GHYSTON LIMITED

Software support

Design, implementation, support, maintenance and enhancement of cloud-based software systems.

Features

• System Audit
• System Design, including Needs Assessment
• Supplier, Platform and Product Assessment and Selection
• System Implementation Planning
• System Implementation
• System Testing
• System Support and Maintenance
• System Enhancement

Benefits

• Ensure fitness for purpose and quality of user experience
• Reduce business risk
• Ensure robustness, scalability and capacity
• Ensure technical quality, length of service life, and extensibility
• Maximise value for money
• Reduce cycle time from idea inception to implementation
• Maximise administrator self-sufficiency and efficiency

£730.00 to £1,615.00 a unit a day

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 contracts@ghyston.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

905741016655550

Contact

Ric Hill
0117 325 7500
contracts@ghyston.com

Planning

• Planning service: Yes
• How the planning service works: Ghyston provide consultancy services to:; - Audit existing cloud and software setups. Looking at everything from platform and product choice, through architecture, right down to the code level, we can produce detailed technical debt and risk analysis for your entire setup.; - Analyse business needs. We begin at a strategic level, looking at key organisational objectives, and drill down through an analysis of various tactics being considered, to specific requirements and scope analysis.; - Design new provisions. We use a user-centric approach to functionality, combined with technical design to ensure that all aspects of the organisation's needs are met and that any compromises are made in the optimal way. The user-centric approach can include user research, prototyping, user testing and validation where necessary, and the technical design can include proof of concepts to de-risk areas of particular concern.; - Construct detailed execution plans. With a clear idea on how to solve the problem at hand, Ghyston will rigorously estimate and plan for an implementation phase. This creates a low-risk template to follow to ensure that cost and timescales expectations are set accurately and early.
• Planning service works with specific services: No

Training

• Training service provided: Yes
• How the training service works: We train expert users for cloud software in a "train the trainer" approach, with the expectation that these expert users will go on to train and support other users throughout the organisation.
• Training is tied to specific services: No

Setup and migration

• Setup or migration service available: Yes
• How the setup or migration service works: For software solutions where we have full access to the code, we can make fresh deployments to the cloud hosting of your choice, including setting up deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to that infrastructure. We can then orchestrate switchovers to the newly deployed solution, including data migration as necessary.; ; We have previously managed highly complex service migrations in a low-risk incremental manner, minimising downtime and maximising data integrity. Test platforms and trial runs are used extensively throughout the process to minimise live-user issues.
• Setup or migration service is for specific cloud services: No

Quality assurance and performance testing

• Quality assurance and performance testing service: Yes
• How the quality assurance and performance testing works: We provide full QA and testing services across a variety of dimensions, both automated and manual. ; ; This begins with test planning and validation of requirements in the form of testable acceptance criteria. Automated tests are created in parallel with development and may including unit, API, integration, behavioural, UI, performance and load tests as appropriate. Both software and test code are peer reviewed, and manual exploratory testing is layered on top before the software is put up for final user acceptance testing.; ; Automated test suits are run by the CI/CD pipeline as necessary, for example on commit or overnight depending on the tests and how long they take. As such any defects or regressions are picked up at the earliest possible time, when they are easiest and cheapest to fix. Running performance and load tests regularly also allows us to identify any degradation early and rectify it before it becomes a live issue at peak demand.

Security testing

• Security services: No

Ongoing support

• Ongoing support service: Yes
• Types of service supported:
  • Buyer hosting or software
  • Hosting or software provided by your organisation
  • Hosting or software provided by a third-party organisation
• How the support service works: Ghyston can support any software for which we have full access to the code (regardless of language, framework and technologies used), and all major cloud hosting providers (e.g. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform). We can also support software where clients or third parties deploy to and monitor the hosting infrastructure.; ; Our support services are second and third line, supporting contained user bases of educated users and/or backing up first line support function provided either by the client or a third party. We operate in standard UK business hours.; ; We will monitor systems, fix bugs, perform upgrades and enhance or add functionality. Our technology agnosticism means that we can learn and adopt software regardless of underlying technology, and we currently work with a wide variety of technologies including Java, .NET, Node, React, Angular, and many, many more besides.; ; Alongside the software and the hosting (including test, staging, etc environments), we will also maintain and support the delivery pipelines used to test and deploy the software, including automated test suits for unit, integration, UI, performance and load testing.

Service scope

• Service constraints: We are located in the South West of England (Bristol) and any support far from this (e.g. the North of England or Scotland) will need to be predominantly remote.

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Our SLAs depend on the priority of the issue being raised, but the vast majority of questions are responded to within one working hour.; ; Our service is only during standard working hours, not 24x7.
• 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: Yes, at an extra cost
• 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: We typically use either Slack channels or Teams affiliation with closed user groups, and have open communication channels direct with engineers.; ; For open user groups we set up LiveChat or similar systems on an as-needed basis to provide the most appropriate service for the user base in question.
• Web chat accessibility testing: None to date.
• Support levels: We provide second and third line support, with defined SLAs within UK business hours, for software and cloud hosting and deployment infrastructure. This support includes investigation, bugfixing, upgrades, design, review and new feature creation.; ; Our support is priced by retained person-days, where those person-days can be used flexibly between our different support services - for example if there was little bugfix activity one month then the time can be used for new feature creation.; ; We provide both a relationship manager and a technical account manager backed up by a team of cloud support engineers.

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: QMS International
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 15/07/2021
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: Things outside our core delivery processes, for example HR, finance.
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: No
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  Fighting climate change

  Fighting climate change

  We guide customers by deploying solutions in hosting environments where the carbon impact is lowest, thereby helping to minimise the impact on climate change. ; ; We also consultant in development and deployment best practices to minimise energy consumption. ; ; We run innovation sessions to explore technical solutions to climate change which we share with our customers and the tech community. ; ; We have a number of certified green software practitioners on our team, who help to bring thoughts around climate impact into all the projects we run. ; ; We have an employee-led initiative which applies a sustainability lense to everything we do as an organisation. This initiative has the following goals to reduce Ghyston's carbon footprint:; ; Engage and empower employees, by adopting best practices in their daily activities at work and at home. This includes promoting sustainable behaviour, providing education and training opportunities, and creating a culture of sustainability within the company.; ; Establish a sustainable supply chain, by sourcing products and services from environmentally conscious suppliers.; ; Promote stakeholder engagement, encouraging others, including stakeholders and suppliers to adopt sustainable best practices. These stakeholders include Ghyston employees, future employees, existing and future shareholders, the local community and wider technical community. ; ; Regularly report progress towards sustainability goals, and holding the company accountable for its environmental impact.; ; Strive towards achieving carbon neutrality, by reducing emissions through sustainable practices, investing in carbon offset programs, and transitioning to renewable energy sources.; ; Encourage the company to adopt sustainable best practices, prioritising environmental practices that deliver environmental responsibility, social responsibility and long-term sustainability.; ; We have used the UN Sustainable Development Goals to channel our focus and align our commitments and activities. We have identified 4 keys SDG's to target and support our activities:; ; Sustainable Cities and Communities; Responsible Consumption and Production; Climate action; Partnerships for the goals

Pricing

• Price: £730.00 to £1,615.00 a unit a day
• Discount for educational organisations: 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 contracts@ghyston.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.