Civica UK Limited

Civica Housing Choice & Needs

The Civica Housing Choice & Needs Solution is a Cloud hosted integrated suite of modules comprising of a public website and back-office system.

The modules:

Housing Register
Choice Based Lettings & Nomination Based Lettings
Homelessness & Temporary Accommodation
Rents (Specialist TA, Mobile, G&T Sites)
Enhanced Housing Options
Support Gateway

Features

• Efficiencies - Greater efficiencies through online self-service
• Automation - Maximum automation frees up staff time
• Bespoke - Tailored to individual policies
• Market Leader - More LAs using CBL solution than alternatives
• Latest Technology - Completely web-based enables straightforward implementation
• Compliant - Commitment to adapting to sector changes
• Live reporting - Creates statutory reports for UK
• User-friendly - Training new staff is easier
• Visibility - Complete picture of referrals/placements

Benefits

• Creates efficiencies through online customer self-service
• Can be used by LA's/Registered Landlords in the UK
• Maximum automation frees up staff time
• Bespoke tailoring to your lettings policy
• Fully web based hosted service with straight forward implementation
• Highly active user base drives innovation
• Web based for easy partner access
• Provide your tenants with a national home swap service
• Automated Bidding for CBL properties through various media channels
• Full Homeless reporting which is government compliant

£22,637 a licence a year

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

• Modern Slavery statement

  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 g-cloud@civica.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

912698487902542

Contact

Civica UK Limited
+44 (0) 3333 214 914
g-cloud@civica.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: Can also be used as a standalone service .
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: No constraints – All licences to use the software are based on an unlimited user basis for either a geographical area or property count depending on the type of organisation buys the licence.
• System requirements:
  • Our technology is completely cloud based.
  • All aspects of your system's functionality accessed using a browser.
  • No requirement to install any software on individual PCs.
  • Our applications are designed to use minimal bandwidth.

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Support issues can be submitted 24 hours by email and portal. Telephone support is 08.00am to 06.00pm Monday to Fridays excluding English Bank Holidays.; ; Outside of support hours, users can log incidents or service requests 24-7 via a web portal for the Civica Service Desk. Users are also able to monitor the progress of their cases through the portal.
• 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: This support service covers software (where you are party to a Supply Agreement with us) or hosting faults (where you are party to a Service Agreement with us) hence providing you with a single number to call if you require support.; ; Priority 1 - Client facing functionality not available - 4 working hours response, 4 working hours fix.; Priority 2 - Other functional of a critical nature not available - 4 working hours response, 8 working hours fix. ; Priority 3 - Functionality of a non-critical nature is not available - 2 working days response, 5 working days fix.; Priority 4 - Minor errors - Next release by negotiation.; Priority 5 - Enhancement Requests - Agreed by negotiation.; ; All systems are automatically monitored using specialist monitoring software, PRTG. This monitoring is performed from a location separate from our dual data centres. The average availability over the period was 99.98% which underlines the excellent reliability of the solution.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Implementing a new ICT system can be a large undertaking we believe that there are two key factors in delivering your project successfully; having the right people to manage the project, and having a proven methodology to drive the implementation.; ; As part of our onboarding service Abritas will undertake a scoping exercise prior to contract signing in order to define the requirements and deliverables of your project. This will include modules and options required any interfacing and data load requirements.; ; The key stages:; ; • Scoping ; • Configuration definition including any interfaces.; • Configuration of system to meet your needs.; • Testing and acceptance ; • Training and go live; ; Our highly experienced project managers are dedicated to implementing systems for clients. All project managers are permanent employees and are thoroughly familiar with our software modules.; ; Training is delivered by our TAP accredited (www.tap-training.com) trainer who has over 8 years IT delivery experience, and is intimately familiar with the system.; ; The provision of a high quality support function is a key area for us. We believe that by delivering a top quality support service through a knowledgeable and professional team we are able to clearly differentiate ourselves from other software suppliers.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Offboarding – We will facilitate the offboarding process at the end of the contract. This will ensure that your data can seamlessly be transferred back to you or to another system. We can provide the data either in a standard format or in the format required by you. Please note that consultancy time spent undertaking the offboarding process will be charged on a time and materials basis at the G-Cloud daily rate.
• End-of-contract process: At the end of the contract the client will either have the choice of extending the contract to the next G-Cloud framework version or converting to our standard rolling contract. Alternatively clients could do out to market and retender for the software. If we were not selected as the preferred supplier then any un paid hosting and service charges for the remaining term would be payable. ; ; We can provide the data either in a standard format or in the format required by you. Please note that consultancy time spent undertaking the off-boarding process will be charged on a time and materials basis at the G-Cloud daily rate.; ; With regards to extending the contracts for a short term period basis post end of contract this can be facilitated in quarterly periods, note however that hosting and service charges may be higher for short term contracts.

