Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Trust (BCH) is a leading provider of community health services in the North West of England. The organisations distributed workforce relies heavily on the use of email to help increase efficiencies and productivity.
Previously, an aging Microsoft Exchange 2010 solution was deployed whose hardware was housed in local data centres. As the on-premises solution was due to reach end-of-life in January 2020, it became of paramount importance to retain a robust service, capable of meeting present and future needs. In addition, BCH also needed to meet the requirements of the NHS Secure Email standard (DCBI 1596).
NHSmail, a centrally hosted service powered by a later version of Exchange Server and DCBI 1596 accredited was subsequently chosen due to the following benefits:
- Centrally funded by the Department of Health until 2021.
- Removal of hardware / software capital expenditure, ongoing maintenance and data centre costs.
- Eliminated expenditure and effort associated with achieving and retaining the Secure Email standard.
- Reliable 99.9% availability that does not require management by BCH staff.
- Transference of support and risk associated with providing an email service.
Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Trust chose BDS Solutions, a long-term technology partner, to deliver its migration to the NHSmail platform. BDS’ fully managed service included Identity Mapping using BDS Solutions Directory Manager software, provisioning services and data migration using the NHS Digital approved BDS Solutions NHSmail Migration Toolkit and PRINCE 2 Project Management from initiation to closure.
We’ve produced an informative flyer which highlights the benefits of using NHSmail and outlines how we support organisations who have chosen to undertake an NHSmail migration. To read our detailed flyer click here.
“After wrestling with the complexity and potential risk involved in migrating from our on-premise email to NHSmail and making slow progress, we commissioned BDS to take us forward. With their expertise and dedicated approach, they were able to complete the migration within a satisfactory timeline and without causing any issues to live service. Their knowledge and understanding helped us to generate the correct environment to support this major transformation and consequently the organisation has adapted to the change in a very positive manner.”
James Hogan – Information Security Manager – Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust