An NHS Trust in the north of England has improved visibility across its networks, cutting audit times from weeks to just seconds.

The Health Informatics Service (THIS) provides shared IT services to 12 healthcare organisations in the region. THIS is now increasing its licence pool to roll out the technology across its 15,000 PCs.

The software, from from asset and security management supplier Centennial, is providing a clear view of all network activity.

The system is saving time and cutting costs, said Neil Asling, portfolio manager at THIS.

“When we carried out audits for the various trusts and PCTs we cover, it was always a manual process, which meant that by the time we had finished, the information was out of date," he said.

"But we can now tell organisations exactly what is on their network from our headquarters, rather than spending unnecessary time and money on sending an engineer to a site to audit an estate.

"This has massive implications on our current expenditure, as it allows us to make much more informed and efficient decisions on all aspects of the IT infrastructure.”