Critical to the successful initiation of a project is an easy to consume business case and appropriate route to procurement. We have extensive experience in supporting all stages of the business case and procurement life cycle from the early Strategic Outline Case, the Outline Business Case, to the Full Business Case; including specification development.

Business Case Development

We have extensive experience in supporting our clients through all stages of the business case life cycle from the early Strategic Outline Case (SOC) through the Outline Business Case (OBC) through to the Full Business Case (FBC). We have worked on projects ranging from small departmental projects to £1b multisite programmes and country wide investments. We have experience of FT based and TDA based approaches with a range of models and tools to assist in the successful outcome of the case. The team have advanced analysis models and have worked to Treasury Green Book, OGC and more commercial ROI models.

Specification Development

Developing a specification to support procurement activity can be complex. It’s essential to ensure a specification delivers the solution that meets your requirements – and not just a list of functional requirements. We take a scenario and clinical workflow-based approach to developing specifications and translate those ‘real-life’ requirements in to functional and non-functional specifications.

We have worked with a range of organisations to develop specifications across a broad range of operational and functional areas:

• Electronic Health Records (EHR) / Electronic Patient Records (EPR)
• Patient Administrative Systems (PAS)
• Radiology Information Systems (RIS)
• Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS)
• Vendor Neutral Archives (VNA)
• Pathology (LIMS)
• Pharmacy
• Theatres
• Maternity
• Electronic Document Management (EDM)
• Health Information Exchange (HIE)
• Order communications
• Electronic prescribing
• ER/A&E
• Nurse documentation
• E-forms

Procurement Support

Route of procurement is a strategic consideration. There are an increasing number of frameworks which can be considered as well as routes such as OJEU and competitive dialogue. We work with our clients teams to ensure the right decision is made on the most appropriate procurement route and to ensure a smooth process through which suppliers are robustly evaluated, and that the result meets the criteria agreed at the outset.

Our team has managed a variety of procurements for our clients for over 10 years including full OJEU routes (including Competitive Dialogue and are fully appraised of the new regulations) through to frameworks and local SFI based models.

Contract Negotiations

We assist clients in the final stages of the procurement process to ensure that the contract is completed to the satisfaction of the client (and the successful supplier) ensuring that the client’s interests are protected and any risks are fully evaluated and understood. This stage also includes the production of a contract summary and working with the local legal teams where required.

We take a people centred approach to implementing any solution to ensure local ownership, faster adoption and realisation of return on investment. We are vendor agnostic and our team have implemented a range of electronic patient record and clinical solutions; of varying sizes and complexity.

With the opportunity for organisations to implement electronic patient record (EPR) solutions which meet local needs, comes the responsibility to ensure that the right solution is specified, procured and delivered.

An appropriately skilled and experienced team is critical to the success of electronic patient record implementations within complex environments. We recognise that most organisations will have access to a wide range of skills within their own teams, but that there are likely to be areas where additional support is required.

We provide our clients with the right people at the right time to keep projects on track and to deliver successfully. This approach and range of resources enables us to deliver critical project activity, using highly skilled specialists; all of whom have significant experience of working within health and care, and of successfully delivering solutions.

Programme and Project Management

Critical to the success of an EPR implementation is diligent management of programme and project activity. This ensures resources are used in the most effective and efficient way to achieve a smooth deployment that benefits the organisation. Working to MSP and PRINCE2 standards, we can provide long and short term programme and project management as well as specialist resources for focused activities such as cut over planning and go live management.

Solution Configuration

Delivering a solution in line with requirements to support future state working practices is the core activity of any deployment. Our solution specialists have in-depth, front-end and back office knowledge of all major EPR systems in the UK, coupled with extensive experience of NHS working practices. Whilst undertaking the configuration, we can also develop solution knowledge within trust teams to ensure they are appropriately skilled, ready to be self-sufficient post go-live.

Business Change

EPR implementations are driven by the need to improve the delivery of care, increase effectiveness and efficiency and to support wider organisational strategy. The solution and technology are enablers; delivering measurable and achievable benefits are the core drivers behind any deployment. Working with clinicians and key stakeholders to map processes across services and pathways to deliver business transformation plans, we ensure that focus is maintained on meeting the original investment objectives.

Testing

The successful execution of testing is essential for assuring the delivery and quality of any solution. We can provide this assurance and have significant experience in the planning, management and delivery of testing; including the effective triaging and managing of issues, working closely with client stakeholders and suppliers to manage issues to closure.

Training

Tailored and dynamic training delivered to staff ensures that new solutions are smoothly integrated into working practices. We have a wealth of experience in developing and delivering training programmes to meet the needs of diverse user groups; taking into account localisation, best practices and changes in process. Our services include training planning, preparation of training materials and managing and delivering training in a variety of formats.

Technical Services

We have a specialist technical team with comprehensive healthcare knowledge and experience with the ability to offer the following services;

• Infrastructure review and assessments covering
• Physical data centres
• Servers, including physical and virtual
• Cloud services
• Storage infrastructure
• Networks, including WAN, LAN and wireless
• Backups, including processes and strategies
• Structured cabling
• Design services
• Risk assessments
• Process effectiveness
• Licensing support and compliancy
• Disaster recovery and business continuity planning
• Hardware depreciation and lifespan assessments
• Contract and SLA support including performance analysis
• Security and anti virus, support reviews

There are times when you need short term support with specific skillsets. We have provided CIOs, IT Directors, Programme Managers, Project Managers, Domain Specialists and Technical specialists to some of the largest public sector organisations across the UK. We ensure that our staff have the right expertise and understanding to fulfill these roles and support our clients.

We take time to understand your requirements and identify from our own team, or using our own recruitment team, candidates who have a perfectly matched profile. We consider technical competence, experience and personality; so that your new team members are well equipped to make the right impact in your organisation from day one.