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 NICE SYSTEMS UK LIMITED are still valid.
NICE SYSTEMS UK LIMITED

Robotic Process Automation

NICE offers a comprehensive Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution and associated services/training/support.Robots provide a scalable,virtual workforce,freeing up peoples to focus on important tasks.Robots assist people with guidance and automation and can automate manual processes.NICE also provides Workforce Management/ Optimisation (WFM/O),voice of the customer,analytics, hosted/ cloud ACD services.

Features

  • Scalable, industrialised automation hub capability & framework
  • Attended guidance, employee assistance, desktop automation and dynamic dashboards
  • Unattended robotic automation to remove repetitive and mundane tasks
  • Knowledge transfer & enablement allows in-house build of robotic processes
  • Supports building a re-usable component & process library
  • Ability to work with structured and unstructured data
  • Extensive connectivity options including Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
  • Comprehensive reporting and business intelligence capability
  • Desktop analytics to understand current processes and identify automation opportunities
  • Extensible functionality for cognitive, machine learning, analytics & performance management

Benefits

  • Higher process throughput and faster processing speeds
  • Allows staff to focus on important work
  • Increased operational efficiency
  • Improved customer and staff experience
  • Accelerated Digital Transformation
  • Improved regulatory compliance
  • Reduced error rates
  • 24/7/365 scalable, virtual workforce
  • Reduced staff training
  • No need to change any existing IT systems

Pricing

£150 to £20,580 a unit

  • Free trial 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 gcloud@nice.com. 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 7 8 8 7 0 2 4 7 7 3 6 6 9

Contact

NICE SYSTEMS UK LIMITED NICE
Telephone: 020 7002 3000
Email: gcloud@nice.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
NICE Robotic Automation does not require any changes to existing IT systems in order to provide attended and unattended automation. As such, it leverages and extends any desktop applications by performing actions as a user would but with 100% accuracy and typically 4-5 times faster.
Cloud deployment model
Hybrid cloud
Service constraints
NICE Robotic Automation uses a Real-Time Client that performs actions in the same manner as a user would, using existing systems. As such, it requires access to the front end user interface of any systems residing on a Windows desktop (virtual or physical).
System requirements
  • Robots reside on virtual or physical Windows desktops
  • Windows 2012 R2 Server for Control Room & Reporting
  • Datamart uses SQL Server Enterprise Edition

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
NICE offers a variety of response times, depending upon the critical nature of the issue being reported and the contract terms. Depending on the impact of the issue, critical issues are responded to within one hour and then longer, lower impact issues within one business day.

NICE offers contracts which have 24 x 7 support, Monday-Friday 0830 -1730 support and also the ability to tailor your own support contract.
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
Yes
Online ticketing support accessibility
WCAG 2.0 A
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support
Web chat
Web chat support availability
24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support accessibility standard
WCAG 2.0 A
Web chat accessibility testing
This support is available via the NICE support portal
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
NICE provides 3 levels of support:
* Standard (Monday - Friday, 0830 to 1730)
* Comprehensive (24 x 7)
* Tailored (where the client can design their own support package from NICE).

Support is managed via the NICE Account Manager and NICE Technical Account Manager. Your NICE Account Manager will be happy to provide you with further information relating to the different levels of service and associated costs.
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
NICE Education Services provides comprehensive, role-based training programmes for our customers and business partners, with over 80 courses across IT, business and operational functions. For Robotic Automation, the primary course is a 5 day training course for the Real-Time Designer. This focuses on being able to build automations. It can either be performed on-site at a location of your choice, or remotely via Webex. Classroom courses are also supplemented by online training via the NICE Education Portal.

After the Real-Time Designer course, the participants would work alongside the NICE Professional Services team on project delivery to gain knowledge transfer and to complete their enablement. The shift of activities from NICE to the department can be as fast or slow as you see fit and we would be happy to advise on an ongoing basis and put in place an appropriate transition plan .

The NICE product also has extensive documentation and user manuals. As an example, the Real-Time Designer User Guide has 1,488 pages including extensive screenshots and examples.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
NICE's Professional Service team will work with each department to ensure a smooth and professional extraction of customer data. This process will be managed by the NICE Project Director, assigned to the project. Robotic Automation reports can be exported to Excel and PDF formats, alternatively the data stored in the datamart and RT database can be exported
End-of-contract process
At the end of the contact, the client will have the choice to (i) extend the contract (on the same or amended terms), (ii) not renew (iii) novate the contract to other terms.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 7
  • Internet Explorer 8
  • Internet Explorer 9
  • Internet Explorer 10
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
Application to install
Yes
Compatible operating systems
Windows
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
NICE's automation hub framework can accept work from any channel, including web self-services, mobile apps, e-mail inboxes, digital mailroom and many more. NICE exposes web services that can be called in order to inject work for unattended automation.
Accessibility standards
None or don’t know
Description of accessibility
For attended robots the interface is each UI 'callout' presented to the end user. These are designed as part of the delivery and therefore accessibility requirements can be met by appropriate design and implementation of the callouts (using HTML). Unattended robots work without any human intervention, and therefore no 'callouts' or other UI are used over and above the existing systems accessed by the unattended robot.
Accessibility testing
Interface testing is performed on a project by project basis according to the client's requirements and interpretation of the relevant guidelines within their environment.
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
NICE provides Web Services to be consumed by external parties. Unattended robots can be tasked with transactions and work using Web Services calls. Attended robots can be called by the robot client API or triggered by desktop events. NICE also provides an SDK to extend functionality.
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • PDF
  • Other
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
NICE Robotic Automation is designed to be maintainable in-house, and extensive training and knowledge transfer can be provided.

