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Softcat Limited

Appian Enterprise Abstraction Platform

The Abstraction Platform combines Data Fabric, low-code, iBPM, and case management. Abstracting the complexity of interacting with data sources, providing a unified interface for accessing and manipulating data. Creating applications without needing knowledge of underlying data structures or technologies regardless of the data origin or format. APPSC24GC14

Features

  • Simplifies interaction with underlying systems, hiding complexity for user convenience

Benefits

  • Efficiency: The right data at the right time and place

Pricing

£4.72 a user a month

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 psitq@softcat.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

9 9 2 4 1 4 1 0 1 5 1 5 6 7 2

Contact

Softcat Limited Charles Harrison
Telephone: 01628 403403
Email: psitq@softcat.com

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
No
Cloud deployment model
  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
  • Hybrid cloud
Service constraints
None aside from any listed in the Appian Cloud subscription agreement.
System requirements
  • Users may access via supported web browser or
  • Native mobile application on supported device.
  • Supported browsers are Microsoft Edge (on Windows 10),
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 (Windows/8.x tablets),
  • Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and
  • Apple Safari (only on Mac operating systems).
  • Use the latest supported version with all security updates.
  • Browsers must allow Transport Layer Security Version 1.1/1.2.
  • Mobile available for iOS and Android.
  • See “Service Definition Document” for full details.

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
With "Basic" support, the response-time range is within two business hour for Priority 1 (critical) issues to within 72 business hours for Priority 4 (minor) issues. The term "business hours" refers to Appian's standard Product Support hours within Europe, which are 08:00 to 17:30, BST (British Summer Time), Monday through Friday, excluding Appian holidays. For "Enterprise" support, the response-time range is within 15 minutes for Priority 1 issues to within 6 hours for Priority 4 issues. A full accounting of response time by customer support levels and case priority can be provided upon request.
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
No
Onsite support
No
Support levels
Our comprehensive services deliver maintenance, support, and product updates to Appian customers, partners, and distributors. Specifically, we offer our customers four levels of customer support: Basic, Essential, Advanced, and Enterprise. Appian support is accessible via phone or e-mail, as well as over the web. Additionally, Appian provides a single portal for our clients and partners via the Appian Community portal, that delivers an integrated customer experience for knowledge management, discussion forums, Centre of Excellence documentation, product updates, software downloads, application and template downloads, logging support cases, licensing, documentation, and online training. Updates and new releases of the licensed software are included with Appian Product Support. In the United Kingdom, Appian Standard Product Support hours are 08:00 to 17:30, BST (British Summer Time), Monday through Friday, excluding Appian holidays. Advanced and Enterprise Support includes 24-hour assistance for critical issues. The Appian Product Support team operates in a “flat” organisational structure, whereby any engineer may assist any customer with any issue; and the Product Support engineer assigned to an issue at the time of help desk “ticket” creation retains ownership over the given case through to resolution/closeout.

Available support services are detailed further here - https://appian.com/support/resources/support.html
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
Appian has automated processes to orchestrate the onboarding of new Appian Cloud customers. From a ""get-started"" perspective, Appian offers implementation, training, and post-implementation support services. Additionally, with Appian Cloud, all hosting, infrastructure, and system management tasks are managed by Appian; this includes activities around platform (but not application) administration, patch deployments, software upgrades (Appian software, operating system, and any other supporting applications), and backups.

