Our SaaS solutions
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Our products are SaaS solutions, or Software as a Service. Some clients will prefer an off-the-shelf solution, so we provide these and host them in the cloud. That’s not to say that we don’t tailor the solutions. We regularly draw on our user-centred design capabilities and adapt them to meet our clients' needs. But because they’re SaaS solutions, our clients don’t need to worry about storing data, maintaining software or keeping the system secure. That’s our job.
Our products are our own intellectual property. That means unlike the bespoke services, we own the rights to the technology we’ve created. We can package the products up and sell them to clients we know will find them useful.
With over a decade embedded in criminal justice, our products support better outcomes across police forces, prisons, probation and youth justice. And some of our newer solutions, like AnyCase, are sector agnostic.
Our ambition is a world where all services work in harmony with people. We do that by delivering systems that are smarter, safer, seamless and more sustainable.
Our people are the strength of our company. We know the sectors inside out because many of us have worked in them and now deliver to them. That means our software is created by experts, and the support is provided by teams with real experience.
We empower organisations to be more effective, inclusive and sustainable through products and services that are intelligent, integrated and intuitive for all. And user-centred thinking is how we deliver that.
We put simple and accessible design at the heart of our products and services. We have a dedicated User Experience (UX) team that focuses on constant improvements to our own products. They conduct reviews, from quick fixes to full UX audits. Our UX specialists work with product teams when designing solutions to make sure they:
meet the user needs
meet the business needs
Innovation is at the core of everything we do. We don’t believe in being complacent when we can always strive for better. That’s why we challenge the boundaries of what’s possible in our products.
Our drive for continuous improvement means we’re constantly iterating our software. We engage with our clients and users to inform these improvements. And with multiple releases a year, we make sure we’re delivering updates as quickly as possible. A key part of our continuous improvement approach is working in scrum.
Our ways of working are driven by the scrum framework, a process of evidence-based and iterative decision-making that focuses on transparency, inspection and adaption.
The essence of scrum is to do something, learn from it and then change. We typically work in 2 week sprints, making decisions based on feedback about what we know.
Certain things have to happen in a sprint, and these activities are called ceremonies. At the beginning, we start sprint planning. This lays out the work we need to complete in the next fortnight. We also review the backlog of requirements that are driven by new legislation, technology and processes or that have come through the support desk. The product owner and scrum master sit down regularly to review the backlog with input from development to feed high priority items into the next sprint. Then we have daily stand ups (short meetings) at the same time each morning to check in on progress and handle any blockers.
Towards the end of the 2 weeks, we have a sprint review where we inspect the work we have produced in that sprint. This helps shape future work and gives the team the opportunity to share what they have done with key stakeholders. Finally, we hold a sprint retrospective (retro). The retro reflects on how we delivered the work and plans ways to increase the quality and effectiveness of our working practices.
While the product manager and product owner are focused on the roadmap, the scrum master is focused on the team and scrum. They are accountable for the team’s effectiveness, striving for greater value in development and removing challenges.
We use this framework to bring our roadmap to life and meet our service level agreements.
Large data migrations are a big concern for clients. And that makes sense. It’s a huge task with high stakes. But we’re here every step of the way to make that process easier.
We start by understanding the data. What format is it in? Where is that data stored? And what does our client expect us to deliver? These are all important question to answer before we begin a migration.
Data can be stored in different ways and in different locations. Commonly, we work with whole databases, document libraries and xml files (exports of databases that condense data into a bitesize chunk).
One of the first steps is a data discovery, a way of visualising data to look for patterns and insights. Then we can map the data and configure it ready to be moved. All of this is signed off by the client to make sure our expectations are in line with theirs.
We’re then ready to set up a secure transfer mechanism to get the data from point A to point B. It starts in the customer’s existing environment, before moving to a migration environment and then finally transferring into the live environment. Each move has the potential to make the data vulnerable, so we build security in at every stage.
Once the data leaves the customer environment, it sits in a data warehouse. This is a place to store and process large quantities of structured and unstructured data. It gives us the chance to do reporting and testing. We check that we can unpack the data and that it’s in the right format for us to use. Then we map where data from the client’s existing environment will appear in the live environment.
We also test for data quality. This means checking that the data appears in the way it should do. For example, if all dates of birth need to be in the format 01/02/2003 then we have to change any showing as 1 Feb 2003. This must be fixed before the migration to the live environment.
The final step is data acceptance testing with the client. Only once we have official confirmation that everything meets the client’s standards can we migrate the data into the live environment.
Another consideration is integrations. This is when the system we’re providing needs to link to third-party systems to access more data. Take Interventions Manager for example. We integrate with nDelius, the national database for people on probation. They provide the referrals for behavioural programs, and we provide information back about attendance and feedback. We adapt our technical architecture to absorb that data into our system and then share data in return, following data governance rules.
To make a migration seamless, we provide training to help clients make the most of our systems. Experts provide both train-the-trainer sessions as well as wider end-user training. And if needed, we can do training needs analysis to help each client pick the training option that’s right for their organisation. This full service during the migration helps our clients go-live as efficiently as possible.
Our products are hosted, so they sit in the cloud. We use a variety of public and private clouds, working with a range of suppliers like AWS, Azure and Oracle to suit the needs of our clients. We comply with the National Cyber Security Centre best practice, which means our data is held in the UK and we always host in multiple locations at the same time for business continuity and disaster recovery purposes.
Our clients don’t need the infrastructure or technical know-how to support a product. The services are accessible online in a secure environment. So from a user perspective, teams can log on and find the services they need from day one.
Hosted solutions don’t have to wait for a major release to get updates into the software. As soon as a feature is ready, we can deploy it. That means we’re getting value to the customer at the earliest opportunity. And if there are any problems, we can get ahead of them quickly and offer solutions rapidly.
Our software underpins critical services across the UK, so our clients need to know they can rely on us to step in when they need help. The team has worked on some of our products for over 10 years so we’re experts in our technologies. And we pride ourselves on going the extra mile to support our clients. With NEC Digital Studio, clients get the personal touch of a dedicated and friendly support team with the backing of the wider NECSWS cyber, service and technology teams. And that makes a world of difference to the support we deliver.
On the rare occasion that there is a serious issue, we have a central major incident team who are trained to handle the process. They keep users and stakeholders updated while working with the support and development teams to resolve the issue. They are also responsible for writing up a major incident report to take lessons learned and incorporate them into our processes. In instances like this, clients need us to prioritise proactive support to fix the problem so that's what we deliver.
It’s not just a one-way street. To deliver best-in-practice software, we require the support of our clients too. And this can be summed up in one word: collaboration.
Whether the product is custom built for a specific customer or is being used by many different clients, we like to make sure it’s hitting the mark. That involves regular service management meetings to review the product roadmap and any outstanding calls, so expectations are shared and we’re held accountable for our promises.
Transparency is key to our partnerships with clients. We believe in holding our hands up if something goes wrong and expect our clients to approach us with the same honesty. We value trust and openness, and we live by those values in how we deliver to our clients.
We’re future minded too. We run user groups and meetings with clients to look at the market and understand their evolving drivers and requirements. This way, we can innovate and adapt to meet their needs. Our solutions are not just for today, they’re for tomorrow.