All aspects of the robotic automation for both attended and unattended uses can be customised using the Real-Time Designer. This is the development and authoring environment. The entire solution logic, connectivity layer, business rules and all other components are developed in this one code-free environment. Publishing of automation solutions and assignment to teams/users/robots are also perform from here.

No coding experience is required and the Real-Time Designer training course is 5 days duration. This can be supplemented by practical, project-based knowledge transfer and enablement to support self-sufficiency.

It is NICE’s best practice and recommended approach to create a sustainable business-as-usual Automation Delivery Centre. NICE can also assist with this through knowledge transfer, mentoring and training.

Scaling

Independence of resources
NICE's solution is highly scalable for thousands of users and robot clients. It can be built according to specific requirements and scaled appropriately for each client.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
From a support perspective, NICE provides the Wiser Service Portal where tickets can be reviewed. Support and services ticket information on availability and connectivity is provided.

Unattended robots are supported by a Control Room and MI Reporting framework. Reports on usage, cases, utilisation etc. can be produced and reviewed. Attended (and unattended) robots also allow Data Collection to be specified, such that any aspect of the solution can be reported upon.
Reporting types
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

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
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
In-house
Protecting data at rest
Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
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
Robotic Automation reports can be exported to Excel and PDF formats, alternatively the data stored in the datamart and RT database can be exported.
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • Other

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
  • Private network or public sector network
  • Other
Other protection between networks
Direct circuits or secured communications using HTTPS and SFTP are utilised. Data is encrypted during transmission.
Data protection within supplier network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
SLAs are agreed with the client based on specific business requirements. NICE would be happy to work with you based on the different deployment options available to agree a specified SLA for availability for each deployment option.
Approach to resilience
The NICE Robotic Automation solution can be deployed in a High Availability configuration. Certified solution can be configured as HA within a site and Active/DR between sites. In the local site this is by Real Time Server Clustering and DB clustering and between sites by using DNS Alias and Disk Replication. In addition the robotic client can still keep working in the event it is disconnected from the server. The database layer can also be made highly available using the Microsoft SQL clustering product which the solution integrates with.
Outage reporting
NICE's solution has an optional alarming and monitoring application, NICE Sentinel, to monitor different metrics related to the system. For example: number of unhandled automation requests, number of requests backlog, failed requests in the last 24 hours, robot average handle time, number of active robots, etc. When the threshold value defined for each metric is breached, the application displays alerts and sends email notifications. NICE Sentinel runs on a dedicated server and provides system alarming, and can also forward alerts to a system management infrastructure.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
2-factor authentication
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
The NICE Robot Client and Designer supports the following types of user authentication:

For clients:
1. Silent login.
2. Single Sign On (based on Kerberos) integrated with Microsoft Active Directory.

For the Designer:
1. Username / password integrated with Real-Time Server local data store.
2. Username / password integrated with Microsoft Active Directory Secure Communication (HTTPS) between the Client / Designer and the Real-Time Server digital signature of the project files.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)

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
Users contact the support team to get 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
SII - Standards Institute of Israel
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
18th June 2007
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
Our accreditation covers all elements.
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
No
Other security certifications
Yes
Any other security certifications
SOC for Cloud services

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
All information, security policies and controls are based on the ISO 27002 guidelines. The NICE board member responsible for Governance is Dovi Malek.

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
NICE has a documented administrative and operational procedures required to ensure that Information Security is inspected in any implementation of new IT system or a change in an existing system, so that only approved IT systems will be operated in the Production environment. This document will be made available to read upon request.
Vulnerability management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Vulnerability management approach
NICE's vulnerability scanning and patch management policy follows the Nessus approach.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
SOC - security operation center using IBM Qradar
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
NICE's Incident management policy is a detailed document and will be made available upon request. The scope of this policy is to provide guidelines for implementing cyber and information security incident response process to ensure a consistent, unified and effective approach to the management of incidents and adverse events with a negative consequence to NICE operation. The policy includes:
* Incident response process of cyber and information security incidents
*Incidents use cases and containment activities
* Incident declaration
The following use cases:
* Data Breach/ leakages
* Critical infrastructure denial of services
* Malware attack
* Ransomware
* Physical events

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
Yes
Connected networks
Other

Pricing

Price
£150 to £20,580 a unit
Discount for educational organisations
No
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
Typically 1 robot licence per government department for a 3 month trial period. However, NICE would be happy to discuss specific trial requirements.

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