ACS secures £17m contract with Northern Ireland HSC

Northern Ireland Health and Social Care aims to save £8m a year for 10 years

The Northern Ireland Department of Health, Social Care and Public Safety has agreed a 10-year, £17m deal with IT services and software provider Advanced Computer Software (ACS).

The deal, which will provide Health and Social Care (HSC) with a province-wide finance, procurement, business intelligence and logistics solution, is ACS's largest ever and will replace systems in the HSC that are up to 25 years old.

The company is still in discussions with HSC regarding the provision of HR technology.

The agreement is part of a wider strategy called the Business Services Transformation Programme, which hopes to save HSC in Northern Ireland more than £8m for each of the 10 years in the contract.

The money will be saved in part by allowing all previous contracts to come under one platform, as the HSC previously had contracts with several software and hardware providers. Efficient processes and in-depth information delivered in a timely manner are two of the key reasons for the solution being deployed.

"Much of the technology we have implemented in Scotland's health services will be used, such as electronic invoices, electronic procurement, workflow, document management and business analytics," said Dean Dickinson, managing director of advanced businesss solutions, a division of ACS.

"The contract also includes logistics software from RedPrairie. All these processes will allow the Northern Ireland HSC to become more proficient," he said.

Dickinson said the contract will be signed in two weeks and its rollout will begin in 12 months. It will be fully implemented in three years.

He said the 10-year contract would see continuous upgrades, including cloud delivery, which accounts for £6m of the overall deal.