The Virtual Forge

ReSpark - The Green Residential Parking App

ReSpark helps local authorities manage their resident parking permits to incentivise green vehicle choices. It creates a unique price for a parking permit based on; C02 and N0x emissions, vehicle age, size, fuel type and weight. Dynamic pricing makes cleaner vehicles cheaper and dirty vehicles more expensive to park.

Features

• Dynamic parking pricing based on key vehicle characteristics
• Data lookup and analytics
• Incentivising cleaner vehicle choices by differential pricing mechanisms
• Smartphone App
• Local Authority/resident engagement
• Help for poorer or disadvantaged groups

Benefits

• Incentivises the uptake of lower emission vehicles
• Improves road space management by incentivising smaller vehicle use
• Improves Local Authority/resident engagement on parking
• Accurately captures and prices negative externalities of vehicle use
• Drives improvements in air quality
• Drives reduction in road traffic noise
• Drives reduction in highway damage by incentivising smaller, lighter vehicles

£10 to £20 a user a year

• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

• Modern Slavery statement

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

Framework

G-Cloud 12

Service ID

500910157078047

Contact

The VF Team
+44 (0) 207 078 8855
info@thevirtualforge.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: DVLA vehicle data services
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: Service designed around Local Authority requirements, uptime is guaranteed at 99% allowing time for maintenance or unplanned outages. Support is limited to P1 critical issues out of hours only. In hours support 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday
• System requirements:
  • Latest version of Chrome
  • Latest version of IE
  • Latest version of Safari
  • Latest version of Firefox
  • IOS or Android for the App

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Support response times P1 - Critical - 2 hours P2 - High - 4 hours P3 - Medium - 8 hours P4 - Low - 24 hours UK hours 8am - 9pm. Out of hours support for P1 only.
• 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: No
• Onsite support: No
• Support levels: Priority levels set out below. Clients can opt to have support out of hours for premium level, however this is for P1 only. Priority 1 / Urgent Service down; unusable by all parties, Priority 2 / High Major problem; system is functioning but severely affecting all parties. Priority 2 problems may be fixed with a workaround. If a workaround is provided, the priority level may be downgraded to Priority 3. Priority 3 / Medium Minor problem; system is functioning and workaround is available. One or some parties affected, Priority 3 parties may be resolved with a fix or workaround. Priority 4 / Low Minor problem; system functioning or only issue affecting one party. General questions or queries relating to the service or new products.
• Support available to third parties: No

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Online documentation and email support. Any issues are raised via our Helpdesk
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: HTML
• End-of-contract data extraction: A report is downloadable by users when they finish using the system, this can also be sent via email.
• End-of-contract process: If the Local Authority wishes to stop using the services, we will facilitate a handover to a new vendor, protecting the data generated to date,

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Internet Explorer 9
  • Internet Explorer 10
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari 9+
• Application to install: Yes
• Compatible operating systems:
  • Android
  • IOS
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: None
• Service interface: No
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: We provide an API that allows us to analyse external telemetry data
• API documentation: No
• API sandbox or test environment: No
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: The system can be tailored with Local Authority branding. We can do all the customisation in house

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Each user interfaces independently with the system and the price generated is unique to the user. It is very unlikely that the system would be affected by excess demand as thousands of residents are unlikely to be using the system simultaneously and even if they were, it could handle such traffic.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: No

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Staff screening not performed
• 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: Managed by a third party
• Penetration testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Penetration testing approach: In-house
• Protecting data at rest: Encryption of all physical media
• 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: N/A
• Data export formats: Other
• 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: Use infrastructure assuring 99.9% uptime
• Approach to resilience: We make extensive use of AWS's native resiliency and redundancy capabilities through leveraging multiple Availability Zones through load balancers for servers and (where possible) distributed databases or read replicas. This is further supported by 'warm' backup regions in case of a disaster recovery scenario. Details of Amazon SLA's can be found here; https://aws.amazon.com/compute/sla/
• Outage reporting: Public dashboard Email alerts Text messages

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)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Username and password. Resets only available directly to user via their email.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get 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: British Assessment Bureau
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 07/01/2020
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: -
• 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: Company Information Security Policy must be signed by all employees, and is updated regularly. CTO – The company’s Chief Technology Officer is responsible for corporate-wide IS system planning, implementation, and execution. Information Security Manager – The IS Manager is responsible for the company-wide datacenter and network infrastructures. DevOps Engineers – The DevOps Engineers are responsible for all enterprise business systems. Internal Users -- All members of the the company User Community are required to familiarise themselves with the policies outlined in the The Company Employee and Contractor IS Policies document.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: Changes are managed via the change control process to ensure projects remain within approved constraints. Change proposals are agreed with the client, completed by the individual who identifies the need for a change, then submitted to us. The project team then assesses the impact of the change. The request is submitted to the change control board with the project team's findings to be reviewed. If the change is approved, all project documentation must be updated and the change must be communicated to all stakeholders. Some changes may also require re-alignment of the project costs, schedule, or scope.
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Threats are monitored using an IDS provided by AWS along with the standard protection offered by AWS. Patches are routinely applied with urgent hotfixes applied the same day as a threat is identified. Threat information is monitored from AWS and industry leading security boards and alert feeds.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: This is managed by AWS on our behalf.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: Incidents are managed via a ticketing system. Information and FAQs are available via the ticketing system to help with common issues. Canned responses are prepared for common issues. Users report incidents via email or through ticket portal. Responses are given according to pre-defined SLAs. RCAs are available for critical issues. Ticket reports are available at client request.

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

Pricing

• Price: £10 to £20 a user a year
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: We can provide a free trial of the system, with all features apart from the full backend reporting. The free trial gives a perfect understanding of what the system does and if it is fit for purpose.

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

• Modern Slavery statement

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