Appian's data fabric provides a ""data anywhere"" capability, enabling customers to connect to their existing data sources and systems of record rather than needing to migrate or duplicate data into Appian. However, customers can also migrate data into the database provided in Appian Cloud, administrators will have direct database access. For end users, customers can configure application flows to collect data from as appropriate, for example they can enter data, upload files, POST data to webAPIs, or have process flows that pull data from other systems in real-time via integration calls.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
HTML
End-of-contract data extraction
Our customers can export data via Appian functionality and reports, including the business logic of their applications and the data stored in the relational database). Customers are responsible for exporting the necessary information prior to the termination date.
Data is typically exported as CSV formatted files, further guidance and information is available on request subject to understanding the current environments in use, and what data has been loaded into the which systems etc.
End-of-contract process
Appian has automated processes to orchestrate the onboarding of new Appian Cloud customers and the offboarding of Appian Cloud customers that are discontinuing the service. These processes ensure that all involved parties within Appian are notified and also ensure that Appian Cloud sites are deployed and configured (or decommissioned) consistently. These processes further ensure each customer is notified well in advance regarding the expiration of its current Appian Cloud agreement, thereby allowing the customer sufficient time, should it decide not to renew the subscription agreement, to export its applications and data before its Appian Cloud site is shut down.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
Application to install
No
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
For desktop use, users will use a supported browser to access Appian. Mobile application will need to be downloaded to device. The only difference will be how the user interface renders, as Appian’s mobile applications are native.
Service interface
Yes
User support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Description of service interface
Appian's design and configuration environments empower designers to seamlessly build, test, monitor, and deploy their low-code applications. These environments are intuitively designed, offering a user-friendly experience that facilitates click-and-configure or drag-and-drop functionalities. This accessibility ensures a broad spectrum of users can actively engage in the application development lifecycle.
Accessibility standards
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Accessibility testing
Conformance to the accessibility standards has been evaluated by Appian using a combination of static analysis tools and manual testing with assistive technologies. The following operating system, web browsers, and screen readers were used for evaluation: Windows 10, Chrome/JAWS, Edge/JAWS, Firefox/NVDA.
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
The Appian platform can be configured to create and expose application programming interfaces (APIs) via Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) or Representational State Transfer (RESTful). Appian can also consume APIs via SOAP and RESTful.
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
HTML
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
Appian Cloud is inherently intended as a platform on which an unlimited number of process-based and case management applications can be configured, executed, monitored, and enhanced over time. Appian Cloud allows the design of the application using a Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) compliant Process Modeller and natively integrated Business Rules Engine, along with drag-and-drop Smart Services that represent activities such as integrations which will occur at certain points in the application. Appian Cloud customers may easily create their own, drag-and-drop Smart Services.
And with Appian, building new applications becomes faster and easier over time, as designers are able to leverage a growing library of reusable components—including process models, rules, integrations, forms, reports, and numerous others. This means that every additional process automated will deliver incremental value and reduce marginal cost; and with a unified user interface, Appian flattens the learning curve for end users whenever new applications are introduced.

Scaling

Independence of resources
Each customer site receives its own dedicated virtual infrastructure which is logically firewalled from that of other customers.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
Designers can create real-time reports and business activity monitoring (BAM) dashboards that gather accurate views of process and business metrics. Appian end users gain real-time visibility into business operations and receive continuous feedback to improve process performance. Get a 360-degree view from one interface (desktop or mobile). Navigate, search, analyze, collaborate, and take action on enterprise data from multiple systems, all from a single intuitive interface.
Reporting types
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Reseller (no extras)
Organisation whose services are being resold
Appian

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
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
User control over data storage and processing locations
Yes
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 Tigerscheme qualified provider or a CREST-approved service provider
Protecting data at rest
Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
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
Our customers can export data via Appian functionality and reports, including the business logic of their applications and the data stored in the relational database). Customers are responsible for exporting the necessary information prior to the termination date.
Data is typically exported as CSV formatted files, further guidance and information is available on request subject to understanding the current environments in use, and what data has been loaded into the which systems etc.
Data export formats
CSV
Data import formats
CSV

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
  • Private network or public sector network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)
Data protection within supplier network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
Appian Cloud's service-level agreement (SLA) availability guarantees are based on the customer's subscribed support level, ranging from 99% to 99.99%. If, during customer's subscription, availability does not meet the SLA during a calendar month, Appian provides the customer with service credits in the form of a percentage of the applicable monthly service fee. These service credits range from ten percent to thirty percent of the monthly fee based on a combination of the problem severity level and the amount of time by which the guaranteed SLA has not been met. Further information is available on request.
Approach to resilience
Appian uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) as our Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) hosting partner for Appian Cloud. The customer chooses its preferred region, and all customer data inside an Appian Cloud instance is protected and not copied outside the customer’s designated region. AWS has state-of-the-art data centres spanning eight regions worldwide—specifically, including in Asia Pacific (Sydney, Australia; Mumbai, India; Singapore; and Tokyo, Japan); in Canada; in Europe (Frankfurt, Germany; Ireland; London, United Kingdom; and Paris, France); in South America (Sao Paolo, Brazil); and in the United States (Northern California, Northern Virginia, Ohio, and Oregon). As our goal is to provide our Appian Cloud customers with a highly reliable and scalable architecture that affords them maximum uptime and zero data loss, customer production data is replicated across two availability zones within the client’s selected region. An availability zone is a completely separate data-centre location within a region (for example, if a customer chooses to have its solution hosted in Northern Virginia, that customer’s production data will be replicated across two entirely different and isolated data centres in Northern Virginia). Additional information is available on request.
Outage reporting
Notifications of outages would be sent to each customer's designated support point of contacts via e-mail.

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)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
The platform provides the ability to create user groups, roles, and rule-based associations that can be used to designate access within the platform. Appian’s role-based security model controls access to data, documents, etc; each time a user requests access to a document or other content, the system verifies that user’s role with respect to the requested object.

