Software helps Bucks cope with rising support calls

Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust has implemented a new support call service to meet increased demand following the deployment of its new Cerner Millennium patient administration system last September and a general increase in computer use.

The software from Hornbill Systems’ Supportworks Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) provides an integrated platform for automating and managing request and service management related business processes.

The platform has core modules that provide service level management, escalation, notification, e-mail, approvals, connectivity, enterprise integration, concurrent application management/deployment, and a graphically driven workflow automation engine.

The system will be used by the trust’s IT team to provide support for all incidents and service requests, which are expected to increase as almost 5000 users across the Amersham, Stoke Mandeville and High Wycombe site use the Millennium system.

As well as providing ITSM, the system has enabled the trust to adopt a new Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework, based on Connecting for Health’s best practice standards.

Buckinghamshire’s IT service support manager, Peter Drage, said: “As a trust we needed an IT Service Management System that would enable us to implement ITIL [The IT Infrastructure Library] ‘Best Practice’ yet be flexible enough for us to adopt and adapt and with an open architecture to allow interfacing with existing systems.

“For us the great benefit of Supportworks ITSM is that most of its functionality comes ‘out of the box’, with fast modification of processes to suit our needs. It delivered all the functionality we required, including seamless ticketing, complex SLA support and integration with existing trust systems, at a very cost efficient price.”

Using the ‘seamless ticketing’ interface, the trust is able to link with Fujitsu, local service provider (LSP) for the South for second and third line support, and can also integrate with existing trust systems such as Active Directory and SMS.

The system was customised to communicate with Fujitsu’s system using the Open Telephony Interface and allows the trust to gather the CfH minimum data set which is required if a call is to be passed back to a LSP for resolution.

Drage added: “Call volumes have increased by 30% since CRS [Care Records Service] went live and with the Connecting for Health (CfH) minimum data requirement calls take longer to log. Without Supportworks ITSM there is no way that we could have managed this increase. Supportworks ITSM has put us in a position where we can easily cope with future CfH and NPfIT programme requirements and we also have the ability to adapt quickly to internal change.”

Under the new arrangement, all calls regarding the new CRS are triaged locally before being referred to the LSP. Once the LSP has dealt with the call, data is sent back to the trust and this data is then fed back into Supportworks ITSM for the call to be closed.

Hornbill Systems modified the system for Buckinghamshire so that it would meet CfH’s Service Level Agreement requirements on response times to calls logged regarding NPfIT systems.

Hornbill’s managing director, Gerry Sweeney, said: “The NHS National Programme for IT is driving immense changes. Hornbill’s Supportworks has proven that it can assist the NHS to adopt ITIL ‘Best Practice’, adapt to meet the CfH minimum data set requirements and be up and running quickly to manage the increased demands as a result of the new NPfIT systems. The open architecture of Supportworks is ideal for supporting the national programme as it enables seamless integration with third party systems, such as the local service providers’ service desks.”