smartcrowds LISTENING – Open Door Engagement Channels for Employee Questions
Empower employees to maximise their involvement in organisational change initiatives. Get employees and leaders working together to understand and tackle workplace risks and issues and collaborate on solutions.
Whether you're a small or large team, smartcrowds' always-on listening lets employees ask pressing questions, raise concerns, and seek solutions.
Features
- Publish open-door channels for employee questions & concerns.
- Collaborate using comments, likes, star ratings.
- Moderate questions, concerns and issues before publishing to employee crowds.
- Create custom workflows to support differing business unit requirements.
- Search the organisational knowledge bank for previous answers and solutions.
- Implement an efficient assessment process aligned to strategic objectives
- Get feedback on concerns and issues using unlimited surveys
- Share plans for change that result from questions & concerns.
- Assign and track actions to ensure that agreed work progresses.
- Share progress updates as improvement works are carried out.
Benefits
- Identify potential issues before they escalate into more significant problems.
- Uncover opportunities by listening to empowered employees.
- Enable employees to spot and tackle waste in their work.
- Provide safe space for employees to share their views
- Breakdown silos with cross-functional teams working on common themes
- Demonstrate that management values employee input by acting on feedback.
- Manage questions, issues, risks and problems in a single solution
- Empower the workforce to own and drive local change.
- Increase the conversion of employee input to meaningful business outcomes
- Deliver improvement outcomes aligned to organisational strategy and objectives
Pricing
£0.50 to £4 a user a month
- Education pricing available
- Free trial available
Service documents
Request an accessible format
Framework
G-Cloud 14
Service ID
8 9 2 7 5 5 2 7 8 1 1 9 9 7 0
Contact
Bridgeall Limited
Andrew Hart
Telephone: 01412126400
Email: tenders@bridgeall.com
Service scope
- Software add-on or extension
- No
- Cloud deployment model
- Public cloud
- Service constraints
-
No constraints.
99.5% availability, 24x7, UK hosted. - System requirements
-
- Internet Connection
- Modern Browser
- Can also be used with all modern smartphones and tablets
User support
- Email or online ticketing support
- Email or online ticketing
- Support response times
- Average 15 minutes. M-F 9-5pm
- User can manage status and priority of support tickets
- Yes
- Online ticketing support accessibility
- WCAG 2.1 AAA
- 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 AAA
- Web chat accessibility testing
- Fair Start Scotland/DWP
- Onsite support
- Yes, at extra cost
- Support levels
-
Online 24x7 availability is included in the price.
Bridgeall monitor the availability of the system on an on-going basis and ensure that up-time SLA (99.5%) is maintained.
UK phone support 9am-5pm is included in the cost. Cost is dependant on the size of the account.
Onsite support is available at extra cost, on a per day basis or annual basis.
Onsite support can include: how to use the software; how to implement innovation strategies; how to align the software with Strategic Objectives; How to manage change; setting up and running of specific innovation challenges. - Support available to third parties
- Yes
Onboarding and offboarding
- Getting started
-
As standard we provide an on-boarding service which includes site deployment, setup & configuration of first administrator and first ‘crowd’ and initial training to a single point of contact. This also includes one refresh training session per annum for updated functionality releases.
To assist with more complex configurations or bespoke functionality, we can work closely with clients on a retained basis.
This can include:
• Pre-configuration planning.
• Set-up complex configuration.
• Population of information & configuring access rights.
• Custom scripts.
• Custom training sessions / group training - Service documentation
- Yes
- Documentation formats
- End-of-contract data extraction
- Data extract at contract end is via web service
- End-of-contract process
- Customer is given option to extract data. All customer data is then removed from the system and destroyed.
Using the service
- Web browser interface
- Yes
- Supported browsers
-
- Internet Explorer 11
- Microsoft Edge
- Firefox
- Chrome
- Safari
- Application to install
- Yes
- Compatible operating systems
-
- Android
- IOS
- Linux or Unix
- MacOS
- Windows
- Windows Phone
- Designed for use on mobile devices
- Yes
- Differences between the mobile and desktop service
- Smartcrowds is fully mobile responsive, and has been designed mobile-first. All features are available on mobile
- Service interface
- Yes
- User support accessibility
- WCAG 2.1 AAA
- Description of service interface
- Set up through Change Management
- Accessibility standards
- WCAG 2.1 AAA
- Accessibility testing
- Fair Start Scotland/DWP
- API
- Yes
- What users can and can't do using the API
- Users can use the API for the transfer of data and integration to other products
- API documentation
- Yes
- API documentation formats
- API sandbox or test environment
- Yes
- Customisation available
- Yes
- Description of customisation
-
User can customise
• Workflow (Moderation ON/OFF, Actions ON/OFF, Sign-Off ON/OFF, Panel Mode/Expert Mode)
• Terminology (Campaigns/Challenges etc, Ideas, Suggestions, Solutions etc)
• Crowds and permissions
• Idea Capture Forms - can be different for every crowd
• Email notifications - can be different for every crowd
• Crowd Landing Pages
• Switchable features per crowd (Dislikes, Action Management etc)
• Assessment Measures and associated scoring, per crowd
• Feedback and Scoring Forms per Crowd
• Branding - for example Customer Logo and Banners.
All Customisation can be carried out by Admin and Policy Users.
All Customisation is done using the systems user interface
Scaling
- Independence of resources
-
As standard smartcrowds is delivered on an elastic shared resource on Microsoft Azure, with Embedded PowerBI and is backed by Microsoft's Investment and SLA's.
Full Independence of resources can be delivered at extra cost if required
Analytics
- Service usage metrics
- Yes
- Metrics types
- System Reporting via embedded PowerBI. The system provides near-real time data exploration of all aspects of the data stored, including users interaction with the system - for example number, frequency and trend of Likes, Ratings, Follows, Submissions, Comments
- Reporting types
- Real-time dashboards
Resellers
- Supplier type
- Not a reseller
Staff security
- Staff security clearance
- Other security clearance
- Government security clearance
- Up to Developed Vetting (DV)
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 CSA CCM v3.0
- Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Encryption of all physical media
- Data sanitisation process
- No
- 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
- Tailored to customer’s requirements
- 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)
- Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)
- Data protection within supplier network
-
- TLS (version 1.2 or above)
- IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
- Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)
Availability and resilience
- Guaranteed availability
-
The smartcrowds® Cloud Service is delivered as a .NET solution on Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI. The cloud architecture removes the cost associated with infrastructure procurement and support, replacing it with an annual subscription and a 99.5% uptime guarantee.
The smartcrowds® Cloud Service removes any need for client technical provision. We will take responsibility for all backups, upgrades, and operating system patches.
smartcrowds® will be available 24/7, however should the system require to be taken offline for maintenance then we will provide a minimum of ten business days’ notice.
All planned maintenance will be completed outside normal business hours. - Approach to resilience
-
All production servers are configured with a minimum of two instances deployed within the same availability set, this ensures a fault tolerant and high availability platform
Azure SQL Database has a built-in high availability subsystem that protects your database from failures of individual servers and devices in a data centre. At any one time, three database replicas are running—one primary replica and two or more secondary replicas.
There are always at minimum two physical, transactionally consistent copies of your data.
On top of the built-in systems that enable high availability, The Microsoft Cloud system architecture offers additional business continuity features that enable disaster recovery.
Azure SQL Database automatically creates backups of every active database. Every hour a backup is taken and geo-replicated to enable the one-hour recovery point objective (RPO) for Geo-Restore. Additionally, transaction log backups are taken every five minutes to enable Point in Time Restore.
