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 Locata Housing Services Limited are still valid.
Locata Housing Services Limited

Online Application and Assessment

Locata’s application and assessment service allows Local Authorities to create intelligent online application and change of circumstances forms, these guide applicants through questions to easily complete complex application forms. Data is processed against the authority’s policy, and assess applicants’ suitability, eligibility or priority against particular services.

Features

  • Customer contact management
  • Customer interview management
  • Customer journal
  • Referral form for self-referrals or provider referrals
  • Letter, email and text message generation
  • Automatic email or text message alerts to clients and providers
  • Service provider and scheme management
  • Limited service provider access to manage referrals and customers
  • Custom data validation for each referral
  • Real Time Management Reporting

Benefits

  • Customised referral form
  • Intuitive approach
  • Real time monitoring
  • Active management of providers
  • Self service approach
  • Reduce administration time
  • Full security access management
  • Centralised system
  • Interview management and communication
  • Electronic alerts

Pricing

£6,000 to £12,000 a unit a year

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 priley@locata.org.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 10

Service ID

2 2 4 6 3 9 2 0 4 2 6 3 6 5 8

Contact

Locata Housing Services Limited Peter Riley
Telephone: 01895 637595
Email: priley@locata.org.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
Lettings System (Choice Based, Property Pool or Direct)
Online Registration
Housing Options
Homelessness Prevention and Advice
Cloud deployment model
Private cloud
Service constraints
There are no service constraints in either our planned maintenance process or hardware configurations as the service is completely configurable to their needs.
System requirements
  • Internet Access
  • Browser Software

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
The support site is available to registered users 24/7, telephone support Monday to Friday, 9 - 5.30 excluding bank holidays.
System is unavailable, a dedicated senior technician assigned within an hour. Operation of business disrupted, 1 hour to 5 days. Cosmetic agree change in next release.
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
Yes
Online ticketing support accessibility
WCAG 2.0 A
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support
No
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
System is unavailable, 1 hour
Operation of business disrupted, 1 hour to 5 days
Cosmetic agree change in next release.

We deliver the same level of support to all of our customers across the board

Onsite support cost of a technical account manager is £750 per day or part thereof
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
We deliver initial onsite training, supported by our online user guide website as well as full user documentation.

In addition to this we supply full training plans, training sessions and session notes are also provided.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
Customer's follow our data migration exit strategy that covers:
Agreed Times and Dates
Service Provision End Dates
Preparation of Data
Specification Provision
Cost (if incurred)
Outstanding Payments
End-of-contract process
Additional cost maybe incurred if the new provider does not have the capacity or the resources to enable the data process to take place effectively. If the new provider has not enabled online data transfer protocols or if the data requirement is such that extensive re-writes of the specification is required due to change requests post agreement.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
Internet Explorer 11
Application to install
No
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
There is no difference in this area as our services use the browser technology of the mobile device being used. We also have an App for our lettings service that allows the download and use of the app as free to end users.
Accessibility standards
WCAG 2.0 A
Accessibility testing
We have tested the system with assistive technology such as browse aloud, narrator and translating tools.
API
No
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
The service described can be customised for individual client upon request. Customisation of the service is though us as a provider and is dependant on what customers want of the service provided.
The provider customises the service.

Scaling

Independence of resources
Our services are hosted on the Microsoft Cloud that manages the traffic across all of our services and provides dynamic resource's to each of our client systems as needed. This allows us to provide scalability on demand, so in effect all of our clients have as much resource as is required at any time 24/7.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
Either google analytics for website traffic and a suite of on-board reporting tools to manage the day to day monitoring on the system itself.
Reporting types
Real-time dashboards

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Other security clearance
Government security clearance
Up to Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

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
No
Datacentre security standards
Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
Penetration testing frequency
At least once a year
Penetration testing approach
Another external penetration testing organisation
Protecting data at rest
Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
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
Locata prepares a file containing all data which will be available on the Locata ftp site or in individual reports that can be run on the system reporting tool. In addition to Locata providing a data warehouse file, Locata shall provide documentation and support to explain the file formats. If required, Locata shall provide up to two sets of sample files for the data requested as well as one final complete data set at the point of switchover.
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data export formats
  • HTML
  • XML
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data import formats
XML

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)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
We have service level agreements ranging for 98.6% to 99.8%. In the past the system has been 99.98% available. Our aim is to provide 100% system availability and with our move to Microsoft Cloud it is currently running at 100%.

