Bramble Hub Bluestar Software - Corvus Integrated Services Platform
Provides a platform for a range of applications combined with a data integration capability exploiting an underlying organisation wide knowledge repository. Deployed as either a departmental, or enterprise level configuration depending upon the scale of the customer implementation required.
Features
- People Object Location Event (POLE) store
- Briefing and Neighbourhood Profiles
- Contact identification, management and profiling
- Demand Management (inc predictive modelling)
- Data Hub (systems integration, data supply, collaborative working)
- Offender Management
- Vulnerability identification and management
- Integrated mobile application
- Management information and statistics
- Tasking (strategic and tactical)
Benefits
- One stop shop for information
- Improved efficiency and service provision
- Golden nominal, vehicle and location
- Integrated application platform
- Configuration supporting national initiatives, e.g. PND, NMIS etc.
- Automated data delivery and notification
- Immediate alerting, monitoring and tracking
- Releases the value of total organisational knowledge
- Data quality engine
- Automatic identification of risk and vulnerability
Pricing
£3,800 a licence a month
- Free trial available
Service documents
Request an accessible format
Framework
G-Cloud 13
Service ID
9 6 8 0 8 3 3 2 8 1 9 2 5 2 7
Contact
Bramble Hub Limited
Geoff Couling
Telephone: +44 (0) 2077350030
Email: contact@bramblehub.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 be used in conjunction with Bluestar's Digital Asset Management (DAM) and Digital Asset Delivery (DAD) software.
- Cloud deployment model
- Hybrid cloud
- Service constraints
- N/A
- System requirements
-
- Application designed for Linux server platform
- AV integration supports ClamAV and Kaspersky
- Appropriate browser for use with the application
User support
- Email or online ticketing support
- Email or online ticketing
- Support response times
- Depends upon the exact nature of the agreed support contract and service level. Typically, critical faults are responded to within 2 hours and have a resolution / circumvention supplied within 12 hours in 99% of cases. Other levels have a range of response times, circumvention times and resolution measures.
- 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
- 24 hours, 7 days a week
- Web chat support
- No
- Onsite support
- Yes, at extra cost
- Support levels
- Support is offered at two levels - standard office hours and extended 24 x 7 (available at additional cost). Typically, customers operate a first line support function with Bluestar delivering a second line capability. Customers can opt for Bluestar to carry out first line support but this is subject to an additional charge. All customers are assigned a technical lead and support manager.
- Support available to third parties
- Yes
Onboarding and offboarding
- Getting started
- Initial handover to the customer's representatives is typical. User manual is provided as part of the product, accessible to all users. Service is designed to be as easy to use as possible, with tool tips and pointers in order to help new users. Formal training courses are provided at additional cost.
- Service documentation
- Yes
- Documentation formats
-
- HTML
- ODF
- End-of-contract data extraction
- Service provider will provide extract of data in an agreed format for all customer data should the data be requested at the end of the contract. Alternative arrangements can be supported subject to negotiation with customer representatives.
- End-of-contract process
- Configuration to be decommissioned after an agreed period once the customer has confirmed that any and all data required has been extracted.
Using the service
- Web browser interface
- Yes
- Supported browsers
-
- Microsoft Edge
- Firefox
- Chrome
- Application to install
- No
- Designed for use on mobile devices
- Yes
- Differences between the mobile and desktop service
- The mobile platform offers a number of advantages compared to the desktop application by exploiting the device's features, for example by using voice to text for data input and known location for mapping displays. The only limitations applied to the software relate to the display size of the device itself.
- Service interface
- No
- User support accessibility
- WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
- API
- No
- Customisation available
- Yes
- Description of customisation
- Customers determine the exact mix of application modules to be included in their specific build. Furthermore, each module is designed to utilise a customer defined configuration to present a system view matched to their requirements.
Scaling
- Independence of resources
- Application scales horizontally with the addition of more nodes. Load balancing fronts the services to distribute load between all servers. Transportable tokens are used to allow users to move between servers without interruption
Analytics
- Service usage metrics
- Yes
- Metrics types
- Formal audit of all transactions that take place on the system is provided. Users with permissions are able to search through the audit and extract to CSV should that be required. The built-in Report Viewer feature allows a range of metrics to be included, such as transactions in a time period, average response etc.
- 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
- Yes
- Datacentre security standards
- Supplier-defined controls
- Penetration testing frequency
- At least once a year
- Penetration testing approach
- ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a CHECK service provider
- Protecting data at rest
- Encryption of all physical media
- 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 download data / files as required because this is part of the application functionality provided. Similarly, users can upload (i.e. import) any data they require using the features provided. Although not typically the case, additional data imports can be taken as a separate chargeable activity if required.
- Data export formats
-
- CSV
- Other
- Other data export formats
- Corvus maintains the original source format 'as is'
- Data import formats
-
- CSV
- Other
- Other data import formats
- A variety of formats supported once added to the configuration
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
- Other
- Other protection within supplier network
- Data transferred over a shielded private network. All data is marked with an appropriate security indicator governing access control. Certain data types can also utilise a proprietary obfuscation method.