Point in Time Restore provides the ability to return your database to an earlier point in time within the past 14 days - Outage reporting
- API, Email alerts, and SMS to our Service Desk
Identity and authentication
- User authentication needed
- Yes
- User authentication
-
- Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
- Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
- Username or password
- Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
- Active Directory Services and Azure AD Connect
- Access restriction testing frequency
- At least every 6 months
- Management access authentication
-
- 2-factor authentication
- Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
- Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
- Limited access network (for example PSN)
- Dedicated link (for example VPN)
- 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
- You control when users can access audit information
- How long supplier audit data is stored for
- User-defined
- 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
- QEC
- ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
- 10 May 2021
- What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
- NA
- ISO 28000:2007 certification
- No
- CSA STAR certification
- No
- PCI certification
- No
- Cyber essentials
- Yes
- Cyber essentials plus
- No
- Other security certifications
- Yes
- Any other security certifications
-
- ISO 9001
- Subject to the Return on Investement model ROI
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
- ISO27001 and Cyber Security
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
-
The CMDB data is maintained by leveraging the request and change management processes, dedicated modules in the Service Desk suite, which are fully integrated into the CMDB. There is a dedicated change management module within the Bridgeall Service Desk, integrated with the configuration, knowledge base, incident and service request modules. The process provides the following core activities through the ITILV3 Service Desk:
• Initiate change request
• Validate change request including security
• Assess and plan change (operational)
• Approve change implementation
• Execute and complete change
• Status reporting
• Review post implementation and close change. - Vulnerability management type
- Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Vulnerability management approach
-
Follow the ITIL process for Vulnerability Management processes, as well as applying our Quality ISO9001 and Security ISO27001 processes. Bridgeall will coordinate and perform regular IT health checks and audits, that provide the interface for vulnerability management. The process shall provide the following core activities:
• Preparation
• Vulnerability scan
• Define remediating actions
• Implement remediating actions
• Rescan
We utilise several proprietary tools provided by Nessus, Qualys and Verisign and work with CREST approved NCC Group. - Protective monitoring type
- Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Protective monitoring approach
-
Environments are monitored extensively for both the application and infrastructure covering system availability, performance and automated system jobs.
Automatic monitoring is conducted at regular intervals depending. Alerts are raised by email with customisable multi-user notification escalations available.
Critical Alerts
• Ping/Port Availability Checks
• HTTP on all sites
• SMTP Service Check
• Database Service Check
• URL Availability Check
Trend Alerts
• CPU Usage
• Memory Usage
• Storage Capacity
• Disk I/O
• Disk Read/Write Times
URL Response/Wait Times - 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 ITIL V3 Service Desk manages incidents and escalations until resolution. The Service Desk acts as the end user single point of contact for incident restoration, including requests for information and issues. The Service Desk monitors outstanding trouble tickets or records until they are resolved.
We provide the following activities:
Detection and recording
Classification and initial support
Investigation and diagnosis
Resolution and recovery
Tracking and communication.
Major Incident Process:
Follow procedures
Communication
Defines incident severities,
Escalations
Roles and responsibilities - internal and external organisations
Review process and issue a report - actions taken, lessons learned.
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
- Yes
- Connected networks
-
- Public Services Network (PSN)
- Police National Network (PNN)
- NHS Network (N3)
- Joint Academic Network (JANET)
- Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN)
- Health and Social Care Network (HSCN)
Social Value
- Social Value
-
Social Value
Tackling economic inequalityTackling economic inequality
Bridgeall is dedicated to addressing economic inequality, recognising the importance of inclusive growth and equal opportunities. Our approach is multifaceted, focusing on creating employment opportunities, investing in skills development, and supporting local communities.
Our initiatives contribute to economic equality, such as our apprenticeship programs that offer valuable training and experience to young people, our partnerships with local educational institutions (Digital Critical Friends - 3 Bridgeall technical team members are mentors for Teachers in schools across Scotland. Their responsibility is around consulting, advising, supporting, and promoting, IT and computing amongst younger groups.), and our commitment to fair and ethical business practices that ensure the prosperity of the communities we serve.
Our procurement policies are designed to support small and medium-sized enterprises where possible, promoting local economic development and sustainability.
We are an accredited Living Wage Employer and support the Living Wage movement, valuing fair wages to attract and retain top talent while boosting staff morale and productivity. We oppose Exploitative Employment Practices like Zero Hours Contracts
Our commitment to fighting economic inequality is not only a moral imperative but also a strategic business decision that enhances our competitiveness and aligns with our values of integrity, respect, and social responsibility.
Bridgeall's commitment to social responsibility also extends to supporting local communities, as evidenced by our monthly food/money donations to the Glasgow Northeast foodbank. We have also supported them by providing IT resources for specific projects to assist them. This initiative is part of our broader efforts to address economic inequality and support those in need. Our contributions to the foodbank help provide essential supplies to families and individuals affected by economic hardship, reinforcing our pledge to foster a more equitable society. Through actions like these, Bridgeall not only demonstrates corporate citizenship but also strengthens community ties and supports sustainable development goals.
Pricing
- Price
- £0.50 to £4 a user a month
- Discount for educational organisations
- Yes
- Free trial available
- Yes
- Description of free trial
- Subject to requirements