Case study: NHS

Transforming Healthcare through Digital Collaboration
Pi Digital partnered with NHS organisations to deliver a comprehensive healthcare digital transformation, focusing on a seamless migration process, enhanced workflows, and fostering a collaborative work environment. The transformation not only optimised operational efficiency but also empowered NHS teams to independently manage and scale future-proof applications, significantly reducing costs and manual workload.

Key Outcomes:
The challenge
As one of the UK’s most vital public services, the NHS is under constant financial scrutiny. Funded by the public, every financial decision is carefully reviewed to ensure maximum value and, more importantly, that savings are redirected towards patient care. Improving efficiency in administrative, operational, and IT systems can directly influence patient outcomes by freeing up resources for frontline services. Technology, therefore, plays a critical role in improving efficiency, reducing overhead, and overcoming budget constraints.
The Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (MLCSU) faced unique challenges following a recent merger. The newly formed organisation had to provide IT support for 50 NHS Groups, each with its own infrastructure, document management system, and way of working. A standardised digital transformation was needed to unify these Groups under one consistent system that could still accommodate the diversity of each Group’s needs. The challenge was to ensure that all staff had access to accurate information, standardised processes, and collaborative tools that would drive efficiency and prevent administrative errors that could impact patient care.
Our solution for the NHS
The MLCSU sought a healthcare digital transformation that would:
Pi Digital worked closely with MLCSU’s internal SharePoint team to get a comprehensive understanding of the existing IT infrastructure and the operational workflows of each NHS Group. Our objective was to design a healthcare digital transformation based on SharePoint Online, which would provide the scalability and flexibility required to meet MLCSU’s diverse needs. The solution needed to be cloud-based to allow for remote access and future expansion and provide automation to reduce manual workload.
Features of the Solution
To ensure that all Groups would experience the full benefits of the transformation, we built additional tools and features into the solution. These included:
How this helped the NHS
Our tailored digital solution for the NHS delivered a comprehensive and future-proofed Microsoft 365 ecosystem, combining cloud-based solutions with customised applications and streamlined workflows. This resulted in:
One of the most significant benefits has been the long-term impact of the transformation. The solutions we developed remain in use today, with MLCSU continuing to leverage their SharePoint Online investment. They have since migrated several workflows to Power Automate and are exploring Power Apps to further enhance their digital capabilities. The migration process has been refined over time, allowing MLCSU to efficiently move new Clinical Commissioning Groups to the cloud, ensuring consistency in digital infrastructure across all Groups.
Years into their Microsoft 365 journey, MLCSU has seen an impressive return on investment (ROI). The ongoing savings from the digital transformation are projected to grow into the millions over the next decade, allowing the NHS to redirect much-needed resources into life-saving initiatives and patient care.
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