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: We have a mobile optimised site for CBL bidding.
• Service interface: No
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• API: No
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: The back office is customised to meet the client requirements, so that it meets the housing policy and lettings plans. The front facing customer housing portal is fully content managed by the client.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Civica Housing Choice & Needs utilises a combination of IAAS and PAAS Microsoft Azure cloud.; ; IaaS is dedicated to each customer. We can dynamically scale the infrastructure and a Azure load balancer can also be utilised where required.; ; Azure SQL Database elastic pools are used for the solution which enable management and scaling of multiple databases having varying and unpredictable usage demands. Elastic pools enable us to optimize the performance for a group of databases and deliver performance elasticity for each database. Civica monitor the performance metrics of the pool, and scales it to a higher performance level if required.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Available on request
• Reporting types:
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

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: Supplier-defined controls
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: Another external penetration testing organisation
• Protecting data at rest: Physical access control, complying with another standard
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• 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: Users can control the display order of fields in the report drilldown and export to make it easier to see and set the fields included in these areas. ; ; Screens have been added to the report builder allowing the drilldown and export fields to be maintained en masse. This page has the option to display fields by export or drilldown order and gives the user a clearer idea of the end result before exporting.; ; Report data can be easily exported to Excel for further analysis if required.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • XML
  • Web Services
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • XML
  • Web Services

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • Private network or public sector network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Civica's standard service hours are 24x7, during which time we guarantee an availability of 99.5% (excluding any planned maintenance).
• Approach to resilience: Available on request.
• Outage reporting: Infrastructure related scheduled maintenance will not occur between 07:00 and 19:00 Monday to Friday excluding English Bank Holidays. Maintenance will be arranged with a minimum of 3 working days’ notice, and will include a detailed description of the planned works, planned outcomes, and a detailed back-out plan, unless otherwise stated. Unplanned outages will be notified via the Civica Service Desk.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Two factor authentication.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)

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: User-defined
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time 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: Alcumus ISO QAR
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 06/10/2020
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: We meet the full requirement of the ISO/27001 accreditation.
• 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 22301

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards:
  • ISO/IEC 27001
  • Other
• Other security governance standards: Cyber Essentials ; ISO22301
• Information security policies and processes: In order to provide a wide range of services to public and private sector organisations, Civica maintains an active information security programme. This programme requires regular internal and external audit inspection of both physical and logical data protection structures. The policies and procedures are aligned to ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials certifications.

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: All hosted assets metadata is stored in a Configuration Management Data Base. This data base is access controlled to authorised staff only. The CMDB provides information essential to the secure hosting of client critical services.; ; Civica's Change Management process ensures that all changes are considered and planned, and appropriate, and that there is a clear audit trail of all changes. Any changes are assessed through ISO27001 to ensure that they don't have a potential security impact.
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Civica has vulnerability management processes in place for ISO27001 and PCI-DSS. These processes are externally audited on an annual basis to ensure continued compliance. For external vulnerability scanning, Civica employs the services of an external ‘CHECK’ approved provider to perform an annual penetration test against the external management IP interface. Supporting this, Civica is also certified to the CESG approved Cyber Essentials scheme. For high value financial hosted system, Civica also maintains a PCI-DSS v3.1 certification. In scope systems are subject to month internal and external vulnerability scans as well as a full penetration test twice a year.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Civica take a proactive approach to information security through a process of continual monitoring and review. As part of a documented risk assessment methodology to identify and manage information security risks a dedicated security team update the risk register monthly. Civica has a network monitoring solution in place ‘OpsView’ as well as a full antivirus and anti-malware solution. These technologies check the hosted services for errors, infections and unexpected network traffic and are support by Cisco IPS/IDS at the perimeter layer. This monitoring service provides defence in depth, against compromise, by detecting infections and suspicious networking activity within the environment.
• 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: Civica have developed an Incident Management process (PRM07) under ISO 20000 standards which details both the Incident and Service Request Management processes. ; ; The Civica Service Desk manages end user Service Requests, Incidents and Requests for Change (RFCs) which can be logged by e-mail, telephone and web portal. Monthly customer reports will detail incident information.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Fighting climate change:

  Fighting climate change

  Civica’s Environment and Social Governance (ESG) committee provides focus for ongoing development and implementation of our environmental policy, supported by our ISO 14001 standard. We commit to working with staff, customers, suppliers, contractors and partners to recognise and reduce our environmental impact. Simultaneously we’re optimising our services to support environmental and community initiatives.; ; We support fighting climate change by:; - Helping employees reduce their environmental footprint at work. Initiatives include: recycling facilities across our offices, single use plastic reduction, timer switches for office devices, cistern water saving devices, installing LED lighting when refreshing offices, WEEE recycling all hardware, print reduction, phone and printer cartridge recycling, FSC certified paper; weekly employee communications encouraging and advising employees on positive approaches to reduce carbon. Employees have carbon saving benefits such as cycle to work scheme.; - Socially responsible purchasing, sustainable procurement, reduced consumption.; - Selecting suppliers, goods and services that demonstrate sustainable, socially responsible, ethically sound standards.; - Leading by example via activities such as: reducing single use plastic consumption by 70% within the next 5 years; prioritising use of green energy; promoting recycling through ‘Zero to Landfill’ and ‘Zero Print’ schemes; working towards carbon neutrality with workforces and facilities over the next 10-years.; - Creating software with sustainability in built in; net-zero is a key theme in our product roadmaps.; - Partnering customers to co-create public services fit for the future. Civica's NorthStar innovation lab creates physical and virtual opportunities to jointly explore trends and technologies supporting customers Net Zero ambitions.; - Meeting/exceeding environmental legislation through ISO audits.; ; We have a Carbon Reduction Plan and commitment to achieve Net Zero by 2040 (latest). We are reviewing our energy mix, materials we use and working with partners to begin to plant a ‘Civica Forest’ whilst maintaining awareness of the Greenwashing issue.
• Covid-19 recovery:

  Covid-19 recovery

  In the spring of 2020, Civica were an early signatory to the C-19 Business Pledge. We focused on safeguarding our people and communities and ensuring the successful ongoing provision of our business-critical software and services.; ; Supporting customers: Alongside business as usual for our customers, we have worked hard to support the national and local level response through practical, innovative and updated software capability. We have delivered a range of new capabilities quickly, such as those listed below, and continue to provide system advice, configuration and data insights to ensure effective action. ; - COVID-19 App (the first of its kind in the UK and Ireland) was developed and launched with the Northern Ireland Department of Health, and helped reduce the pressure on the 111 helpline.; - Developed local track and trace solution for London Borough of Redbridge, enabling it to support localised contact tracing/escalations.; - Community Helper software - built on the iCasework platform to help local authorities co-ordinate rapid support for vulnerable people while minimising safeguarding risks.; - Our Trac e-recruitment software was used to help NHS recruiters get the right candidates into posts quickly and fast-track DBS checks.; - Supporting social housing tenants - assisted teams to re-focus resources and provide vital support to tenants.; - Supporting Revenues and Benefits teams - software solutions for the two largest UK government measures, Business Rates Grant fund and the Council Tax Hardship fund. ; ; Supporting employees: We proactively provide guidance and support for our people, from keeping remote workers engaged, to our mental health champions and free-to-access Employee Assistance programme. We have adopted a blended working model enabling colleagues to work safely and flexibly at various locations and hub offices, enhanced how we communicate, and continue to look for new ways to share ideas and inspiration.
• Tackling economic inequality:

