IRIS SOFTWARE LIMITED

IRIS Cascade

HR software driving excellence.
Meeting your unique requirements, our powerful HR management system offers optional modules, providing an intuitive and effective solution.
Dynamic, flexible and secure, Cascade simplifies HR management, saving time and money, offering deep insights and increasing engagement.
Cloud-based infrastructure offers remote working, reduced maintenance and API connectivity.

Features

• Effective, secure and fully integrated cloud HR management solution
• HMRC recognised Payroll built from the ground up alongside HR
• Highly configurable form builder and advanced workflow engine
• Powerful reporting tools including visual dashboard and analytics
• Absence, Attendance and Holiday management with approvals and tracking
• Easy to navigate Organisational Charts containing employee and job data
• Document management with integration to DocuSign for electronic signatures
• Self-service portal for employees and managers
• Management of Training, Performance and Surveys
• Full GDPR, statutory and legislative compliance

Benefits

• Manage your people and organisation from one system of record
• Assurance that your employees are paid accurately and on time
• Automation and streamlining of routine tasks and business processes
• Analytics for workforce visibility, deep insights and evidence-based decision making
• Efficiencies from best practice ‘flow of work’ designed processes
• Overview of entire company structure for organisation design & planning
• Single central repository for all employee and HR-related data
• Employees can access and update their information directly
• Managers and approvers can authorise tasks via the application
• Increased employee engagement and a dedicated, productive workforce

£12,415.08 an instance a year

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

940714381172394

Contact

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

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Private cloud
• Service constraints: None
• System requirements:
  • Latest version of modern browser
  • Internet connection

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: 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
• 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: Via Community Portal (web based)
• Web chat accessibility testing: None
• Onsite support: No
• Support levels: By operational priority :; P1. Response = 30 mins, Resolve = 4.5 hours; P2. Response = 60 mins, Resolve = 8 hours; P3. Response = 4.5 hours, Resolve = 6.2 days
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: The IRIS Cascade professional services team will assign a project manager and team of consultants to implement the system with you throughout the training and onboarding phase through to the launch of your solution.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: IRIS Cascade can provide an extract of the data and supply it to the customer vis secure file transfer
• End-of-contract process: There is an option to retain a read-only version of the system, otherwise once a secure extract has been provided, all access is removed, data is destroyed to GDPR standards and media securely wiped

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: The mobile service is called MyCascade and is designed for business users (employees and managers) to access to personal information, book absence and holidays, check payslips and view workflow tasks. The desktop service has all of this capability as well as the full administration and reporting access required by HR users
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 A
• Description of service interface: Outbound and Inbound
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 A
• Accessibility testing: Specific common tasks (such as logging-in, checking payslips, booking absences) are tested using assistive technology and feedback from users acted upon.; ; MyCascade meets relevant WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria as a minimum (with some AAA criteria met), it is optimised for both desktop and mobile browser usage and will adapt to make use of the available screen space. Cascade and MyCascade have careful use of colour with high contrast between background and text colours. Both applications support browser zooming up to at least 200%. Browser font-size settings can also be adjusted by users to increase or decrease font sizes.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: The API exposes HR data (Employee, Job, Hierarchy etc.) outbound and inbound via RESTful web service over HTTPS using multiple HTTP verbs. The response is returned in JSON format.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: Open API (also known as Swagger)
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: There are a vast range of configuration options to create new forms and workflows. Customers can also influence the product roadmap by raising (and voting for) enhancements requests in our suggestion forum called "Change Lab".

Scaling

• Independence of resources: All servers are operating at low levels of CPU and memory utilization, and are monitored regularly. Should CPU and memory utilization become an issue, these can be quickly increased.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: General Service Availability, Audit Logs and End User Adoption
• Reporting types: Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: Up to Security Clearance (SC)

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: Encryption of all physical media
• 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: Users can export data via the reporting and analytics tools provided
• 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)
  • 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: The Private Cloud hardware is designed to operate 24 x 7 x 365. All hardware and services are monitored 24 x 7 by our hosting providers.
• Approach to resilience: In order to protect against hardware failure Cascade Cloud is a high availability/resilient architecture utilizing clustering and virtualization. Should there be an issue on a Cascade Virtual Host, all virtual machines will failover automatically onto another host in the cluster, with each host sized appropriately to manage the operation of all servers. This failover is seamless and is practically invisible to the running applications. No downtime would be required for the performance of a hardware based disaster recovery scenario involving a single host.
• Outage reporting: Via phone, email and website notices

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor 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: Only the necessary departments at IRIS can access the cloud services data. We have a role-based access policy in place for these departments. We work with the principle of least privilege.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)

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: User-defined
• 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: 13/10/2021
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: N/A
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• 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
  • Other
• Other security governance standards: ISO9001
• Information security policies and processes: IRIS operates using a full suite of internal policies and processes - including but not limited to:; ISMS Acceptable use policy; ISMS Access control; ISMS Anti-virus; ISMS Communication and mobile devices; ISMS Computer systems and equipment use; ISMS Cybercrime and security incidents; ISMS Email policy; ISMS Information management; ISMS Internet use; ISMS Laptop and tablet security policy; ISMS Legal compliance; ISMS Password and authentication policy; ISMS Physical access policy; ISMS Remote access policy; ; Security and management of data are in line with established IRIS Group policies and procedures. We have Group IT governance and a DPO. All staff are data security trained. We commission independent Software Penetration Testing at least annually. Our penetration testing provider performs both manual and automated tests against our software in both a “black” and “white” box fashion.; ; Reporting structure: ; All IRIS staff are responsible for compliance with data protection in line with IRIS policies and procedures. The Chief Information Officer (CIO) has ultimate responsibility for enforcement of policies and procedures. ; ; IRIS has a Group Data Protection Policy. Staff who may have access to your data – for example in relation to Support or Professional Services are required to operate to standard operating procedures.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: Any changes to configuration or maintenance are only carried out by IRIS staff with the appropriate permissions according to their role and following strict adherence to the Change Advisory Board procedures.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: Vulnerability scans and patching are performed on a regular basis and findings mitigated immediately. Findings from scans are tracked and rescans are performed until no findings are identified.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Network intruder detection systems (NIDS) and network intruder prevention systems (NIPS) are installed and configured to monitor all external perimeter network connections.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: The IRIS Group Incident Reporting Procedure outlines the process for reporting Information Security, Physical and Information Systems Incidents.

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: 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: £12,415.08 an instance a year
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• 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.