Each object has its own set of roles to which system administrators can assign users or groups. All objects have standard “administrator,” “editor,” “read only,” and “no access” roles, many objects also possess application-specific roles, providing additional functionality and flexibility.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • 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
User-defined
Access to supplier activity audit information
Users have access to real-time audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
User-defined
How long system logs are stored for
User-defined

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
Coalfire Systems, Inc
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
13/06/2023
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
Physical security (which is outsourced to AWS data centers) and Physical Media Transfers
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
Yes
CSA STAR accreditation date
27/10/2023
CSA STAR certification level
Level 1: CSA STAR Self-Assessment
What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover
Physical security (which is outsourced to AWS data centres)
PCI certification
Yes
Who accredited the PCI DSS certification
Coalfire Systems, Inc
PCI DSS accreditation date
03/01/2024
What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover
Requirements specific to CHD, as Appian does not store, process, or transmit cardholder data
Cyber essentials
Yes
Cyber essentials plus
Yes
Other security certifications
Yes
Any other security certifications
  • Service Organisation Controls (SOC) 2 Type II
  • SOC 3
  • Esquema Nacional de Securidad (ENS)
  • Canada Protected B, IRAP
  • Qualys SSL Labs A+ Web-Tier Rating
  • SOC 1/ISAE (International Standard on Assurance Engagements) 3402
  • The Cloud Computing Compliance Criteria Catalog (C5)
  • HITRUST
  • ISO 27001/27017/27018
  • ISO 9001

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
CyberEssentials, CyberEssentials+, Service Organisation Controls (SOC) 2 Type II, SOC 3, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), HITRUST, HIPAA, C5, ISO 27001/27017/27018, ENS, SOC 1/ISAE 3402, Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Security, Trust, and Assurance Registry (STAR), and many others
Information security policies and processes
Appian employs a full-time Information Security Officer and team responsible for defining and adhering to best practices-based information security policies and processes. This team works closely with our Appian Cloud team and Appian senior management to monitor the security and performance of our service, as well as coordinate periodic tests and reviews and work with third-party organisations that evaluate and certify the security and controls of our service.

Appian Cloud has a comprehensive security and compliance program that meets numerous industry standards, detailed in our “Service Definition Document.” Appian undergoes frequent third-party audits to validate that controls are operating effectively to protect customer data.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Configuration and change management approach
We use our software for the systematic proposal, review, justification, and implementation of cloud infrastructure changes. All changes are tracked using the Appian application and reviewed by a cloud architect/senior engineer. Appian pays special attention to the security and stability implications of the proposed change. Depending on the change, reviewers may request development environment testing. All requests are stored for audit purposes. Our plan and process are reviewed at least annually and documented as part of our security program review. Appian's hosting provider manages hardware changes. Sound practices are covered as part of the Service Organisation Controls (SOC) audit.
Vulnerability management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Vulnerability management approach
Appian performs regular vulnerability scanning against all Appian Cloud assets at least monthly. Appian performs risk assessments for identified security items and handles them in accordance with their overall impact. Appian makes our third-party penetration test report available to customers under nondisclosure agreement (NDA).
Protective monitoring type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Protective monitoring approach
Appian performs daily reviews of event/incident alerts at the infrastructure level. Unusual or suspicious activity is investigated and escalated as necessary. Customers have access to application and application server logs including security logs, which can be reviewed or downloaded via the web interface. See https://appian.com/blog/2021/monitoring-appian-with-appian--tackling-security-alert-fatigue-w.html for a blog dewscription of Appian's security practices and tooling.
Incident management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v3.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Incident management approach
Appian uses an online form for incident reporting (available through Appian Forum) and the Appian platform for managing incidents, and we use Forum for customer communication. The steps we follow in addressing any reported incident are: 1) verifying the source; 2) verifying the incident; 3) notifying other parties as appropriate; 4) form incident response team; 5) gather evidence; and 6) contain, eradicate, and recover from the incident. Appian’s Information Security Officer is responsible for monitoring security incident status until it has been resolved and normal business operations have been safely restored. The response required depends on the type of incident.

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

  • Fighting climate change
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

Fighting climate change

Softcat are dedicated to reducing our environmental impact and actively promoting sustainability. Our commitment to sustainability is a core aspect of our business strategy, driving us to innovate and lead in the creation of a more sustainable future for our company and the communities we serve. This commitment is embedded in our policies, operating procedures, and training programs.

We are proud to be the first FTSE 250 company to be awarded 5-star status in relation to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

We aim to achieve a Carbon Net-Zero Value Circle by 2040 by prioritising renewable energy, reducing natural resource use, minimising waste, and safeguarding biodiversity in compliance with environmental legislation.

At Softcat, we have taken significant steps towards securing renewable energy across our organisation, reducing our scope 1 & 2 emissions. We had the target of using 100% Renewable Energy across all our locations by 2024. We successfully delivered against this target ~2 years early.

In May 2023 we took delivery of 15 electric vehicles, replacing all existing fossil-fuelled company cars used by employees for business means. The implementation of the EV pool fleet will see a saving of over 80 tons of CO2e per year. A huge impact on our Net Zero targets.

Tackling economic inequality

As a value-add reseller, Softcat outsources the products, services, and solutions through our extensive network of partners, to best suit the needs of our broad client base. We always consider and promote SMEs and local providers where appropriate, particularly for the products and services we offer via the G Cloud framework.

We remain dedicated to improving employability and educational awareness across schools, colleges, and universities to help break down the barriers to joining technology organisations.

We work collaboratively with many schools that are close in proximity to our offices, to ensure we are actively supporting the community as well as schools from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

We visit the schools to talk about the IT sector and the roles in our organisation, as well as promoting work-experience opportunities during the summer. In particular, we actively encourage students from diverse backgrounds to engage in work experience to appreciate the roles available in our sector.

For ambitious school and college leavers, a Softcat Apprenticeship is a great first step into the world of work, with 94% of our apprentices offered a permanent position at Softcat post apprenticeships, which goes to show the amazing opportunity available with us.

We were ranked 1st in IT & Consultancy, and 10th overall in by RateMyApprenticeship.com - Best 100 Apprenticeship Employers 2023-2024 list.

Softcat now also offer 12 month paid internships to University students looking to complete a year in industry as part of their undergraduate studies.

Equal opportunity

Our approach to diversity and inclusion is introduced first during our induction training, as part of our Softcat values, outlining responsibility to uphold our principles. This message is reinforced by our process and policies, networks, Allyship Training and Inclusion Awareness campaigns.

Softcat supports diversity and inclusion through various networks including:
- Supporting Women in Business (SWIB)
- The Ethnic and Cultural Network
- The Pride Network
- The Family Network
- The Empowering Disability and Neurodiversity Network (EDN)
- The Faith at Work Network
- Armed Forces & Veterans Network
These networks aim to create a supportive and inclusive work environment for all employees, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, or family commitments.

Our allyship programme, Stronger Together, is a mixture of event and workshop-based training available to all staff. Programme topics include, bias, power, privilege, and being a greater ally.

Inclusion Awareness campaigns include race, disability, sexual orientation, gender, faith, and caring responsibilities. These sessions highlight and celebrate minority groups, through panel sessions, Q&A sessions and training, providing an opportunity to discuss and understand ways to be more inclusive.

Our efforts to improve diversity and inclusion have been incredibly successful. Since 2020, the number of female employees below management level has increased to 35%, and the number of ethnic minority employees rose to 17%.

Wellbeing

At Softcat, all employees are provided with access to our multidimensional wellbeing programme which includes flexible work arrangements, free nutritious breakfast, mental health support, employee benefits scheme, health and wellbeing week activities, and online workshops.

Giving back to the community is an innate part of who we are as a company. All Softcat employees are therefore given two volunteer days per year to support a charitable or community cause.

Each of our 10 regional offices also support local charities through fundraising, donations and events. For example, our Manchester office has raised over £30,000 for the WeLoveMCR charity. This funding has supported young, disadvantaged Manchester citizens in gaining qualifications to broaden their work opportunities and supporting local groups in delivering indispensable services that enable community cohesion.

Pricing

Price
£4.72 a user a month
Discount for educational organisations
No
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
Appian offers the Community Edition. This is a full version of the Appian Platform.
- Free online training and hands-on tutorials for all levels and skill sets.
- Guided paths for evaluating the platform or becoming an Appian Certified Developer.
- Dedicated cloud environment for building apps without time constraints.
Link to free trial
https://appian.com/landing/community-edition/get-started.html?utm_content=brand-search&google_ad_keyword=appian%20community%20edition&matchtype=b&google_ad_campaign=13986557421&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ACE&gclid=Cj0KCQjwspKUBhCvARIsAB2IYusWgAh-DKunGG30QAPVRY_2qfUnP2elgRaASiQqg8Z9vG1JfNZlqtYaAm2dEALw_wcB (https://appian.com/landing/community-edition/get-started.html?utm_content=brand-search&google_ad_keyword=appian%20community%20edition&matchtype=b&google_ad_campaign=13986557421&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ACE&gclid=Cj0KCQjwspKUBhCvARIsAB2IYusWgAh-DKunGG30QAPVRY_2qfUnP2elgRaASiQqg8Z9vG1JfNZlqtYaAm2dEALw_wcB)

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 psitq@softcat.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.