PA Consulting Services Limited (UK)

Business Analysis and Requirements Management for Cloud Solutions

PA’s business analysis and requirements management approach for cloud solutions is based on a tried and tested framework to meet the business needs and support the delivery of an effective IT solution. Our consultants are adept at applying this to waterfall and agile project lifecycles, flexing the techniques to match.

Features

• A structured process of business case development
• Working with key stakeholders to establish a vision
• Business processes that align precisely with user requirements
• User centric requirements approach
• Flexible to fit agile and waterfall software delivery lifecycles
• Equal focus on functional and non-functional requirements
• Prioritisation to realise the greatest business benefits first
• Approach covers user stories and use case techniques
• Continual business validation with prototypes, demos and walkthroughs
• Requirement traceability from benefit through build, test and delivery

Benefits

• Approach that recognises the challenges offered by cloud solutions
• Significant focus placed on non-functional requirements
• Robust evidence-based business cases that justify change
• Common programme vision that is central to communications
• Business processes designed in conjunction with technology and organisations
• Putting the user at the centre of the requirements
• Flexible framework to support agile and waterfall project lifecycles
• Business analysts experienced in working on large cloud implementations
• Business analysts who bridge the business and IT gap
• Business analysts with deep sector knowledge ensuring GDPR compliant practices

£650 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 GCloudFramework@PACONSULTING.COM. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

989951478236294

Contact

Lia Shaw
02073335398
GCloudFramework@PACONSULTING.COM

Planning

• Planning service: Yes
• How the planning service works: We typically support buyers across a range of activities including: - Confirming the types of cloud services that are most appropriate, across Infrastructure, Platform and Software as a Service. - Estimating the likely use patterns to inform the design of cloud services - Assessing the suitability of existing products to migrate to the cloud and whether alternatives exist in the cloud environment. We are an award winning consultancy, with more than 800 cloud specialists with experience across multiple industries. As an AWS, Microsoft and Google cloud partner we are well placed to plan and advise clients in delivering cloud services.
• Planning service works with specific services: No

Training

• Training service provided: Yes
• How the training service works: PA is independent from all vendors and provides impartial advice and training. We can provide training services for any cloud software service and any hosting service. We have strong partnerships with a number of vendors inc: Microsoft, AWS, Google, UK Cloud, Crown Hosting and others, which allows us to do this. We also provide certified courses in Scales Agile (SAFe) and cyber security areas tailored specifically for cloud software and hosting capabilities.
• Training is tied to specific services: No

Setup and migration

• Setup or migration service available: Yes
• How the setup or migration service works: Our pioneering, and award winning, work in cloud adoption has enabled a range of clients, including those with sensitive data and business processes to protect, to successfully exploit public cloud services from the major providers including AWS, Google and Microsoft. PA offers a full lifecycle of services to support your cloud adoption journey which are tailored to your situation and focused on achieving your outcomes.; ; Our sector specialists work closely with you to develop your overall cloud and hosting strategy through to defining and implementing the required target operating model to successfully exploit cloud including establishing new capabilities and ways of working (e.g. DevOps and Agile). PA recognises the importance of resilience and cyber security across cloud architectures and our CREST certified Digital Trust team, who have worked with the most sensitive areas of UK government, bring a range of security testing and assurance capabilities that cover every aspect of enterprise cloud security. Our Migration and Transformation capabilities assess existing applications to identify and execute the preferred cloud migration approach (“lift and shift” or re-architect) supported by a strong business case.
• 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: PA has a team of specialist quality assurance and testing experts. The team has experience working across cloud and non cloud environments. The quality assurance activities include the full range, both functional and non functional: performance testing, load testing, data migration, security testing, and testing for sector specific certifications. We will agree the testing required for each project.; PA holds ISO 9000 certifications and operates a Quality Management System for medical device development. ; PA is committed to ensuring that it always delivers the highest levels of quality to its clients. PA appoints a Partner In Charge with responsibility for quality for all assignments, with responsibility for delivery, customer satisfaction and quality. The Partner in Charge of the assignment will hold ultimate responsibility for the delivery of all our work. We manage assignments using a specific process, and consultants are required to undertake training. Client feed back is validated by specific feedback channels from clients to PA. Ordinarily this is through our Satisfaction Survey process, in which we seek feedback on PA’s performance. PA takes this process seriously therefore the review is carried out by an independent member of PA’s senior management group with the client.

