This G-Cloud 9 service is no longer available to buy.

The G-Cloud 9 framework expired on Monday 1 October 2018. Any existing contracts with Plan Alpha Systems Limited are still valid.
Plan Alpha Systems Limited

Plan Alpha Drupal Customer Engagement Platform

Drupal is a non-proprietary, open source system, with zero licence fees.

The Customer Engagement Platform has a Content Management System (CMS), Customer Relationship Management System (CRM), e-forms system, and Application-Builder, all built in a single Drupal environment.

Integration-enabled with back-office and other systems, including proprietary CRMs, e-forms, and external services.

Features

  • Drupal Customer Engagement Platform: CMS, CRM, e-forms and Application-Builder
  • Proven, secure, stands up to the most critical internet vulnerabilities
  • Drupal’s API-first focus means easy connection to other systems
  • Flexible content-architecture supports future Information Architecture requirements with ease
  • Drupal scales to support the most content-rich sites and experiences
  • Proven, secure, stands up to the most critical internet vulnerabilities
  • Mobile-first - responsive, out of the box.

Benefits

  • Immediate savings. New-build or migrate, non-proprietary open-source. Zero licence-fees
  • Prebuilt Drupal sites, superbly flexible - no programming skills needed
  • Driven by business requirements, not by limits of an application
  • A tool for business - no limitations. Massive pre-built functionality
  • Future-proofed by world's largest non-proprietary open source community
  • Drupal offers limitless potential with native features and module extensions
  • It’s a platform for the next disruptive technology, without disruption
  • Switch to Plan Alpha Drupal: much more, for much less

Pricing

£24,800 to £35,200 a unit

  • 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 chris.morton@planalpha.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 9

Service ID

7 9 3 4 4 1 1 8 2 5 0 7 9 3 6

Contact

Plan Alpha Systems Limited Chris Morton
Telephone: 07769 88 22 84
Email: chris.morton@planalpha.co.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
The Plan Alpha Drupal Customer Engagement Platform: CRM, CMS, e-forms and Application-Builder can be connected to other back-office and remote systems using standard web services, or through middleware layers
Cloud deployment model
Private cloud
Service constraints
Our host provision guarantees 100% uptime. Planned system enhancements are advised, and carried out very infrequently well outside business hours.
System requirements
  • No paid-for specific licenses are required to run this software.
  • The system runs on Linux, Apache, MSQL, PHP
  • The system will also run in a Windows environment

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Yes, at extra cost
Support response times
Customers can choose different levels of support. The hosting environment is supported 24 x 7. The Drupal support is between 8;30 a.m. and 5p.m. on business weekdays. 24 x 7 is available if specified.
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
Yes
Online ticketing support accessibility
WCAG 2.0 AA or EN 301 549
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support
No
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
Priority critical: feedback 1 hour
High: 4 hours
Normal: 1 day
Low 3 days
Support is rolled in with hosting costs
24x7 access to cloud support engineer, additional £3k p.a.
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
We provide all the necessary on-site training and the necessary exercises, user, documentation and continuing support to aid our customers.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • ODF
  • PDF
  • Other
Other documentation formats
Many users require M/S office which we can supply
End-of-contract data extraction
This is non-proprietary open source software. At the end of the contract, the customer effectively own all of the resources in perpetuity. There is no proprietary lock-in.
End-of-contract process
There are no costs at the end of the contract, and all of the software, and its associated resources are owned by the customer in perpetuity. There is no proprietary lock-in.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 8
  • Internet Explorer 9
  • Internet Explorer 10+
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari 9+
  • Opera
Application to install
No
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
The Drupal themes used display according to the type of device used to access the website. For example, desktop, tablet, smartphone. Drupal will work on any browser-enabled device.
Accessibility standards
WCAG 2.0 AAA
Accessibility testing
The Drupal community have devoted themselves to extensive accessibility testing and best practices:
https://www.drupal.org/docs/7/accessibility/tools-and-best-practices

Our customers have used 'accessibility groups' to test their finished websites.
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
This is an open source platform. The API is fully open, fully customisable, and extensively documented at Drupal.org

The API is not required to set up the service
User can effectively make any change using the API, as it is entirely open
There are no limitation on using the API
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
Other
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
The Drupal environment is customisable either by using pre-built modules, of which there are literally tens of thousands. In the event of functionality required not being available, then PHP can be written. In our experience, and by adopting disciplined configuration techniques, writing code is extremely rarely required.

Scaling

Independence of resources
From a hosting perspective, the robustness and scalability of the cloud platform is able to cope with high spikes and peaks in demand.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
The customer can select which metrics they wish to to be supplied with.
Reporting types
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Reseller providing extra features and support
Organisation whose services are being resold
Rackspace

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Conforms to BS7858:2012
Government security clearance
Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

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
Another external penetration testing organisation
Protecting data at rest
Physical access control, complying with another standard
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
A standard module will allow the export of data in the following formats such as: csv, and xml.

