Civica UK Limited

Civica Saffron

Saffron enables foodservice organisations to simplify the management of catering services across all public sectors covering recipe/menu engineering inc. nutrition, allergens and dietary preference, sustainability profiling, endurance and DMR, e-procurement management, stock control, central production kitchen management, bedside patient/resident feeding, operational trading analysis, analytical reporting and paperless kitchen management.

Features

  • Cloud Hosted – fully managed service
  • Benefit from the latest releases, upgrades, and enhancements
  • Central Database – Single point of truth across entire organisation
  • Configurable Functionality – only invest in functionality required
  • Interoperability – extensive import/export interfaces enabled
  • Standard User Interface – common working practices improves efficiency
  • Highly Configurable User Profiling – delivers functionality/permissions to relevant stakeholders
  • Supply Chain Integration supports EDI and non-EDI suppliers
  • Extensive Reporting – multiformat financial, operational and sustainability reports
  • Analytical Performance Dashboards Visual KPI Performance monitoring

Benefits

  • Improve Operational Efficiency standardise and simplify operational processes
  • Authenticated data checks ensures accuracy without double entry of data
  • Increased Cost Management gain greater control of operating budgets
  • Nutritionally analyse/profile menus for allergens/dietary preferences
  • Manage Carbon Footprint Identify CO2 values of services/waste reduction
  • Operations on the Move online/offline Windows, iOS&Android
  • Simplify Purchasing Activity Maximise purchasing compliance with approved purchasing lists
  • Ensure Legal Compliance Monitor and report upon compliance
  • Improve Decision Making Access Reports anytime, anywhere
  • Simplify Business Governance Quickly identify process variations

Pricing

£3,600.00 a unit

  • Education pricing available

Service documents

Request an accessible format
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Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

9 7 0 6 5 3 8 2 0 1 9 5 6 3 0

Contact

Civica UK Limited Civica UK Limited
Telephone: +44 (0) 3333 214 914
Email: 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
Saffron has been designed to form part of an organisations wider MIS for example, integrating with supply chain ERP solutions, EPOS and other sales solutions, HR systems to capture labour costs, food labelling systems and the customers finance system.
Cloud deployment model
Public cloud
Service constraints
Saffron uses endeavours to ensure that Availability is at an average level of 99.5% of the Working Days during a period of 3 calendar months excluding any time incurred for a scheduled outage.
Saffron uses reasonable endeavours to ensure that maintenance/upgrades are scheduled outside of the Working Day and provide 48 hours notice.
In case of an event outside of Saffron’s control requiring immediate rectification, customers will receive as much notification as possible.
Enhanced managed services are available subject to scope and quotation.
Devices to enable the Saffron mobile platform can be provided directly by the customer or Saffron.
System requirements
  • Access to Internet required.
  • Minimum of 2mb recommended, 4mb bandwidth to access the service.

