Unilink Software Ltd

National Delius Support and Maintenance

The National Delius Support Service ensures continuity of the mission critical National Probation Service's NDelius case management system and related APIs. Development work on NDelius includes integrations with various MOJ services through interfaces and new services via API calls. Live support model includes 3rd and 4th line support.

Features

• NDelius case management software supported
• Oracle, Postgres, Java, Springboot framework, Angular & Kotlin development languages
• SLA driven third and fourth line support
• High availability 24x7 Support service
• ITIL / ISO27001 compliant
• Change Management for refinements and additions to supported systems
• Supporting a fully agile delivery
• Experienced, multi disciplinary team of specialists, involved since 2009
• Integrated with MoJ Digital Studio and National Delius Service Team
• Provides support for all interfaces, including new REST APIs

Benefits

• Matrix delivery approach - maximises benefits and reduced cost
• Knowledgeable staff and help desk have business backgrounds
• Staff accustomed to working with central Government and sensitive information
• No Single Point of Failure, our skill mix ensures this
• Professional and responsive SLA driven support
• Common sense approach with strong client engagement
• Ability to quickly scale teams to meet needs
• Staff immersed in the complex moving parts of the system
• Extensive knowledge base across database, application and interfaces
• Interfaces to Interventions Manager, DMS, OASys, PNOMIS, APIs covered

£545 to £1,315 a unit a day

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

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

915083021531374

Contact

Ann Caple
020 7036 3810
enquiries@unilink.com

Planning

• Planning service: Yes
• How the planning service works: Cloud computing offers a value proposition different from traditional enterprise IT environments. Unilink provides consultancy services in four key areas to help business leverage cloud computing by improving a process, enhancing governance, developing an IT strategy or technological innovation: ; Strategy and advisory - assessment of IT strategy, incorporating elements like business continuity, architecture review and cloud readiness; ; Financial and commercial - IT economics is a critical part of IT strategy, understanding cost considerations be it regulatory, transformational or advisory; ; Governance and risk - recognising where the gaps and vulnerabilities are and suggesting ways to remediate; ; Transformation and delivery – deliver the transformation and leverage the benefits.; Planning service works with specific services
• Planning service works with specific services: Yes
• Hosting or software services the planning service works with: NDelius (National)

Training

• Training service provided: Yes
• How the training service works: Unilink Software Ltd provides a variety of training services to both Probation Service and the public sector. We develop and maintain dedicated training systems which can be web-based. We have the capability to offer training in all modules within the National Delius Case Management system. We can and have worked with our clients to plan and deliver other bespoke training packages. We can cater for groups, or specialist one to one training. This can be delivered within your organisation or in a location convenient to the client. Our trainers have many years of experience, including Probation backgrounds, therefore complementing your business processes.
• Training is tied to specific services: No

Setup and migration

• Setup or migration service available: Yes
• How the setup or migration service works: Our Data Migration solutions employ the following phases;; Identifying the data to be migrated,; Analysis of the Data Quality and identification of potential issues,; Data and reference data mapping,; Creating a standardized intermediary database to industrialize the migration,; Trial migrations using anonymised or live data as required providing iterative improvements to the initial mappings,; Testing migrations using data quality reports with the appropriate people within your organisation to ensure effective transformation,; Decommissioning historical systems, if required.; Our cloud migration services are described elsewhere on G Cloud.
• 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: Unilink can support buyers in all phases of QA and performance testing. We have the skills in-house to deliver automated scripts for both functional and performance testing. Using bespoke utilities based on Jira and Confluence, these activities are supported by an extensive range of reports. Access to the data can be shared - supporting effective, joint management of quality.

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: Unilink provides third and fourth line support to the customer’s service desk function for the correction of incidents, issues and configurations within the national Delius applications as well as data and application servers. Unilink Support Service operates with its operator staffed Service Desk Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 17:00. A 24/7 Support Service is provided for Major Incidents and can be provided as standard if needed. Unilink standard service response for priority 1 calls is within 15 minutes. Service Level Agreements and Key Performance Indicators are included with each service contract and these can be tailored to fit specific customers’ individual needs.