Additionally, SQL and web services can be used to export data in other formats.
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
Other data export formats
  • Microsoft .doc
  • Basic txt
  • XML
  • PDF
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data import formats
  • PDF
  • Csv
  • Xml
  • Html

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
Private network or public sector network
Data protection within supplier network
Other
Other protection within supplier network
The Cloud Servers environment enforces physical segregation of customer images and data at the storage layer via the use of a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) file system. Customer data is maintained in a virtual hard-drive space by the VHD system and is only exposed to the correct server.

VHDs presented to the Cloud server as a physical resource, and the server will only be aware of and able to access the correct VHD. The resources underlying the VHD are exclusively reserved for that instance from creation until eventual destruction. Processes within the hypervisor abstract customer’s Cloud servers from other areas.

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
99.95%
Approach to resilience
Available on request.
Outage reporting
Alerts through text and email we have dashboard access.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
No
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
The Drupal systems is permissions based. Any part of the system can be restricted to specific users at the lowest levels on user-interface granularity.

A user can be a visitor (say to a website) and have access to any public data. A visitor can be authenticated, through various degrees of security, according to the data to which they have access.

Management of the system, for example, by systems administrators, is protected by the permissions and level of authentication as agreed with the client.
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)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
  • Other

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
BSI
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
21/10/2009
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
This is the scope below, all else falls outside the certification

The management of information security in the design, development & support of hosting solutions at our United States of America Data Centres (DFW1, DWF2, DFW3, IAD2 IAD3 & ORD1), United Kingdom Data Centres (LON1, LON3 and LON5) & Global Security Services & Information Technology Infrastructure Services support functions; Hong Kong Data Centre (HKG1); Sydney Data Centre (SYD2) & the business continuity controls of SYD4
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
Yes
Who accredited the PCI DSS certification
PCI Service Provider
PCI DSS accreditation date
30/6/2009
What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover
Non-payment card transactions
Other security accreditations
Yes
Any other security accreditations
  • ISO 14001
  • OHSAS 18001
  • ISO/IEC 27001

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance accreditation
Yes
Security governance standards
ISO/IEC 27001
Information security policies and processes
The hosting provider Leadership Team commit its support to the principles of the policy and empower the Chief of Security to undertake any steps necessary in order to achieve the objective of this policy.

Develop and maintain a framework to identify and measure attainment with security-related objectives;
Managing customer assets (logical or physical) in a mutualJy agreed manner;
Maintaining the confidentiality, integrity and availability of (customer and business) assets;
Ensuring information assets and processing facilities are protected against unauthorized access, misuse and disclosure at all times;
Ensuring that the requirements for the availability of business-assets and processing facilities required for operational activities shall be met;
Ensuring all relevant security related legal obligations shall be met;
Ensuring disposals of any media containing sensitive information are conducted in an agreed secure manner;
Investigating all known breaches of business security, actual or suspected in line with our security management controls and procedures;
Applying appropriate risk controls in all relevant situations;
Ensuring suppliers, partners and vendors of products and/or services required of the Security Management System have either signed-up to this policy and its requirements or a suitable risk assessment is undertaken.

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
• ISO 27001/2 based policies, reviewed at least annually
• Documented infrastructure change management procedures
• Secure document and media destruction
• Incident management function
• Business continuity plan focused on availability of infrastructure
• Independent reviews performed by third parties
• Continuous monitoring and improvement of security program

We normally deploy at least two servers, Live and Test, which enables any changes to be made to the test server prior to implementation on the live server.

Changes to Code and Configuration are always made in Test before being taken live.
Vulnerability management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Vulnerability management approach
The hosting provider has has built a security operation that takes the most effective elements of a traditional security strategy, focusing on three key areas that make it uniquely effective in today’s threat landscape:

• focus on data
• understand what is 'normal'
• tune tooling for non-normal activity

Any security patching is carried out immediately

Apart from external and published security alerts; the focus is on detecting anomalous activity - TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures). In line with current security best practice, the focus is on the, rather than devoting all attention on penetration.
Protective monitoring type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Protective monitoring approach
Protective monitoring is a corollary of the vulnerability approaches. They are effectively devoted to the same end that is to monitor incoming activity that looks like some sort of breach is underway, but also to continually and vigilantly monitor the internal landscape. Recent studies have demonstrated that attacks to security are often undetected (sometimes for years), but the industry sites 150 days. The aim is to pre-empt, discover and deal with any suspected breach immediately.
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
Policies and processes aimed at making sure information security events and weaknesses are communicated in a manner allowing timely corrective action.

Incidents (an vulnerabilities are reported by:

. Report a vulnerability by notifying us at security@rackspace.com. (If needed, you can encrypt your email using our public PGP key.) Please provide detailed information about the following:

The product, control panel, or infrastructure involved.
The steps required to reproduce the issue.
The impact of the vulnerability and how it can be exploited.

Security report issues remain undisclosed until a full investigation has occurred and any necessary patches, fixes, or releases are available.

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
Yes
Connected networks
  • Public Services Network (PSN)
  • Police National Network (PNN)
  • New NHS Network (N3)
  • Joint Academic Network (JANET)
  • Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN)

Pricing

Price
£24,800 to £35,200 a unit
Discount for educational organisations
Yes
Free trial available
No

Documents

Pricing document
Pricing document
Terms and conditions document
Terms and conditions document

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 chris.morton@planalpha.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.