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
Saffron shall endeavour to respond to and resolve Faults, during Working Days which differ dependant on the fault itself.
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
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
N/A
Web chat accessibility testing
N/A
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
The Saffron support team can be contacted by:
• Telephone – 09:00-17:00 – UK Working Day
• Email – UK Working Days – response will be during UK working Day
Support Portal – 24/7 – response will be during UK Working Day; In order to contact the nominated Subscriber contact and log a support call the Subscriber must log the support call on the Saffron Support Portal using the Subscriber’s username and password.
For multi-site organisations, we train client personnel to handle first line support calls which are then referred through to the Saffron Support team for 2nd and 3rd line support assistance.
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
Managed using Prince2 methodology, Saffron is implemented as follows:
• Phase One – Engagement & Design
o Customer signs DocuSign quotation confirming proposal meets operational requirements
o Initial project meeting establishes delivery criteria, timeline, milestones, responsibilities.
o Both parties identify scope of any interface requirements, create and sign-off interface specification
• Phase Two - Build
o Saffron project team manage creation of customer instance in AWS
o Saffron project team collate master data, configure client estate profile, initial data import
o Saffron project team and Customer validate imported data
o Customer instance of Saffron is built to operational specification and processes tested in tandem
• Phase Three – Training
o Saffron project team deliver Administrator training and train the trainer program to designated customer personnel
o Training provided to initial/pilot sites
o Training provided to other sites
• Phase Four - Go Live
o Test system is signed off
o Go Live Date confirmed
o Initial/Pilot sites begin trading
o Hyper care support of initial site operations
o Sign off of initial trading period
• Phase Five – Project Sign Off
o Roll out to remaining sites confirmed, scheduled, delivered
o Project signed off as delivered, passed to support team
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
  • Other
Other documentation formats
  • Microsoft Word
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Powerpoint
  • YouTube Video
End-of-contract data extraction
Where a Contract is terminated in its entirety, in respect of both the System and the Equipment, all rights granted to the Subscriber under the Contract shall cease and the Subscriber must cease all activities authorised by the Contract including (without limitation) ceasing to use the System and/or the Equipment; the Subscriber must immediately pay to FDH any sums due to FDH under the Contract. FDH shall delete all User’s Personal Data from its servers thirty (30) days after the termination date. If requested by the Subscriber prior to the date of termination, and at the Subscriber’s expense, FDH shall make available a SQL server backup copy of the Subscriber’s data and User’s Personal Data on a secure SFTP website. The Subscriber may also request read only access to the Subscriber’s data (excluding any User’s Personal Data which shall be deleted by FDH in accordance with this clause) subject to payment of an annual fee which is payable in advance. Details of such fees are available on request. Both parties shall return or destroy the other’s Confidential Information following termination of the Contract.
End-of-contract process
Either party shall give the other at least 180 days notice in writing prior to the end of the Initial System Term or, following renewal thereafter, 180 days prior to the relevant System Renewal Date.
Where a party wishes to terminate the Contract in respect of the subscription to use the Equipment, but wishes to continue the Contract in respect of the subscription to use the System, such party shall give the other at least three months’ notice in writing prior to the end of the Initial Equipment Term, or three months prior to the relevant Equipment Renewal Date.
Either party may terminate the Contract in respect of the Equipment only, and the Contract in respect of the subscription to use the System shall continue. If either party terminates the Contract in respect of the System, then the entire Contract shall terminate. It's not possible to continue a contract for use of the Equipment unless there is a Contract and subscription in place to use the System.
At the end of the contract all user access will be revoked and all Equipment should be returned to Saffron in line with the Saffron Repair & Replacement Policy that details applicable charges.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
Application to install
Yes
Compatible operating systems
  • Android
  • IOS
  • Windows
  • Other
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
Key user functionality, such as Beside Ordering, Messaging, Task, Forms, Documents, Stock Taking, Purchasing, Data Capture, Wastage recording and Attendance is enabled on iOS and Android device.

Whilst Saffron Check could be used on any applicable iOS/Android device the solution has been tested, optimised and support services enabled based upon the Samsung A10 tablet.
Service interface
Yes
User support accessibility
None or don’t know
Description of service interface
Saffron is accessed via any web browser (latest versions) and a 2 factor authentication log-in portal that presents the assigned functionality to the user via a web user interface.

Access to Saffron Check is pre-designated based upon the site where the user works and accessed via the iOS or android app.
Accessibility standards
None or don’t know
Description of accessibility
N/A
Accessibility testing
N/A
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
All API services are provided on a bespoke basis
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • HTML
  • ODF
  • PDF
  • Other
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
Saffron is an off the shelf catering management solution that is, within the framework of Saffron’s functional scope, customised to meet the governance and compliance requirements of each customer.

