TECHNOLOGY

developed in either the late 90s or early 2000s . Sharing data and processes on these systems has been hard so we framed a strategy around this – we knew that we needed to do technology differently but we hadn ’ t really thought through how differently so , as a consequence of that , a number of our systems were at risk of becoming unstable and we needed to shore them up . So the watch words around the strategy were that we would stabilise , protect and migrate the existing systems .”

A significant part of that stabilisation was achieved by securing hosting arrangements SCC data centres that put NHSBT ’ s systems on a sound footing . Powell adds : “ And then we ’ re looking to protect those systems by bringing in the latest versions of the technologies that we currently operate as we migrate them to the new world , as we call it , which is about using cloud services to provide resilience ,

scalable and flexible solutions that we can integrate using open standards and open interfaces into other applications that are delivered to us primarily as SaaS .” This means that NHSBT doesn ’ t need to think about the infrastructure and the technology , but can focus on the business functionality and usability . “ We think about how we can leverage the technology to save and improve lives , which is ultimately what we ’ re about as an organisation .”

So NHSBT has been working with SCC closely on this issue of operational stability of its applications , for the future for all of the services it operates . “ We also worked with Microsoft quite heavily to explore the possibilities of cloud services and how we can have those flexible services that allow us to scale up in times of peak activity but also scale down in times of reduced activity and have confidence that those services are available and they ’ re

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