HGS UK

HGS Automated Digital Workforce; IBM Watson Chatbot, Intelligent and Cognitive Automation

Our certified automation experts support and deliver tailored HGS Automated Digital Workforce Software for Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), cognitive automation, RPA; interaction automation (Chatbot), OCR/ICR across all industry leading platforms.
HGS is a trusted UK Government Tier 1 supplier with 100+ automated solutions ensuring reliability, security and compliance.

Features

  • .Non-invasive technology solutions and APIs provided by leading automation providers
  • Experienced in Amazon-Lex, Twilio Auto Pilot, IBM Watson, Google, Live-Person
  • Experienced in Automation Anywhere, UiPath, Blue Prism, Pega Systems
  • Tailored AI, ML, Predictive Analytics, NLP, Image Analytics, OCR/ICR.
  • Blended (part automation) and fully automated solutions.
  • Specialists in Contact Centre and Business Process management Automation.
  • A Centre of Excellence identifies, understands, designs and delivers automation.
  • 100+ RPA Experts; Consultants, Architects, Tech-Leads, Developers, Testers, Project Managers.
  • Operating model aligned to internal organisation structures
  • Monitoring, performance and incident management of the Bots

Benefits

  • Increases speed of deployment without significant IT or Security workload
  • HGS automation experts deliver engagement automations that exceed customer/operations expectations
  • Seamlessly uses client’s existing end-user interfaces and enterprise applications
  • Efficiency gains across all aspects of Customer Engagement and Insights
  • Scalable and configurable end to end automation
  • Efficiency/accuracy gains in Contact Centre and Business Process Management productivity
  • A proven, de-risked highly secure approach delivering value for money
  • All automation phases are de-risked, optimised delivering value for money
  • Seamless synchronisation between departments to deliver automation ROI
  • Optimal efficiency and reduced turn-around time for issue resolutions

Pricing

£362.00 a person a day

  • Education pricing available
  • 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 bidteam@teamhgs.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 12

Service ID

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

Contact

HGS UK Rob Irons
Telephone: 07827 940800
Email: bidteam@teamhgs.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
Our client’s existing infrastructure, applications and software and third-party software such as HGS market leading automation vendor partnerships. We augment these through strategy, process mining, discovery, design, delivery and support to deliver robotic process automation, machine learning and AI, intelligent virtual assistant (chatbots), OCR/ICR, business intelligence and visualisation.
Cloud deployment model
  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
  • Community cloud
  • Hybrid cloud
Service constraints
No
System requirements
  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity
  • Database configuration to allow the automation software to query data
  • Server capacity for automation software to be installed
  • Windows 7, 64 Bit and 50+ GB Ram or higher

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Yes, at extra cost
Support response times
Our email or ticketing support service levels apply 24/7 with response times according to priority levels:
• Critical - 0.5 Hours
• High - 2 Hours
• Medium - 8 Hours
• Low - within 48 Hours
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
Yes
Online ticketing support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 A
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support
Yes, at an extra cost
Web chat support availability
24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support accessibility standard
WCAG 2.1 A
Web chat accessibility testing
The tools/ applications we use have been tested by the automation provider for accessibility suitability
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
A dedicated team of certified automation cloud monitoring and support experts ensure the continuous delivery and availability of your HGS Automated Digital Workforce Software with support options up to 24/7 for:
• Critical: System, Programme or Critical Function is inoperable; Impacts production
• Major: A major function does not work, is disabled, or gives incorrect results; Impacts production
• Minor: A minor function does not work, is disabled, or gives incorrect results; Minor impact to production
• Cosmetic: Less critical than a minor problem; Does not impact production
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
HGS certified automation experts will kick off with a discovery session with the user to identify the set of processes that are suitable for automation and associated business case / Return on Investment (ROI). They will also create a roadmap of automation engagement to be delivered over an agreed period of time e.g. 6 month or 12-month plan. Once both parties have agreed the processes to be automated and the approach to be taken, our certified automation experts will then begin the automation deployment. This encompasses design to deployment based on our award-winning framework for automation best practices with comprehensive documentation (playbook).
Post deployment training will be given to the user along with a comprehensive Bot playbook. This ensures the user has the understanding and reference material to manage the Bot on a day to day basis. In our experience this is normally an acceptable handover process for the user, but further training can be delivered if required.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • ODF
  • PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
The software does not store any data. Data will be stored on the buyer server and any respective applications. The software is only a conduit to process the data and action the tasks. Therefore no data extraction is required at the end of contract
Although the software doesn’t store data we can provide customised reporting on the bot productivity and process business insights. This can be made available in near real time reports.
End-of-contract process
At the end of the contract a project team will be appointed to ensure a smooth handover to the buyer or new third party.
HGS will handover all necessary documentation to manage the Bot automation to the buyer and any HGS user access to the software will be remove.
In the event that HGS has provided the automation technology then we will work with the buyer to facilitate transfer of the licences. Alternatively, the buyer will need to provide a new technology platform.
Both parties will sign off that the handover has been complete in full prior to the project close

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 10
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari 9+
Application to install
Yes
Compatible operating systems
  • Android
  • IOS
  • Linux or Unix
  • MacOS
  • Windows
  • Windows Phone
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
Mobile – Chatbots, self-serve reporting
Desktop – RPA, Chatbots, self-serve reporting, cognitive automation
Service interface
Yes
Description of service interface
• Assisted Bot: The Bot works alongside the user. The Bot can interface through dialogue boxes and webforms
• Control Room Access: User interface (UI) and realtime Bot performance monitoring and reporting via a web-based application. This also allows the user the option to assign Bots to tasks and schedule Bots if they wish to take this responsibility themselves
• Chatbot supporting the user: Through dialogue boxes, chat interface or webforms
Accessibility standards
WCAG 2.1 A
Accessibility testing
The tools/ applications we use have been tested by the automation provider for accessibility suitability
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
Where systems don’t directly talk to each other, the API is designed to send data between the applications. It then updates back to the main system through an API call – This includes SOAP and REST API. Changes such as querying and data transmission can also be done through the APIs.
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • HTML
  • ODF
  • PDF
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
The following can be customised by the user; input forms, dialogue chats, call and process workflows, IVR/IVA response, dashboard/BI, localisation and language.

