Oxfordshire HIS improves the management of its infrastructure with Microsoft and 1E

In this video case study, managers from Oxfordshire Health Informatics Service outline the benefits of working with Microsoft partner 1E to deploy Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003.

Oxfordshire Health Informatics Service (OHIS) serves the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust and two other trusts in Oxfordshire. It has about 7,500 desktop machines across 80 sites.

The range of locations and diversity of systems made it difficult for the service to manage its IT assets effectively, while the limited information about desktops made purchasing decisions hard and deployments difficult and lengthy.

So when technical support for its existing operating system expired, OHIS looked for new options. IT project manager, Dominic Hamilton, found 1E, who advised that Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 might provide a solution to some of its problems.

OHIS and 1E then built up a business case to use Microsoft technologies in conjunction with 1E's tool, SMS Nomad Branch, to distribute and deploy software and patches to remote offices. Deployment began in December 2006 and was complete by January 2007.

The benefits of a complete view of desktop infrastructure

"The service now has a complete, overall view of our desktop infrastructure, which is a big benefit.”
Mr Hamilton says the service now has “a complete, overall view of our desktop infrastructure”, which is a “big benefit” as it can now advise managers on where to invest.

Patches and fixes can also be rolled out rapidly. Director, John Skinner, says OHIS recently needed to roll out a fix to the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre. Before this would have meant sending a team of 10 people out to the centre to manually install the fix on each of its PCs.

This would have disrupted the hospital’s work and cost thousands of pounds. “With SMS we were able to do it within budget and within our existing resource,” he says. In addition, OHIS was able to collect reports on the progress of the installation as it was in progress.

A robust and secure infrastructure

Another benefit is a more robust and reliable infrastructure. Mr Hamilton says this benefits the staff as they can be confident about using computers for day-to-day tasks, such as discharging patients, which has knock-on benefits for patient care.

Mr Skinner goes further, arguing that a secure and robust infrastructure is now vital. For example, he points out that hospitals now use digital imaging and no longer print film. “It is essential that staff can get access to those images when and where they need them, wherever they are, right across the county infrastructure,” he says.

A further benefit is that OHIS now knows exactly what software is being used on its desktops and can move quickly to block security risks. It has greatly reduced the number of support calls it receives. And it now feels confident about undertaking further IT projects, such as the digitisation of case notes.

Working with 1E

“Without them we would have done an amateur implementation that would not have delivered so many benefits and which would have taken an awful long time.” Mr Skinner says 1E had skilled technicians who were not only able to help the informatics service but to provide training to staff. “Without them we would have done an amateur implementation that would not have delivered so many benefits and which would have taken an awful long time,” he says.

Meanwhile, Jon McKellar, director of consulting at 1E, says OHIS was able to achieve its objectives. “Logic shows that when you apply standards across any environment you get savings in terms of efficiency and time and manpower as well as cost,” he says. “Oxon Health Informatics were able to achieve all those things through the deployment of SMS and the wider Microsoft products we recommended.”

Watch the video now or read more about the benefits of infrastructure optimisation