The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the nursing and midwifery regulator for over 660,000 registered nurses and midwives in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Islands, has signed a five year contract worth up to £5.2 million with Business Systems Group (BSG), an Advanced Computer Software plc company.

BSG will be managing and hosting NMC’s core IT infrastructure across two different data centres. This will include the managing and hosting of NMC’s servers and networks, disaster recovery, systems monitoring, technical design and ongoing consultation. BSG will also be providing database and operating system support and managing NMC’s Microsoft Exchange email, Citrix desktops and telephony (using Cisco CallManager).

NMC’s IT infrastructure and systems are currently managed in-house by a four person IT team. Although this team has been providing an excellent service, NMC recognises the additional benefits of outsourcing its IT infrastructure requirements to a specialist provider, including better value for money, enhanced service delivery, greater IT innovation, ready access to a large pool of IT skills and increased security.

Jolyon Ingham, Interim Head of ICT for NMC, says, “Following a six month tendering process, BSG was selected as our sole IT supplier. In addition to being able to provide an economic alternative to managing IT in house and hiring external consultants, it is clear that BSG can deliver enhanced service levels, expertise and security as well as an effective disaster recovery solution. We look forward to developing a long-term strategic partnership with BSG.”

Under the terms of the contract, BSG is required to ensure 99.9% service availability and timely incident management. All four NMC in-house IT staff will be TUPEd across to work for BSG.

All software applications will be hosted by BSG, including NMC’s OpenAccounts financial management system provided by BSG’s sister company, COA Solutions. BSG will also be providing the NMC test and development environments, including release management, as new applications come online.

Ingham adds, “The NMC is the regulator for nurses and midwives and not a maintainer of IT services and so we require dedicated IT specialists managing and supporting our networks and servers. With BSG onboard, we are confident that our IT infrastructure will operate effectively and securely and will be managed by a team of knowledgeable and highly qualified IT experts.”