Situation
In a bid to keep aligned with the Care Quality Commission’s strategic priority to encourage innovation and drive improvements in the quality of care through technology, NHS organisations in various parts of Kent & Medway want to migrate their data warehousing provision to cloud based Azure architecture.
It wasn’t just the regulatory imperative. The Kent and Medway Data Warehouse (KMDW) – an NHS department offering data warehouse services in the region – wanted to move from its on-premise SQL server in a bid to modernise its infrastructure, realise the benefits of cloud and improve patient outcomes.
Approach
KMDW partnered with Valcon for a three-week assessment aimed at evaluating the requirements for a cloud-based warehouse, gauging stakeholder appetite and assessing the benefits of transitioning to a cloud-based infrastructure.
Valcon’s approach brought together both technical and non-technical perspectives, gleaned from three deep dive workshops, conducting senior stakeholder interviews and comprehensive technical reviews.
Valcon received over 1000 pieces of feedback that were assessed to understand internal and customer sentiment towards cloud technologies and the current on-premise solution. Using the insights from these assessments, Valcon devised a strategy and approach for a cloud solution and implementation, which ensured alignment with KMDW objectives and best practices.
Results
Valcon’s assessment concluded KMDW could benefit greatly from cloud technology. The review had a number of findings that help build the business case for cloud:
- Improving user and customer experience: 65% of the negative feedback directed at KMDW’s current on-premise solution could be improved by introducing a cloud solution.
- Operational efficiencies: a cloud solution would result in an improvement in platform performance, enhanced data sharing capabilities, reduction in processing time and staying up to date with technological advancements.
- Significant cost savings: implementing the recommended cloud solution could potentially save up to £3m over a 10-year period.
- Alignment with strategic NHS objectives: from an organisational standpoint, embracing cloud helps to align KMDW with NHS strategic objectives.
- Proactive way of working: implementing cloud and DevOps best practice can enable a more proactive way of working allowing KMDW to anticipate and address customer challenges ahead of time.