Service scope

• Service constraints: None

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Unilink Software Ltd standard service response for priority 1 calls is within 15 minutes. Service Level Agreements and Key Performance Indicators are included with each service contract.
• 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
• Support levels: Calls and incidents are allotted a severity based on business and technical impact and are dealt with according to SLA: Severity 1 within 4 hours, Severity 2 within 12 hours, Severity 3 within 24 hours and Severity 4 within 120 hours. The technical account manager will provide a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) report for all Severity 1 incidents within 192 hours. SLAs for this service are measured and reported over a monthly period.; Costs are described elsewhere (see pricing document) and are led by the customer's expectations of SLAs.

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Up to Security Clearance (SC)

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: Lloyds Register
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 08/07/2020
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: Our ISO 27001 certificate covers all requirements except for 'A.14.2.7 Outsourced development' as we do not outsource any development work.
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  Unilink is passionate about the protection of the environment, which is why we have worked hard for our Carbon Neutral status—made official in, and maintained since 2020. Notably, our environmental commitments and policies are compliant with ISO:14001 standards. Through our ‘Green Team’ initiative, run by staff volunteers, we are constantly exploring the next steps in our journey toward minimising Unilink’s carbon footprint and environmental impact. A handful of actions forming our overall strategy include:; ; • Converting our fleet to electric cars;; • Installing solar panels for power generation at our offices;; • Rewarding staff through our cycle to work schemes;; • Embedding EnergyStar™ components into our Acante biometric kiosks; and,; • Taking close measurements of our carbon usage, investing into Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) reduction projects to counteract the impact Unilink makes.; ; Unilink has offset 240 metric tonnes of CO2 to date and planted over 240 trees in the UK toward rebuilding our damaged ecosystems. ; ; We are committed to reducing the environmental impact through our supply chain. We will create longer term & meaningful partnerships with suppliers to avoid lowest price transactional arrangements that don’t benefit the environment. We use our environmental expertise to help coach & mentor our Micro supply chain members. We will set objectives & plans to support this & then monitor progress to help improve practice.; ; We collect data on our efforts through a variety of channels, all of which are recorded in our Enterprise Data Management (EDM) system. Unilink supplies this information to clients and partners on a regular basis and invites all parties to suggest areas for improvement and initiative ideas to achieve this.

  Covid-19 recovery

  A key consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the negative impact on mental health in addition to increased isolation. ; Alongside out partner Serco, Unilink helped develop the Vulnerability Predictor Tool (VPT). This web-based application analyses patterns of behaviour and identifies individuals who may be at likely to self harm or attempt to take their own life. Through analysis of interactions processed by Unilink’s Prisoner Self-Service Kiosks/In Cell Devices and held in Unilink’s Custodial Management System (CMS) database, at-risk individuals can be identified and offered the help they need. With further development, this tool could assist safeguarding in other environments as well.; Unilink supports staff who are vulnerable to Covid-19 or sheltering, as well as encouraging personal Covid-19 recovery. To achieve this Unilink introduced a flexible working policy to reinforce the importance of our teams’ work/life balance and enable staff to work from home by equipping them with technology and home office equipment. This allows staff to negotiate work hours which alternate from ‘core’ hours to better balance their personal lives and, where possible, lower the risk of contracting Covid during interactions with colleagues. ; Physical and mental wellbeing infrastructure has also been established throughout our organisation. This includes a platform for wellbeing feedback within our HR system (Natural HR) which is monitored weekly and actioned upon by our HR team. We circulate a weekly newsletter, providing information from every part of the company. The newsletter also highlights channels through which staff can access support. These channels range from contacting our HR team, or Samaritans, to making use of our Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC) Life membership. The latter provides a comprehensive health and wellbeing platform with a plethora of mindfulness workshops, courses, and support services offered to our team free of charge.

