The Challenge

Procure4 were engaged by Oxford Health to bring capacity and expertise to augment the Trust’s Procurement capability.  This entailed looking at a range of categories to optimise quality and service while maximising value for money.  One of the categories to be prioritised was the sourcing of a hosted telephony service for the Trust.  The challenges were as follows:

  • The Trust provides a broad range of Mental Health and Community Health Services across a diverse and wide geographical area.Many of the Trust’s Clients are vulnerable and therefor a reliable telephony service is of fundamental importance in regards to the Trust’s capability to provide for its Client base
  • The current service was made up of a number of providers supplying different aspects of the Service which made it expensive, inefficient and difficult to maintain
  • The Trust was keen to procure a cloud based hosted “inclusive pay per handset” system which is an innovative and non-standard approach to this type of service provision

The Approach

To maximise the efficiency of the process the Crown Commercial Service PSN Services Framework was utilised and the relevant suppliers on the framework were invited to Tender. 

A supplier day was held prior to issuing the Tender in order to engage with the supply base so that the Trusts requirements could be communicated clearly and also to gain insight into the feasibility of implementing such an innovative approach to the provision of a “traditional” service.

The Tenders were evaluated and a shortlist of suppliers was invited to the next stage which involved clarification meetings and site visits.  The winning bidder was then selected and a comprehensive contract encompassing a detailed implementation plan was signed up to.

 

The Results

Procure4 worked closely with both the Trust and Vodafone to ensure a positive outcome while ensuring the integrity of the procurement process.  The benefits achieved were multiple.

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust is saving over £1 million over five years by replacing its existing phone systems with the selected cloud-based service from Vodafone.  This is equivalent to the treatment costs of over 150 patients a year.

The new system will cover up to 140 sites in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Wiltshire and Somerset, with a total of 3,000 phone extensions.

The new service will simplify arrangements for staff and service users, allowing it to redirect ICT resources to patient care.

The Vodafone service will enable the trust to scale its needs flexibly so that phone lines can be increased according to demand.

Oxford Health is the first NHS Trust to implement Vodafone’s cloud based hosted telephony service.

Key Facts

140 Number of Sites New System Covers
150 Number of Extra Patients Client are Able to Treat Due to Savings
3,000 Number of Phone Extensions

Testimonial from Oxford Health NHS - Telephony

It was a real pleasure working with Bev and Tim from Procure4 on the recent Cloud Telephony procurement.  They managed to effectively balance the provision of the necessary procurement domain expertise and guidance to ensure the Trust was legally compliant, with the need to pragmatically support the Trust to move this significant procurement forward at a steady pace to a successful conclusion.  The amount of energy and enthusiasm demonstrated by Bev and Tim for how a professional procurement service can support busy frontline managers is a refreshing change.  Bev’s particular expert touch and diligence through the contract negotiation stage ensured the Trust maximised the opportunity presented.  The objective of the procurement phase of this Cloud Telephony project was to establish a solution that has the potential to deliver improved services, but at a much reduced cost.  Thanks in no short measure to the expertise of Bev and Tim this objective has been achieved.

Dominic McKenny, Head of Informatics

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