Read all about it: NHS signs new enterprise wide agreement in England

Microsoft and NHS Connecting for Health have signed a new enterprise agreement for the NHS - while Cable and Wireless has announced that NHSmail is to move from its present platform to Microsoft Exchange 2007.

The enterprise agreement (EA) was first signed in 2004, when it gave NHS organisations easier access to a range of Microsoft office software.

The new agreement, which runs until May 2010, covers more desktop and personal productivity software.

Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows Vista, is included, as is the email and collaboration platform Exchange and anti-virus technology. The deal also extends Microsoft’s commitment to the Common User Interface (CUI) programme, the Home User Programme (HUP), and IT training for NHS staff.

NHSmail’s transition to Exchange 2007, meanwhile, should deliver a number of benefits, including better access from mobile devices and better shared access to calendars, contacts and other functions. 

Microsoft and the NHS

John Coulthard, director of healthcare at Microsoft UK, says the announcement shows that the relationship between Microsoft and the NHS is maturing and that the NHS is willing to make bold decisions about its IT.

"The days of having a man in a van running around doing patches and upgrades should really be over - and the new EA will give the NHS access to the technology it needs to do a lot of that work remotely." “The NHS is now doing many of the things that top organisations are doing,” he says. “Adopting software as a service for the mail platform is world leading work; and when people hear about it, they tend to say ‘wow’, what a great thing to do. I think that between the two of us [Microsoft and the NHS] we have been able to make some very good decisions.”

The EA then and now

The original EA was for a total of nine years, with three year break-points to enable the NHS to review its technology requirements. Mr Coulthard says a number of things changed over the first three years and influenced the shape of the new agreement.

On the technology front, he says the NHS has found that it needs to use an increasing number of software applications and to get them running together smoothly - which Vista will help it to do.

At the same time, he says the service has realised that it needs to spend less time maintaining its infrastructure. “The days of having a man in a van running around doing patches and upgrades should really be over - and the new EA will give the NHS access to the technology it needs to do a lot of that work remotely,” he says.

On the business front, Mr Coulthard says the health service is moving towards more team and mobile working and needs the technology to support this.

"...if you standardise and improve your systems, you get access to more technology..." At the same time, government targets and new financial regimes have increased managerial demands for good, real time information about what is happening in hospitals and health economies.

“The requirement for organisations to really understand what is going on in their healthcare businesses has become more important - and the idea that you can rely on third party organisations to provide you with old data to do that is gone,” he says. “Boards need to be able to use their existing data and to analyse it in intelligent ways - and the new EA includes tools that will help them to do that.”

Big picture benefits

Overall, then, Mr Coulthard argues that the new EA is less about giving the NHS access to particular Microsoft products than about helping it to meet technological and business challenges.

“There should not be any [Microsoft] software that the NHS can think of using that is not available as a result of the agreement,” he says. “And an important aspect of it is that if you standardise and improve your systems, you get access to more technology - such as [the collaborative workspace technology] Groove.

"There is free training through the NHS Resource Centre that people can work through at their own pace, and there will be new IT skills academies that people will be able to use for more formal training." “The NHS will make savings because of the agreement. But the procurement savings are tiny in comparison with the savings it should be able to make in terms of improving infrastructure, team working and business practices.”

CUI, HUP and training

The new agreement also extends Microsoft’s commitment to the CUI programme - an innovative aspect of the original EA that is working on a range of projects to create a more standard “look and feel” for NHS applications and to build NHS-specific research and support tools into its own software.

Microsoft is committed to spending an additional £10 million a year on the programme. It is also committed to providing funding for additional online resources, including the NHS Resource Centre, a new portal that will bring NHSmail and research functions together and the new patient website, NHS Choices.

The new EA also means that NHS staff will be able to continue to get the Microsoft Office 2007 suite of products - free - for their home personal use through the HUP and also extends Microsoft’s commitment to training.

"The [NHSmail] refresh will go through four phases, beginning with the collection of user requirements and testing at the Microsoft Engineering Excellence Centre in Redmond, USA."“The idea that NHS staff need IT skills is now well understood and the EA reflects that in a number of ways,” says Mr Coulthard. “There is free training through the NHS Resource Centre that people can work through at their own pace, and there will be new IT skills academies that people will be able to use for more formal training.”

NHSmail on the move

Cable and Wireless has been in charge of NHSmail since 2004. It decided to review Exchange 2007 in December and has now announced that NHSmail will undergo a technology refresh and move onto the Microsoft platform.

The refresh will go through four phases, beginning with the collection of user requirements and testing at the Microsoft Engineering Excellence Centre in Redmond, USA.

However, the company and NHS CFH argue there will be a number of benefits to the move, including better access to email, calendar and contracts from mobile devices and “significant” improvements to these functions. There will also be increased disaster recovery capability.

Ian Fowler, head of frameworks at Cable and Wireless told a specialist health IT website: “This will clearly enhance NHS staff’s lives. It will provide a new way of communicating with their colleagues and even their patients outside their standard place of work. It will also increase functionality and productivity.”

Welcome news

NHS CFH has welcomed both of the recent announcements. Mark Ferrar, director of infrastructure, said of the EA: “Technology enhancement and innovation move at a rapid rate and we need to continue delivering those benefits to staff and patients alike.

“We acknowledge the crucial role played in these developments by our suppliers as well as the importance to CfH of Microsoft’s partnership and investment.”