Bramble Hub Limited

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
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 contact@bramblehub.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

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
  • PDF
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.

Service documents

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 contact@bramblehub.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.