  Tackling economic inequality

  By converting to home-based working, Unilink have furthered our ability to recruit from more deprived areas of the UK than surround our various offices. By uplifting talented individuals from less advantageous locations, Unilink has embraced new voices into our organisation. Diversity of background is especially important because it supports our social purpose of helping rehabilitate those people in prison or on probation, who come from every type of background.; Our CEO mentors at the Imperial College London Imperial Venture Mentoring Service (IVMS). Through our apprenticeship programme, we nurture the interests of the next generation toward meaningful careers. We offer training plans for experience, personal development & professional qualifications, mentoring, rotation of different teams & departments. Apprentices are offered management support as well as regular constructive feedback alongside monitoring/review meetings throughout their placement with us.; One particularly disadvantaged group is that of prison leavers—to whom Unilink dedicate time and resources. We are currently offering our IT expertise to the charity Turnaround Project, who offer training and employment experience before people complete their sentences in order to ‘turnaround’ prison leavers’ future prospects. We are working with the Northern Ireland prison service on a pathfinder project to develop, at our cost, social media training for soon to be released prisoners to understand social media marketing for a small business they might set up outside of prison. Unilink make donations to various trusts and charities who work toward similar rehabilitation aims. The Koestler Trust, for example, promotes art in prisons. Our partnership with Code 4000 helps to teach software development and technical skills to prisoners during their time in custody. Upon completion of their sentence, 0% of these graduates have reoffended or returned to custody since the organisation’s conception in 2016. Other initiatives we support include The Longford Trust, Nepacs, Pact, and Key4Life.

  Equal opportunity

  Unilink believe everyone should have the chance to achieve their potential, and our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Policy (sponsored by the Board) aims to achieve this in a variety of ways:; - Unilink actively encourage applications from a diverse range of candidates via specialist agencies/publications & using a diverse interview panel;; - Flexible working hours and work-from-home options ensure staff are not at a disadvantage due to disabilities, culture, or religious dependencies;; - We offer accessible working environments to support disabled team members;; - We offer WCAG 2.1A-compliant application forms/channels; our UX design take into account digitally excluded users; - We train employees on the benefits of diversity within the workforce, with annual training workshops for: anti-slavery and human trafficking; equality, diversity & inclusion; environmental impacts; and, sustainable procurement;; - Unilink embed our social values ethos via direct employee action, with a team of volunteer staff who regularly discuss our EDI policy and suggest improvements;; - Unilink welcomes and facilitates cultural celebrations within the workplace.; ; The positive impact of this work is measured through regular staff surveys which gauge the opinions of our team regarding the engagement with and embracing of EDI values. This data is segmented, analysed, and reviewd in regular meetings wherein our senior team can establish our plan of action moving forward. We additionally utilise our Human Resources (HR) System—Natural HR—to monitor the diversity of our workforce regarding the nine main protected characteristics.; ; Employees who suffer from any form of disability are offered HR check-ups from our Head of HR to ensure Unilink supply all necessary assistance/equipment necessary for the fulfilment of their role. This commitment can be traced back to our hiring practices, wherein Unilink takes great care in properly accommodating the needs of all candidates, ascertaining these well in advance of interviews.

  Wellbeing

  Unilink has robust structures in place to support the wellbeing of our workforce and boost company-wide morale. Our HR system (Natural HR) invites daily feedback from staff regarding their wellbeing. This offers a release valve for staff, and ensures HR can assist the team, offer counsel, and put remedial measures in place for employees should they need it. All responses are monitored by our HR team and trends discussed at weekly meetings. Unilink’s Head of HR is responsible for undertaking wellness check-ups, and following up on concerns raised in Natural HR or directly with the HR team. Unilink offers membership of the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC), and support via CSSC Life which provides a comprehensive health and wellbeing platform.; ; To support the work/life balance of our team, we have established a flexible working policy. Managers within Unilink are open to discussion regarding deviation from core hours in order for our staff to better support their personal lives. We also have a generous overtime payment policy. Any work beyond defined contractual hours will incur a higher rate of pay up to two times the employee’s hourly rate (depending on whether they are working a weekday, weekend, or Bank Holiday).; ; But Unilink is interested in more than our staff wellbeing and aim to support our communities as well. We encourage our team to play a role in the wider community and support their endeavours via direct and matched funding of any charitable event they wish to run. In the past this has involved sponsorship of local sports teams and youth football clubs, as well as Macmillan Coffee Mornings and Children in Need internal fundraising initiatives. We have sponsored events of an organisation in Scotland called “families outside” which helps friends and family stay in touch with their loved ones in prison.

Pricing

• Price: £545 to £1,315 a unit a day
• Discount for educational organisations: 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 enquiries@unilink.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.