assurance and critical illness cover. We seek our employees feedback on benefits that matter to them.; We give our employees three ‘Giving Back’ days a year on top of their annual holiday entitlement to support local community and national charitable cause. Employees are encouraged to actively give their time and skills to fundraise for a charity of their choice and volunteer on community projects, including being a school governor, charity trustee, reading with school children through the Benchmark scheme, mentoring in schools and running money management courses, both externally in conjunction with charities and schools, as well as internally with IRIS employees.

Pricing

• Price: £9.87 a user a year
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• 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 BidTeam@iris.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.