Consultancy Service - Case Study

A South West London Doctor's practice makes extensive use of a Practice Management database application for clinical and patient data.

A need to move to a paperless (in response to a Government directive) and increasing demands by other Healthcare Professionals raised concerns about the viability of the existing server that also ran MS-Exchange for the practice.

The Practice Management software vendor had submitted a proposal for a system upgrade (including new desktop computers). Effective Desktop were asked to review this proposal and assess it against the Surgery's requirements, the results of which were best summarised:-

• The proposal would not meet project objectives.
• The server quoted was under specified for even current requirements.
• The network topology was an issue – a single & aged network hub was servicing 25 + users.
• The budget for the project placed insufficient emphasis on the back office infrastructure.

The Suregry's Management team then asked Effective Desktop to address the above. This was achieved with:

• An introduction to a local IBM accredited VAR and a mutually profitable relationship established
• A fault tolerant and resilient Server with significant upgrade capacity – supplied & supported by the local VAR - was deployed
• A resilient, switched network infrastructure installed
• Desktop PC’s that exceeded the original (software vendor’s) specification supplied buy Effective Desktop and installed by the PCT
• Intervention with the PCT resulted in correct funding allocation
• Agressive, knowledgeable, negotiation by Effective Desktop resulted in better pricing than could obtained though NHS GCAT