Accenture and Avanade win NHS cloud email deal

Accenture and Avanade have won a five-year contract from the Department of Health in England and NHS National Services Scotland to implement a new secure cloud-based NHSmail service.

Almost 700,000 health and care workers across the National Health Service (NHS) in England and Scotland will benefit from the network. It will enable secure communication to users of less secure systems such as non-NHS partners and patients, said the partners.

Accenture and Avanade will build new functionalities and maintain secure email and collaboration services that will be available to all NHS and social care organisations in England and Scotland. The two companies will deploy a secure, multi-tenanted email service, based on Microsoft Exchange 2013, to replace the NHS’ existing platform implemented in 2007.

Accenture and Avanade will also deploy add-ons to the core service including an enterprise-wide directory and Lync collaboration technology for enabling instant messaging, VOIP, audio and video communications. The tools are supported by Avanade’s Unified Communications and Collaboration Managed Service (UCCMS).

Aimie Chapple, managing director for Accenture’s UK health business, said: “The new improved NHSmail service will provide significant digital technology improvements to help NHS staff drive even more effective collaboration at all points of patient care.

“This will be one of the largest mailbox migrations ever delivered and will bring significant benefits to the way NHS employees exchange information, communicate and interact across healthcare.”