Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust

Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust constantly strives to provide the best possible care and support, working closely with related organisations to provide effective, accessible and modern mental health and learning disability services.

Working in partnership with the local community, its core purpose is to improve the mental health and well being of the people of Leeds.

The Challenge

With the recent end to the NHS Connecting for Health's (CfH) software licensing agreement with Microsoft, all NHS Trusts/FTs, PCTs, SHAs, Arms Length Bodies, Hospices etc are now solely responsible for all aspects of funding, purchasing and managing Microsoft licences. This means that Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust now has to ensure it is correctly licensed for Microsoft software.

Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust recognises that it has a legal obligation to ensure that all externally sourced software which is run or installed on any of its computer systems has been legally acquired. In addition it is the responsibility of the Trust to ensure that it holds bona fide software licences and they remain fully compliant with the terms of the manufacturer's licence agreements.

Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust also understands the commercial implications of non-compliance and the ineffective management of software licences. With this in mind, Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust decided to embark on a programme to review its current software licensing agreements, evaluate its procurement techniques and implement an on-going Software Asset Management (SAM) strategy. For assistance with this programme, Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust contacted Phoenix Software.

The Background

Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust already has Microsoft Systems Centre Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM) deployed across approximately 2,000 devices on the Trust's network. While SCCM successfully reports on the software installations made across the Trust's network, like most other discovery tools, it still generates too much unstructured data. It is a real challenge then to further manipulate this data into a format that enables the Trust clearly to identify and report upon the status of the applications deployed.

Licence Dashboard's unique 'Data Cleanse' feature has enabled Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust to extend the software recognition process of Microsoft SCCM and further distil the discovered software, highlighting the associated licence liability of all installed products.

The Solution

After the successful implementation of a Proof of Concept workshop with Phoenix Software, Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust decided to utilise Licence Dashboard Enterprise Edition.

The Phoenix workshop provided Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust the following key deliverables:

• The Licence and Contract Inventory feature within Licence Dashboard enabled the Trust to import record and track all available licence evidence detailing vital characteristics such as licence model, metric, constraint, maintenance and purchase history
• Using the built-in advanced licence intelligence, Licence Dashboard automatically created an aggregated view of the Trust's installation rights - creating a fully reportable Licence Entitlement Statement
• Import of Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust Microsoft SCCM data
• 'Data Cleansing' of the Microsoft SCCM data to highlight the associated licence liability of all software deployed on the Trust's network
• Automated allocation of Licence Entitlement against software deployed
• A Baseline Software Compliance Statement
• Provision of Best Practice, Policies and Procedures guidelines

The Benefits

Following the successful implementation of Licence Dashboard Enterprise Edition by Phoenix Software, Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust can now effectively and automatically control the entire lifecycle of its software assets from purchase, to upgrade and beyond.

The Trust can now:

• Add evidence of all subsequent licence purchases into the Licence Inventory
• Add evidence of all subsequent licence contracts into the Contract Inventory
• Easily illustrate an aggregated view of all licences purchased within the Licence Entitlement section of Licence Dashboard
• Easily report and display evidence of all available licences
• Easily demonstrate software compliance
• Produce a wide variety of standard reports such as:
  • Microsoft ELP Report
  • Software Compliance Report
  • Maintenance Schedule Report
  • Downgrade Report
  • Software Usage by Device Report
  • Purchase History Report
• Add audit runs on an 'as and when' basis to further analyse Microsoft SCCM data
• Report on individual device usage of known software applications
• Report on all software usage
• Report on Licensable Status of all software deployed
• Add bespoke clinical applications to the Licence Dashboard Dictionary

Russell Hornshaw, IT Manager, Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust, concluded:

"The ending of the NHS Microsoft Enterprise Wide Agreement has posed us major challenges regarding the control of Microsoft Windows, Office and Client Access Licences (CALs). Managing the transfer of licences between PCs when they come to their end of life, while obtaining new licences for additional machines was becoming a major headache.

"To overcome these challenges we worked with Phoenix Software who helped us select a solution that would strengthen our Software Asset Management (SAM) processes. Licence Dashboard fulfilled these requirements and enhanced our existing investments. Its integration with Microsoft System Centre Configuration Manager, and the expert help of Phoenix Software's audit team has matured our SAM capabilities so that we can now effectively manage and report on all of our software licence base."

find out more

For further information and pricing, contact the Phoenix Software NHS Team on 0845 265 1230 or email nhs@phoenixs.co.uk