Accenture Confirmed As Next NHSMail Provider

The Department of Health (DoH) and NHS National Services Scotland (NHS NSS) have confirmed that technology services provider Accenture will be delivering the new NHSMail service.

The five year contract, which is estimated to be worth around £70m, will see the supplier implement a new and improved secure cloud based NHSMail service across England and Scotland.

Nearly 700,000 health and care workers across the NHS will have access to the updated service which aims to enable secure communication to users of less secure systems such as non-NHS partners and patients.

Accenture will be working alongside technology solutions company Avanade to deploy services as add-ons to the core service, such as an enterprise-wide directory and Lync collaboration technology for instant messaging, VOIP, audio and video communication and enhanced collaboration between NHS healthcare workers.

According to Accenture, these tools, with support from Avanade’s Unified Communications and Collaboration Managed Service (UCCMS), have the power to transform the way in which UK healthcare organisations work and share information for the benefit of patients and staff.

“Almost 700,000 doctors, clinicians and other health and care employees already use NHSMail to communicate securely,” claimed Accenture UK’s health business managing director Aimie Chapple.

“The new improve NHSMail service will provide significant digital technology improvements to help NHS staff drive even more effective collaboration at all points of patient care.

“This will be one of the largest mailbox migrations ever delivered and will bring significant benefits to the way NHS employees exchange information, communicate and interact across healthcare,” she added.

Better Security

Under the agreement, which was signed in June, Accenture and Avanade are set to build new functionalities and maintain secure email and collaboration services available to NHS organisations in Scotland and England.

The two firms will also deploy a secure, multi-tenanted email service, based on Microsoft Exchange 2013 which will replace the NHS’s existing platform implemented in 2007.

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