Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust reduces costs and enhances efficiency with software asset appraisal

Customer challenge

To enable cost reduction and achieve greater alignment with the NHS IT Maturity Model (NIMM), Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust was keen to verify its software licence position. For the project to be a success, it had to be completed as accurately and efficiently as possible.

Computacenter solution

Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust partnered with Computacenter to conduct a software asset discovery and appraisal. Using an automated discovery tool, Computacenter reconciled the trust's licences against the software installed. This identified a number of unused licences that could be redeployed as well as unauthorised software that had been deployed on the trust's devices.

Results

The trust can now prove compliance to vendors and NHS Connecting for Health, which means it is entitled to access a broader range of centrally managed software.

The project has also enabled Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust to reduce costs and provide staff with access to the applications they need, helping to improve efficiency and the quality of patient care.

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Customer profile

Delivering healthcare services for 161,000 people
Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust provides a full range of inpatient and outpatient healthcare services to more than 161,000 people in West Cambridgeshire.

These services are delivered from the 266-bed Hinchingbrooke Hospital, which features a state-of-the-art £22 million outpatient facility and a £6.5 million accident and emergency unit. The site is also home to a new children's unit, which is run by Cambridgeshire Primary Care Trust.

Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust has an annual budget of £63 million and is currently undergoing a major ward upgrade programme to help improve the patient experience.

Business challenge

Maximising resources
With the NHS charged with saving £15 billion by 2014, organisations like Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust need to make better use of their resources – whether it involves clinical staff or IT systems.

Software asset management is a key area for NHS organisations looking to reduce cost, and therefore a core component of the NHS IT Maturity Model (NIMM).

Developed by NHS Connecting for Health, NIMM aims to encourage trusts to enhance their IT management processes and move towards greater IT standardisation and optimisation. As Barry Patton, Desktop Services Manager at Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust, explains: "Achieving higher levels of IT maturity will enable us to enhance the availability of critical healthcare systems while minimising costs."

In addition to enhancing its NIMM maturity, Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust was keen to improve its understanding of its software assets in order to enhance the efficiency of the IT team and eliminate unnecessary expenditure.

Regaining control of the software estate would require extensive resources and licensing expertise, however. "We wanted to verify our licence position, but with 1,200 desktops and 70 servers this was a significant project and we were keen to complete it in the most accurate and efficient manner," comments Barry.

Computacenter solution

Software asset discovery and appraisal
To ensure success, Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust decided to take advantage of the software asset discovery and appraisal service offered by Computacenter. The service is designed to reconcile the software installed and used by organisations against the licences held to reveal an accurate licence position.

Following an evaluation of the trust's IT estate, Computacenter implemented Centennial Discovery as the best-fit discovery and inventory tool. This solution collates information regarding the software installed and used on each desktop, laptop and server throughout the trust's IT infrastructure. The data provided by the solution formed the basis for a software asset appraisal.

As part of the appraisal findings, Computacenter highlighted any discrepancies between the licences owned by the trust and the software installed as well as opportunities to maximise utilisation. Barry comments: "Computacenter's report identified where we had software installed that was not being used, for example Microsoft Project, enabling us to free up licences for other members of staff."

The appraisal not only covered standard office-based software but also specialist healthcare applications, and helped to identify unauthorised applications that had been installed on NHS devices. "By eliminating unauthorised software, we can safeguard security and IT performance," adds Barry.

As well as establishing an accurate licensing position, the report made nine key recommendations on how the trust can enhance software asset management on an ongoing basis. These recommendations included keeping an up-to-date inventory of software installed and harvesting licences from end-of-life devices.

To simplify the implementation of these recommendations, Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust uses the Centennial software on an ongoing basis for tracking its software assets. As Barry explains: "We regularly access detailed reports regarding our software assets via an online interface. The data can be viewed by device, operating system or application to provide complete visibility."

Results

Proven compliance and reduced costs
Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust now has a comprehensive understanding of its software assets and is implementing Computacenter's recommendations to maintain control of its estate.

"Computacenter's report showed that we did not have any significant under- or over-licensing, but without undertaking the project we would not have been able to demonstrate this to vendor auditors or NHS Connecting for Health," comments Barry.

This ability to prove compliance will entitle the trust to access centrally managed software in the future, such as Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010. The trust is already assessing Microsoft anti-virus software, which could potentially save the trust £20,000 a year in cost-avoidance

Enhanced visibility and control of its software estate has also enabled the trust to:

Enhance the efficiency of software management: Using the Centennial software and best practices introduced by Computacenter, Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust's small IT team can maintain a balanced licence position without needing to invest in extensive resources.

Help staff to work faster and smarter: The trust now has visibility of the software versions on each hardware device, which means it can ensure staff have access to the latest versions. It can also better manage the distribution of popular but expensive software, such as Microsoft Project, to maximise staff collaboration and productivity.

Make cost savings: Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust has been able to reduce costs by maximising its existing licences in three ways:

• Freeing up idle licences for re-use
  
• Harvesting licences for redeployment from end of life devices
  
• Identifying over-licensing, which has resulted in surplus budget to invest elsewhere

"We now have peace of mind that we are fully compliant with our licensing agreements, and are working towards better software asset management practices that will enable us to increase efficiency and reduce cost, freeing up more resources for patient care," comments Barry.