As announced at London’s ServiceNow World Forum 2022, the ServiceNow platform powers NHS Digital, the UK’s national health and care system information and technology partner. The partnership, as ERP Today exclusively reports, will continue once NHS Digital merges with NHS England and NHSX in 2023.
ServiceNow will help serve NHS Digital as it manages a network spanning more than 150 live services and 200-plus acute, mental health, specialist and community trusts, connecting more than 20,000 health and care organizations and 1.5 million employees across the NHS.
The news raises interesting questions about how Oracle, a current NHS enterprise mainstay, fits into this picture. Recent years have seen NHS England and the NHS Business Services Authority issue tenders to replace existing Oracle systems.
ERP Today has reached out to Oracle for comment.
According to ServiceNow’s press release, ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM), Customer Service Management (CSM), and Security Operations (SecOps) crosses NHS Digital’s internal services including NHSmail, NHS Spine, and IT operations.
Cybersecurity is also on the agenda, with Stacey Whyte, senior services manager at NHS Digital, telling attendees at the ServiceNow World Forum on Tuesday the priority was “keeping patient data safe – all data”.
Whyte also highlighted the importance of automation and AI for NHS Digital, enabling automation for staff to carry out more “meaningful work”.
NHS Digital commissioned ServiceNow and consultancy Cognizant to develop a platform that would be scalable, manageable and secure, while driving efficiencies and reducing complexities across service, case and incident management capabilities.
On the customer-facing side, NHS Digital supports issues raised by citizens trying to use NHS digital services, such as the NHS App, which have gained support during the pandemic.
Announcing the news, Jordi Ferrer, VP and general manager of UK&I at ServiceNow, said: “Healthcare is already complex and now faces some of the biggest challenges in modern history. NHS Digital recognizes that the this complexity should not be pushed on the millions of employees, clinicians, and patients who rely on and rely on these services every day.
“With the flexibility and scalability of the ServiceNow Platform, we have created a service management platform for NHS Digital that meets the current and future needs of the NHS network and its employees.”