This G-Cloud 10 service is no longer available to buy.

The G-Cloud 10 framework expired on Tuesday 2 July 2019. Any existing contracts with Merlin Guides are still valid.
Merlin Guides

Merlin Guides

Merlin Guides helps government organisations rollout Salesforce (and any other Web Based software) to their staff. It provides completely custom step by step tutorials inside of the UI, ensuring that everyone knows how to use the tool and what data to input inside of it.

Features

  • Step by Step tutorials inside of any web based software
  • Push new information & get signoff in minutes
  • Simple & easy to use Help Center for content
  • Creation of Training Material for Governments if required

Benefits

  • Decrease mistakes made by employees in systems
  • Improved data quality and consistency
  • Not needing to escalate to management (Self Service)
  • More autonomy for employees leading to higher retention
  • Faster reply rates from Support roles

Pricing

£10 a person a month

  • Education pricing 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 <removed>@ac059bdd-e5a9-4ef5-806a-eeb1ea2c073d.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 10

Service ID

1 9 5 9 8 7 0 1 3 4 9 6 5 3 4

Contact

Merlin Guides <removed>
Telephone: <removed>
Email: <removed>@ac059bdd-e5a9-4ef5-806a-eeb1ea2c073d.com

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
Salesforce in general
But can be used for any Web Based software (Including Internal software)
Cloud deployment model
Hybrid cloud
Service constraints
Right now our offering only supports Web Based Software (but any browser)
System requirements
Web Browser (IE 8+, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari)

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
Weekdays: 5 minutes
Weekends: Several Hours
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
24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support accessibility standard
WCAG 2.0 AAA
Web chat accessibility testing
None, we use Intercom as our provider who has assured us that they do support Web Accessibility standards.
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
Email, Phone, Web Chat provided for free in a pooled support model by default
Prioritised support for extra fee
Onsite requires extra fee
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
We normally build out the first 20+ guides for customers, converting over their existing process documentation over to our system for them. After that we run training sessions direct with them to get them started, provide an easy to access help center and also have guided training inside of Merlin itself.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
HTML
End-of-contract data extraction
Users have 2 options:
- They can download each guide as a HTML file
- Users submit a request to us and we can download the content and send it over in a secure CDN system.
End-of-contract process
At the end of the contract:
- If they are using our Public Cloud version then we will make their account view only until they state they want the data deleted.
- If they are using our Hybrid Cloud version (hosted by Salesforce) then Salesforce will stop access to pushing data to the App, but they can still view all data inside of Salesforce.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 8
  • Internet Explorer 9
  • Internet Explorer 10
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari 9+
  • Opera
Application to install
Yes
Compatible operating systems
  • Linux or Unix
  • MacOS
  • Windows
Designed for use on mobile devices
No
Accessibility standards
WCAG 2.0 A
Accessibility testing
We have brought in people using JAWS and other software to test Merlin out.
API
No
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
The guides & content inside of Merlin are completely custom to the customer. It is similar to an LMS (Help Center) in that regard.

Scaling

Independence of resources
Public Cloud: Hosted on Google Cloud Platform (App Engine) which autoscales and is also monitored by Dev Ops team.
Hybrid Cloud: Hosted by Salesforce who handles the load for your instance.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
- When a user uses a guide we record when they did it, how long they took, whether the guide was finished (and if not where it was that they stopped).
Reporting types
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Conforms to BS7858:2012
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)
  • EU-US Privacy Shield agreement locations
  • Other locations
User control over data storage and processing locations
Yes
Datacentre security standards
Managed by a third party
Penetration testing frequency
At least once a year
Penetration testing approach
‘IT Health Check’ performed by a CHECK service provider
Protecting data at rest
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
  • 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
They can download guides by using our Admin console and downloading the content.
User usage data has to be downloaded via a request ticket and is provided in CSV format (provided in a ZIP).
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data export formats
HTML
Data import formats
CSV

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
99.9% SLA, with refunds up to 50% of contract cost
Approach to resilience
Hosted on Google Cloud Platform (App Engine) or Salesforce.
We also run tests ourselves and pay 3rd parties to test them.
Outage reporting
- Email Alerts within 5 minutes of our detection or user reporting.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
Managed Interfaces have ACL that is set up to support the level of access people want (Creating content, guides, users, group...etc)

Support channels are available to all users.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • 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 contact the support team to get 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
No
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
No
Other security certifications
No

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance certified
No
Security governance approach
Limited access to only engineers that need access to our Cloud & Salesforce versions, using their OAuth systems in place.
Regular testing against our systems.
Information security policies and processes
Limiting access to information in our systems (Software Engineers do not have access to user data on our GCP, only Dev Ops). In GCP we use their ACL system, in Salesforce the data is hosted in their instance and we can not access it.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
We have 2 aspects:
WebServer: Pushes are done weekly on Mondays, and go through rigorous testing over the weekend before going live (Google Cloud)
Extension: Pushes are also done on Mondays and area also tested automatically and with UAT.
Any changes for users are sent in advance of the go live date for those on a set newsletter (Admins)
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
We have third parties assess the system periodically
Patches are deployed weekly normally but highly urgent vunerabilities can be done within 24 hours
Most vulnerabilities are found internally otherwise paid third parties
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
We use Google Clouds Security Scans on our system
If they were found (non have ever been found) then we would ensure the team fully understood the issue, updated all affected accounts, then prioritised a fix, giving ETA to all clients as we got through the process. Followed by a post mortem afterwards to reduce chances of it happening again.
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
Users report incidents through our Chat / Email system
We give them an immediate response (sub 2 minutes), then look into the problem, followed by updating customers.
We use email to update customers.

Secure development

Approach to secure software development best practice
Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks
No

Pricing

Price
£10 a person a month
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 <removed>@ac059bdd-e5a9-4ef5-806a-eeb1ea2c073d.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.