Availability and resilience
- Guaranteed availability
- Service levels are discussed on a per customer basis. As a general guide, Bluestar offers 99.95% availability for the main service.
- Approach to resilience
- The system is deployed using a distributed service architecture, that is to say the system has built-in redundancy by locating the same service capability across multiple physical machines. This is combined with load balancing so that a particular service location operates effectively. Using these (patented) techniques, we have no single point of failure within the system itself and therefore achieves extremely high levels of availability as standard.
- Outage reporting
- Bluestar deploys its own Corona monitoring application. This is used to implement monitors and metrics linked to the main service. Monitoring checks a range and variety of conditions such as capacity, network access, performance of individual processes etc. Alerts are immediately visible on screen and sent via email (and SMS) to administrators and (optionally) customer representatives.
Identity and authentication
- User authentication needed
- Yes
- User authentication
-
- 2-factor authentication
- Username or password
- Other
- Other user authentication
- Additional controls are applied to external users of the application and will require 2-factor authentication.
- Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
- Authentication as part of a role based access framework. Access rights to different features depend on permissions assigned within the application.
- Access restriction testing frequency
- At least every 6 months
- Management access authentication
-
- 2-factor authentication
- 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
- 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
- No
- ISO 28000:2007 certification
- No
- CSA STAR certification
- No
- PCI certification
- No
- Cyber essentials
- Yes
- Cyber essentials plus
- Yes
- Other security certifications
- Yes
- Any other security certifications
- ITHC CHECK as per CESG guidelines
Security governance
- Named board-level person responsible for service security
- Yes
- Security governance certified
- No
- Security governance approach
- Yearly audits against cyber essentials plus combined with specific Health Checks for customer implementations. These comply with customer requirements including CESG government standards.
- Information security policies and processes
- Bluestar has aligned our processes to ISO27001 as part of our accredited ISO9001 process.
Operational security
- Configuration and change management standard
- Supplier-defined controls
- Configuration and change management approach
- Typically the change management process is agreed with customers to suit their preferred model. In all cases, customer representatives authorise work to be carried out and will be asked to participate in the acceptance testing on a suitable test platform.
- Vulnerability management type
- Supplier-defined controls
- Vulnerability management approach
- Bluestar considers all aspects of vulnerability including the physical location and access controls. Software configurations utilise an automated patching process (run daily as a minimum) to ensure that any potential threats are mitigated as quickly as possible. At the outset, all builds are established with a 'known' and approved benchmark which is independently verified.
- Protective monitoring type
- Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Protective monitoring approach
- Bluestar adopts compliance with recognised standards covered by agreements with our hosting providers.
- Incident management type
- Supplier-defined controls
- Incident management approach
- Incident management is a built-in element of our Support-Link and automatic monitoring systems and is defined within our business process management workflow. Any incidents (including security) reported, or identified, are passed on to our support team and if sufficiently serious in nature, are immediately notified to Bluestar's dedicated Support Manager. The Support Manager will escalate to the Senior Management Team (Director level), if the incident is either deemed sufficiently serious, or there are specific customer circumstances , or if the SLA is compromised.
Secure development
- Approach to secure software development best practice
- Supplier-defined process
Public sector networks
- Connection to public sector networks
- No
Social Value
- Fighting climate change
-
Fighting climate change
Our services utilise low-cost, energy efficient components and prioritise re-use and re-purposes of equipment wherever possible.
Working as part of our group enables us to leverage the backing of a larger organisation to enable individual businesses to adopt 'best practice' drawn from over 900 organisations world-wide. - Covid-19 recovery
-
Covid-19 recovery
Corvus solutions have continued to support operational Policing throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. This includes specific features monitoring specialist vehicles and personnel, along with demand management and predictive Policing. - Tackling economic inequality
-
Tackling economic inequality
Bluestar provides services to government organisations only. All pricing is transparent and agreed with customers. Solutions are provided in a cost-effective manner, delivery maximum value for the customer's investment. - Equal opportunity
-
Equal opportunity
The Corvus engine analyses data in a completely independent manner, i.e. the science drives the assessment of information and removes any element of human prejudice.
Similarly, our project teams are staffed on the principle of technical expertise and project relevance. - Wellbeing
-
Wellbeing
Corvus delivers a range of functionality supporting the most vulnerable members of the community. This includes identification of vulnerable persons and their supporting needs.
In addition, Corvus can monitor staff wellbeing including working periods, illness and injury incurred.
Pricing
- Price
- £3,800 a licence a month
- Discount for educational organisations
- No
- Free trial available
- Yes
- Description of free trial
-
Customer commits to providing a formal assessment of the system at the end of the trial period.
Trial period will be agreed on a case by case basis.
That functionality may be limited given the constraints of the trial.