Scaling

Independence of resources
Each service for each user is independent and has different licenses. Therefore there is no conflict with other users when demand increases. Our certified automation experts, working within our automation control room, continuously monitor and manage Bot performance and utilisation to ensure any peak in demand is managed effectively and any idle/underutilised bots are optimised. Any issues or technical issues are escalated by them as per the agreed incident matrix.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
We provide Key Performance Indicator (KPI) metrics to include but not limited to; Bot productivity, utilisation, success rates (query resolved transactions) and exception reporting. We provide customised, near real time reporting using the Bot logs and extensive analytics.
Reporting types
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

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

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
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
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 once a year
Penetration testing approach
‘IT Health Check’ performed by a CHECK service provider
Protecting data at rest
Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
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
The software does not store any data. Data will be stored on the buyer server and any respective applications. The software is only a conduit to process the data and action the tasks. Therefore no data export is required
Although the software doesn’t store data we can provide customised reporting on the bot productivity and process business insights. This can be made available in near real time reports.
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data export formats
Excel
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data import formats
  • Excel
  • PDF
  • Word

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
  • Private network or public sector network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Bonded fibre optic connections
  • Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)
Data protection within supplier network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
We build high availability solutions with terms and conditions and availability guarantees aligned to the HGS Technology Partner Agreement . Our Technology Partners guarantee at least 99.95% availability. Service credits will be part of the agreed terms and conditions
Approach to resilience
The automation software platforms HGS uses are provided by our Technology Partners. They are hosted on the highly secure cloud-based infrastructure to include Amazon Webservices, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle Cloud and IBM Cloud with UK and EU data centre options. The data configuration and network architecture ensures the highest levels of security to manage access, detect irregular activity, encrypt data and perform audits. Data backups are protected with at least 99.95% data durability. Copies of all data uploaded to the data storage areas and stored across at multiple devices. Data is encrypted at rest and in transit. Availability Zones are built to be independent and physically separated from one another. In addition, our Technology Partners provide several Data Loss Prevention (DLP) tools that we can configure.
Outage reporting
We have an established incident management process and Root Cause Analysis (RCA) are communicated through calls, email or other channels as required based on the critical escalation levels agreed between the buyer and us. Alerts are also provided through dashboards, API or email.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
Staff desktops are locked down with access only to approved software required according to predefined login administration rights. A no personal phone/mobile device policy is in place with lockers provided for staff use. Network control ensures access to HGS/ third party buyer systems is only through the authorised connections e.g. VPN connection. We provide dedicated/segregated networks for our business teams.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • 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 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
TUV Rheinland
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
29/02/2020
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
N/A
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
HGS has been entrusted by the UK Government for over 20 years to process and store citizen personal data. Our overriding principle is to maintain protective security, keeping customer data secure by meeting the required security objectives set out in the call off contract.
We have designed and implemented a security structure as part of our established ISMS & ISO27001 accreditation and conform to the HMG Security Policy Framework (SPF). The service is fully accredited to the standards of ISO 9001:2015, ISO/IEC 27001:2013, eSCM SP-2.01 & adheres to ISO27002 & ISO27005 and PCI and, where required, Cyber Essentials Plus. This is assured through our own internal certifications and those of our Technology Partners.

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
HGS has implemented a robust and effective ITIL Change Management end to end process, to protect the reputation and credibility of HGS and its clients by managing and owning risks effectively. It provides accessibility to change advisory boards and assists change requestors to gain appropriate change approvals quickly and safely.
As standard procedure, HGS operates an ITIL version 3 release and deployment strategy including an environmental strategy which ensures that all releases are thoroughly tested through each environment with correct permissions rolling back any bugs or defects where necessary before uplifting to production.
Vulnerability management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Vulnerability management approach
Our infrastructure is monitored 24x7x365 by our Security/Networks Operations Centre (SOC/NOC) & supported by HGS’s Security Information & Event Management (SIEM) platform which is integrated within the security incident process & notification/incident management process. Real time scanning for network intrusion is in place with a defined and existing patch management and anti-virus policy is place
Protective monitoring type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Protective monitoring approach
Network operations control (NOC) will perform 24/7 real time monitoring of IT Infrastructure across the network, physical and virtual servers, thresholds, network configuration management & network traffic analysis.
Security Operation Control (SOC) will perform 24/7 security monitoring to ensure the detection and response of any security incidents in the infrastructure. The team will leverage collection, correlation and alerting capabilities along with manual analysis using dashboards, reports and event analysis across major security areas
A protective monitoring policy is in place and overseen by our Compliance and Audit team.
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
HGS’ Incident Management process follows ITIL v3 and provides a robust mechanism for users to raise incidents against services we provide. All incidents are recorded and escalated in accordance with the agreed (HGS and Buyer) incident/security operations management procedures. Incidents are raised via email, phone or system alerts. Feedback on incidents is provided via the agreed channels, for example email and monthly consolidated management reporting. Root Cause Analysis (RCA) will be completed if classified as a major incident

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
  • Public Services Network (PSN)
  • Health and Social Care Network (HSCN)

Pricing

Price
£362.00 a person a day
Discount for educational organisations
Yes
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
Depending on the opportunity, a proof of concept can be offered as complementary. This would include the consulting and development costs for an agreed period up to one month

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