Case Study - UHL NHS Trust
Big changes. Limited Funds
“Our clinicians really like the technology because it allows them to work flexibly, quick and safely” – Jon Clarke, CIO, UHL NHS Trust
After years of underinvestment, UHL faced challenges from its ageing technology. Slow devices were holding doctors and nurses back and cutting down on the time they could spend with patients.
UHL needed to modernise its technology in a way that worked for clinicians and improved patient care. Critically it needed to do this without disrupting the operations of a busy hospital.
It also had had to maximise a budget that could only go so far. On top of this, the Trust needed a platform that would continue to give staff access to the latest technology to keep performance high. All whilst delivering cost savings over the long term
UHL worked with NTT DATA, in partnership with Xeretec, to design a roll out of new technology – fully-supported under a Device as a Service (DaaS) model, for an affordable monthly price. The package involved 15,000 devices, with 6000 needing to be deployed in the first year alone, including HP desktops, notebooks and Workstations, and Apple mobile devices.
Considering the complexity of the environment, scale of the project and limitations around available IT resource within the Trust, NTT DATA and Xeretec provide UHL with a truly end to end service. The dedicated onsite team are responsible for image creation and deployment, physical assessments and consultancy, the physical deployment and connection of new technology alongside the removal of the Trust’s old equipment, asset management and ongoing BAU service. The whole operation was carefully managed to bring in the new devices in a way that would not disrupt care. This was critical. Jon Clarke, Chief Information Officer: “The hospital is a 24/7 organisation with patient care its focus. So, refreshing IT is like changing the engines on an aeroplane while it’s still flying.” DaaS gave the Trust access to the latest technology, without the costs and depreciation of owning devices outright. Andy Carruthers, CTO at UHL explained: “Device as a Service allows us to smooth the finance over the years of the contract rather than having a spike in investment every time we need to refresh equipment across the Trust.”