We agree compensation on a contract by contract basis and apply the required algorithm to compensation payments.
Approach to resilience
Our solution is hosted on the Microsoft Cloud, with multiple servers providing failover support on both web servers and database servers. There are multiple web servers which present the web page. If one node fails, the load will be picked up by the other servers.
The same is true of the database servers, running SQL server in clustered mode, replication across servers. These servers are maintained in availability sets which our SLA’s with Microsoft are aimed at maintaining 100% availability.
The physical datacentres are EU in Northern Europe (actually the Netherlands and Ireland), They are certified to at least Tier 3. We have chosen to adopt a non-geo redundant configuration. This means the data will never be stored outside of these geographical locations.
Over and above the availability set configuration, there are transaction log backups every hour, which allow for restoration to a point in time, and full database backups every day. These backups are made to Microsoft Storage, solid state storage service, located in separate non-geo redundant locations in the EU.
Outage reporting
In terms of outages all of our client websites have a public dashboard messaging service attached as do our back office system for staff. Our own business websites are used as they use a different hosting service as a fail safe. Also we use e-mail alerts as a separate channel and prime source of information dissemination.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
Management Access and Support is by invitation. Security works by allocating ‘roles’ and partners (organisations) to the security account for Landlords, Local Authorities and officers to enable them to access the system. Roles are automatically allocated pre determined permissions. Configured might differ slightly and there may be situations where management place permissions under different roles. Reconfirmation of all users accessing the system occurs every three months or sooner by agreement. This validation sends an email notifying users and managers of this. The email will include a link that will direct you to the system back office to validate the user.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
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
Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
Microsoft Cloud
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
02/01/2017
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
Nothing is not covered
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
Yes
Security governance standards
ISO/IEC 27001
Information security policies and processes
Security of customer is very important. Data security standards are enforced at all points throughout the organisation. Web transactions, with both administrative and public websites are protected via SSL. Password strength is setup with our customers during scoping. For example default recommended password settings are strong passwords with minimums of 8 characters, including mixtures of special and normal characters, enforced change every 30 days, no reuse of passwords within 12 months. Adjustments for specific requirements can be made. We can also lock down access via IP address so availability is from within internal networks. Continuous security monitoring runs with alerts to attacks such as SQL injection, blocking access from IP addresses shows suspicious activity.
Database level has password information encrypted. Data transits such as file transfer is encrypted FTP or SFTP, dependent upon requirements.
Offsite backups take place daily to Microsoft Azure cloud to servers within the EU. Physical security ISO27001 accredited has Tier 3 standards with 24 hour security, no admission without appointment, photo ID and hardened physical buildings. Our security policies and any information security is reported quarterly at director level. Any concerns are handled by the managing director and reported directly to the Locata Quarterly Management Board.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
Change Requests are logged on our support site. On receipt of a Change Request the product manager will assess the request to ensure the validity of the request. If valid,it is passed to development to assess the effort required to implement, and the impact of the change.
If the client agrees to the change, the development and testing will be factored into the corporate work plan. Dependent upon the scope of work required, either the change request documentation will be completed or a full project initiation document will be generated. The works will then be undertaken, tested and implemented.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
Microsoft run threat analytics on the VM detecting suspicious activity to indicate threats and sends real-time alerts for response. Syspeace on servers monitor failed login attempts and blocks the IP address if 5 failed attempts occur. We encourage customers to do independent penetration testing beyond our own. Qualys SSL Labs performs deep analysis of the SSL on the web servers. Our servers have availability sets of 2 this means patches are applied without disruption. As a web solution should there be a security issue or patches for solution the fix is
applied as soon as it has been written.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
Among other defences Microsoft run threat analytics on the VM to detect suspicious activity that may indicate a threat and sends real-time alerts so that we can respond. We run Syspeace on the servers that monitors failed login attempts and blocks the IP address that they come
from if there are more than 5 failed attempts. We encourage our customers to do independent penetration testing, the most recent of these was done by the Dorset scheme in the last quarter of 2016.
We use Qualys SSL Labs to perform a deep analysis of the SSL on the web servers. ???
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
All login attempts are logged in the database. The session and IP address of successful logins is saved. When users successfully logs in dates of their last login and number of failed login attempts since that is displayed to them. The weblogs are saved so access to pages is audited, this contains the issuing IP address. Any update of information is logged and can be reported. This includes auditing any changes made to another user account if permissions are in place. Generated reports can be exported into excel then saved as CSV files to import into an internal SIEM solution.

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
£6,000 to £12,000 a unit a year
Discount for educational organisations
No
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 priley@locata.org.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.