1. Saffron Functionality Suite – deployment based upon contracted licence arrangements
2. User roles and associated permissions
3. User Interface
4. Business Process Routines e.g. end of week/period
5. Manage VAT codes and processing
6. URL – subject to specification and quotation
7. EPOS Interface
8. Finance System Interface
9. Supply Chain data interface
10. Financial Calendar i.e. Trading Periods
11. Reports Library
12. Analytic Dashboards
13. Ingredient Nutritional Datasets
14. Customer Estate – sites, users, data access

Scaling

Independence of resources
Saffron is hosted in AWS, the infrastructure of which is monitored by the Saffron Tech Services Team and supporting tools that monitor usage and demand. This approach enables us to adjust the service provision in relation to demand which, within a catering environment, usually increases as week and period end routines are completed.

Customers also have the option, for additional fees, to implement Saffron within a dedicated hosting environment.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
User metrics are available as part of our enhanced managed service offer
Reporting types
Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Other security clearance
Government security clearance
None

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
Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
Penetration testing frequency
At least every 6 months
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
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
Equipment disposal approach
A third-party destruction service

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
• Data from a number of reports can be exported to Microsoft Excel
• Defined System Interface – Saffron data can be exported to third party systems using defined interface specification with data transferred either directly between systems or via an SFTP
• Analytical Data Extract – enables high level reporting through analytic tools
• Defined Data Extract – provided by bespoke arrangement, Saffron database can be exported to a designated location or secure access provided to the clients’ Saffron backup
• EPOS Interface – a standard EPOS interface supports two-way data transfer via SFTP with point of sale systems
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data export formats
SQL
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data import formats
SQL

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
TLS (version 1.2 or above)
Data protection within supplier network
TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
Saffron will use its reasonable endeavours to ensure that Availability is at an average level of 99.5% of the Working Days during a period of 3 calendar months excluding any time incurred for a scheduled outage.
Approach to resilience
Web servers distributed across three separate availability zones within the AWS London region to ensure availability.
Outage reporting
Should unplanned outages occur all clients will be informed of via the Saffron log-in portal and the Saffron Support Team will email the designated customer contact via email. Resolution will also be communicated via email to the designated customer contact.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
Access to any Saffron interface and support channel is enabled through a pre-configured user profile (inc. user name and password) managed by the customer’s system administrator(s), with the option for 2-Factor authentication.
Password Profile – user defined complexity, number of tries and validity period
Profiles enable customer personnel to access functionality, via the Saffron Home Page, relevant to their individual or user group job menus where permissions set against a specific group and then specific users added to a group.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least once a year
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information
You control when users can access audit information
How long user audit data is stored for
At least 12 months
Access to supplier activity audit information
You control when users can access 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
Bureau Veritas
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
08/08/2018
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
N/A
ISO 28000:2007 certification
Yes
Who accredited the ISO 28000:2007
Bureau Veritas
ISO 28000:2007 accreditation date
08/08/2018
What the ISO 28000:2007 doesn’t cover
N/A
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
No
Cyber essentials
Yes
Cyber essentials plus
Yes
Other security certifications
Yes
Any other security certifications
Cyber Essentials

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance certified
Yes
Security governance standards
ISO/IEC 27001
Information security policies and processes
In order to provide a wide range of services to public and private sector organisations, Saffron 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
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
Saffron'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.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
Saffron has vulnerability management processes in place for ISO27001.
These processes are externally audited on a bi-annual basis to ensure continued compliance.
For external vulnerability scanning, Saffron employs the services of an external ‘Intertek’ approved provider to perform a penetration test against the external management IP interface.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
Saffron 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.
Saffron has a network monitoring solution in place as well as Symantec’s full antivirus and anti-malware solution.
These technologies check the hosted services for errors, infections and unexpected network traffic and are supported by AWS WAF 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
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
Saffron have developed an Incident Management process under ISO9001 standard which details both the Incident and Service Request Management processes.
The Saffron Service Desk manages end user Service Requests, Incidents and Requests for Change which can be logged by e-mail, telephone and web portal.

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

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, D&I ref?, 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
£3,600.00 a unit
Discount for educational organisations
Yes
Free trial available
No

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