Security testing

• Security services: Yes
• Security services type:
  • Security strategy
  • Security risk management
  • Security design
  • Cyber security consultancy
  • Security testing
  • Security audit services
  • Other
• Other security services:
  • Penetration Testing
  • Health checks
  • ISO27001 compliance
• Certified security testers: Yes
• Security testing certifications: CREST

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: We provide support services to a broad range of customers from a variety of industries, across all could platforms. We are a multi award winning consultancy, and partner with AWS, Microsoft and Google cloud. We provide a range of managed service support capabilities for our clients. This includes first line user support through to third line technical software support. We make use of an existing service desk that already provides extended UK business hours support for over 250,000 users. We also offer offshore support capabilities to provide lower cost application support services and software development.

Service scope

• Service constraints: There are no significant limitations in our service offerings.

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support response times: Response times will be agreed as part of a service level agreement with the client.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 A
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: Yes, at an extra cost
• Web chat support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 A
• Web chat accessibility testing: Web chat testing protocol will be agreed with the client as part of our service design process.
• Support levels: We adapt our support to the needs of the users and can offer most support levels requested by clients. We have provided all combinations of first, second, and third line support to our clients; we have provided all combinations of UK business hours, UK extended business hours, US business hours and 24/7 support facilities to our clients. We have provided both real-time telephone support, email support, and on-call support. The costs of each of these models is tailored to the specific needs of our clients to ensure the right level of support is provided to the service in question. In all of our client engagements there will be a dedicated account manager – and typically a cloud support engineer or technical account manager depending on the needs of the client.

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra features and support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: AWS, MS AZURE, GCP, SAP, ORACLE, ONE-TRUST

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: DNV
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 17/12/2009
• 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: Yes
• Other security certifications: No

Social Value

• Fighting climate change:

  Fighting climate change

  PA has implemented a fully documented Environmental Management System in compliance with ISO14001 to reduce our environmental impacts. We are Carbon Trust Standard (UK) accredited. PA is a signatory to the UN Global compact, active member of Ellen MacArthur Foundation and UK Plastics Pact. We believe working towards Net-Zero brings Social, Economic and Environment prosperity to our world, and would be delighted to share our Net-Zero Action Plan with you and others, for the benefit of us all.How we will continue our work towards Net-Zero during our partnership with you: ; ; Building the Business Case. We will conduct a discovery phase with you to build a consistent, ambitious, and clear contract strategy, aligned to Net-Zero. Allowing us to build the policy and regulatory design for the contract and support the development of agreements with industry partners. Our work will include engaging senior stakeholders, conducting User Research, mapping key challenges and opportunities and binding people together under a shared purpose for achieving Net-Zero. By the end of the discovery phase, we will have a clear Net-Zero Strategy for the contact, coupled tangible actions required to successfully implement during the contract management phase, and the benefits associated with achieving them. ; ; Measuring the Carbon Footprint. We will measure the ‘As-is’ state of the contract to give us an accurate benchmark to work from, and how we need to progress throughout the contract lifecycle. This will include measuring against Scope 1,2&3 emissions, for example: Water use, electricity use, conducting a materiality checklist, measuring business travel, working from Home, business travel accommodation, employee commuting etc. We will gather data across all scope of emissions and utilise carbon calculator tooling to give an accurate and transparent measurement, avoiding confusion and unintentional greenwashing. We will then be able to present these findings back to you and key stakeholders.
• Covid-19 recovery:

  Covid-19 recovery

  To improve workplace conditions supporting COVID-19 recovery effort including effective social distancing, remote working, and sustainable travel solutions , we will:; ; -Continue to maintain workplace policies, such as safe virtual spaces, cyber security, and remote working best practice, which facilitate workers to work more efficiently/productively in a COVID-safe environment. ; ; -Remind workers of existing anonymous reporting channels which can be used to highlight health and safety breaches, including unsafe social distancing. ; ; -Support hybrid working for employees who wish to return to the office, as allowed by government guidance.; ; -Track effectiveness of workplace conditions and any changes on staff safety and mental health through an anonymous health check in, taken live during a regularly scheduled meeting. ; ; To support the physical and mental health of people affected by COVID-19, including reducing the demand on health and care services, we will: ; ; -Share, and support you to implement where agreed, initiatives we have rolled out to support the physical and mental health of our people through the pandemic. Take on board any learning/initiatives you have which are further developed than ours. ; -Improve understanding and empathy across key stakeholders of the physical/mental health impacts of the pandemic, either direct or indirect.
• Tackling economic inequality:

  Tackling economic inequality

  At a high level, we tackle economic inequality by managing supply chain resilience and capacity in the following two ways depending on the nature of the specific work and client environment. ; ; -Discrete work packages that the SME deliver the end-to-end scope. These are effectively managed at a work package level with regular reviews with the SME leadership team. ; -Embedded with our people working as one team. These are effectively managed day to day as part of the delivery team with monthly reviews with the SME leadership team. ; ; We will meet economic inequality social value objectives through the following. ; Demonstrate collaboration throughout the supply chain, and a fair and responsible approach to working with supply chain partners in delivery of the contract. ; - Collaborate through regularly communicating expected future resource demand to suppliers enabling them to effectively plan and manage resource changes that can have material impacts to small businesses. ; - Engage fairly by recognising the importance of cash flow to our SME partners and support them to maintain this through 30-day invoice payment. ; - Contributions made by subcontractors will be recognised and attributed. ; ; Create a diverse supply chain to deliver the contract including new businesses and entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs, VCSEs, and mutuals. ; - On a work order basis, we’ll assess the skills needed and actively look for opportunities to engage local businesses as part of the delivery team - we regularly do this on other large scale delivery contracts; - We’ll work with you to define the key diversity objectives you want to see within the supply chain.
• Equal opportunity:

  Equal opportunity

  We deliberately attract and develop a diverse workforce as it benefits us collectively, providing greater creativity and innovation when solving problems and increasing team engagement and performance. ; Inclusion and Diversity is sponsored at the most senior level of the business by our PA Chair, CEO and CPO. We partner with globally recognised organisations (Stonewall, 30% Club, Generation Success) to learn how to best create an inclusive workforce and to hold ourselves accountable against similar corporations. We will encourage and support LGBTi+, BAME and people with protected characteristics into employment in the performance of this contract through: Inclusive recruitment, Engaging and supporting protected characteristics within the client team, Ensuring a proportionally reflective workforce and, Measuring and Monitoring ; To build strength through inclusion PA mitigate bias in assignment resourcing to enable a a more inclusive culture of access to opportunity, career progression and diversity in client delivery, All members of the assignment team have been trained on unconscious bias, and our people officer works with our resourcing managers to ensure bias does features in the candidates we propose for roles on this contract.; PA is an inclusive workforce and supports disabled people through our Occupational Health and Safety, and Mental Health and Wellbeing services. These services are available for implementing adjustments as advised by external medical professionals to support the employment of individuals with special needs, including on assignment. ; Our tailored onboarding programs acclimate new employees with disabilities to the workplace culture and educate them on relevant policies and procedures but also include disability-specific information such as physical alterations, flexible hours, staff training and more ergonomic equipment and software.
• Wellbeing:

  Wellbeing

  We will enhance team wellbeing especially through periods of stress/hard deadlines via our Mental Health Wellbeing (MHW) framework, adhering to Stevenson Farmer six core standards ensures we will Communicate and improve our mental health plan by communication from the top, and within the team, including a continuous feedback loop. We will develop mental health awareness through regular comms about a variety of wellbeing issues e.g. return to the office, balancing stress, and financial wellbeing. We will have open conversations about MHW based on ‘Well@HOme’ newsletter topics, and embedding these topics into team meetings,1:1 catch-ups, helping us safeguard our direct and indirect teams’ wellbeing. We will provide employees with good working conditions to support wellbeing including: Covid-19 extended home working, providing flexibility to help staff balance work/home life in times of potential stress/hard delivery, workplace assessment ensuring the right ergonomic equipment is available at work/home and, promote effective people management through managers via: Ruby Golden, our full-time account wellbeing manager, Leaders promoting staff to take regular annual leave at account meetings and regular email communications, Active resource management to prevent overstretching delivery teams, Use of conversation cards in team meetings and one-to-ones, developed to support team leads discuss MHW and refer individuals to EAP if required. ; 6. Routinely monitoring employee MHW by undertaking: Engagement surveys to analyse UK employee MHW issues and monitor progress, and, Account “Pulse check” surveys to understand how people are feeling and whether immediate intervention is required.

Pricing

• Price: £650 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 GCloudFramework@PACONSULTING.COM. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.