  Tackling economic inequality

  Create opportunities for entrepreneurship and help organisations to grow. Civica is committed to working with its customers to deliver value into the community by supporting young people, developing skills and mentoring businesses to attract inward investment and growth that brings with it employment and skills.; ; We support innovation through our NorthStar innovation lab, a company-wide initiative focused on enhanced client outcomes by applying fresh ideas on data, automation and new technologies. We work with our customers to co-create public services that are fit for today and for the future. Our Civica NorthStar innovation lab creates physical and virtual opportunities for us to jointly explore trends and technologies.; ; Create employment and training opportunities; Civica is a member of the 5% Club, and aims to have 5% of its UK work force as either apprentices, graduates or work experience students by the end of 2025. We employ apprentices and graduates into a number of different disciplines and locations, with a focus on ensuring they are long term employees of Civica.; ; Support educational attainment; Learning and development is at the core of the Civica Quality Management Framework. We believe in investing in our people and are proud of our Investors in People Gold accreditation and in being a top rated Glassdoor Employer.; ; We run our own Civica Academy for employee development and skills enhancement, which delivered over 220,000 hours of training during 2021. We provide our own apprenticeship programme (team leader level 3) for our aspiring and current managers that are considered stars of the future.; ; We are working on building some new apprenticeship standards such as the UX degree apprenticeship. This will benefit not only Civica’s Digital Team but all companies and customers that need UX talent.
• Equal opportunity:

  Equal opportunity

  Civica is a 2022 Financial Times Diversity Leader and is ‘Gold’ Investors in People accredited, demonstrating our commitment to promoting equal opportunity by tackling inequality in employment, skills and pay in our workforce. We proactively implement equal opportunities for employment and personal development among diverse groups and local areas, and ensure rights for all staff are always protected. This is led by our Group Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) team, championed by our CEO who is also our Chief Diversity Sponsor. The strategy and policy manages:; - Interview training, focusing on unconscious bias/equal opportunity.; - Anonymising CVs and ensuring interview panels represent minority groups.; - Using a decoder to ensure job advertisements use gender and culturally neutral language.; - Attracting/recruiting from minority backgrounds/disadvantaged groups across the organisation, especially into under-represented areas.; - Advertising vacancies in a wide variety of places and diversity/disability portals (including; BME jobs, Disability jobs and LGBT job sites), to increase gender diversity and ethnicity.; - Company-wide Diversity & Inclusion network, including affinity groups relating to under-represented groups.; - Mandatory Diversity & Inclusion training for all staff. ; - Pay equity reviews addressing inequality and UK gender pay gap.; - Flexible Working to encourage higher uptake for women, working parents and disabled groups.; - Partner with a social innovator company to help recruit and support employees with Autism Spectrum Disorder.; ; We gather and analyse data on our performance from regular surveys such as ENPS, IIP, Pulse survey, employee engagement surveys.; ; Our D&I team monitor the take-up, use and effectiveness of our measures, such as the number of new recruits from minority backgrounds, women, parents and diverse groups, and provide statistics for our Annual Review on performance against targets. For example, we report on the number of people attending training sessions and the split of male to female attendees.
• Wellbeing:

  Wellbeing

  Civica actively promote a mentally healthy workplace and workforce through our 40+ Mental Health Champions (MHC) and our ‘Health and Wellbeing’ policy, encouraging a flexible and realistic work/life balance. We integrate mental health and general wellbeing in all that we do from recruitment and ‘First Impressions’ to appraisals and strategic management.; ; Our ‘Health and Wellbeing’ policy and programme for all employees provide a foundation to support both the mental and physical health of our staff. Examples include:; - Employee Assistance Programme and online Wellbeing Hub, which provides 24/7 access to websites, e-mail, phone and face-to-face counselling on all personal issues.; - Aviva DigiCare+ Workplace App providing external mental health consultancy.; - Mental Health Champions who support colleagues’ wellbeing in the workplace.; - RedArc Personal nurse service.; - Management Coaching - managers are trained in GROW (Goals, Reality, Options and Will) and in being Health and Wellbeing Advisors, supporting employees with mental/physical health needs.; - Health assessments/advice aimed at improving physical health.; - Cycle to Work scheme to aid physical and mental health.; - Weekly fruit drop for offices, encouraging a healthier diet.; - We provide free eye tests for all VDU users, encourage staff to take advantage of NHS flu vaccinations services, and support people wishing to use the NHS Stop Smoking Service.; ; We also support our customers’ and communities’ physical and mental wellbeing through: Employee ‘Donate-a-Day’ to local charities; Local events organised through “Charity Champions”; Directors providing guidance to local community health and wellbeing projects; Supporting social housing tenants to re-focus resources and provide vital support to tenants.; ; Suppliers/subcontractors are subject to Civica’s Sub-contractor Selection Process as defined in our ISO9001 Quality Management System, which includes criteria for assessing health and wellbeing policies and their promotion.

Pricing

• Price: £22,637 a licence a year
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• 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

• Modern Slavery statement

  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 g-cloud@civica.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.