Story highlights
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At a glance
- Industry - Government
- Region - United Kingdom
- Company Size - 3,500+ employees
- Project - Multi-year business transformation and managed support partnership, since July 2019
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Products & Services
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations
- Purchase-to-Pay
- HR
- Customer Engagement
- Hitachi Solutions Lifetime Services (LTS)
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Results Snapshot
- 5 years of continuous, iterative improvement
- 2 platforms Finance & Operations and Customer Engagement, supported by one partner
- Cloud Finance, Purchase-to-Pay and HR delivered in the cloud
The Customer
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a ministerial department in the UK Government, responsible for developing and implementing policies and programmes to promote public health and advance healthcare innovation, helping people live longer, healthier and more independent lives.
DHSC is responsible for delivering the health and care system in England and for overseeing wider UK health policy, including health security, medicines and vaccinations, and elements of scientific research. It is one of the largest organisations in UK central government, delivering its responsibilities in recent years through around 19 arm’s-length bodies, 42 integrated care boards and more than 200 NHS trusts, with net expenditure of roughly £205 billion a year.
The work of the department and its organisations touches the lives of an average of 1.7 million patients every day. At that scale, the systems that underpin its finance, procurement, HR and citizen-facing functions have to be dependable, secure and efficient, which is what made the modernisation of its core platforms so important.
Hitachi Solutions began its partnership with DHSC in July 2019, initially replacing legacy systems with Microsoft Dynamics 365 during the pandemic. The collaboration continued with further projects, supporting a cloud-based Dynamics 365 solution that provided Finance, Purchase-to-Pay and HR systems. Over the past five years, the two organisations have redefined the partnership, moving beyond a traditional customer-supplier relationship to a true collaboration.
The Challenge
DHSC faced a challenge with its Freedom of Information systems, built on Dynamics Customer Engagement (CE). The department wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the system and leverage its full potential to enhance its operational capabilities, but it also required more comprehensive maintenance and support. As with the support already provided for its Finance and Operations system, DHSC sought a better overall experience with CE in terms of responsiveness, efficiency and effectiveness, so it could better serve citizens.
The Solution
The initial collaboration focused on supporting DHSC’s Finance and Operations system. The success of that work led DHSC to ask Hitachi Solutions to extend its support to the CE system, entrusting it as the strategic partner to deliver a high level of service. Hitachi Solutions conducted a solution maturity assessment on the current CE system to provide insight into its state, which enabled a recommended blend of tactical and strategic improvements.
The Lifetime Services (LTS) team then integrated the management of DHSC’s CE system alongside its Finance and Operations systems, handling all upgrades and enhancements. The success of the partnership was underpinned by strong relationships across account management, performance, project and LTS teams, all supporting DHSC’s Dynamics 365 applications and facilitating continuous, iterative improvement, with transparency and trust at the core.
Why Hitachi Solutions
DHSC valued a partner that operated as a genuinely united team, with high trust and capability and a clear track record. The LTS team’s focus on building long-term relationships, and on adjusting to meet the department’s changing needs, ensured the consistent delivery of quality and excellence.
Operating with a framework of high trust and capability, Hitachi Solutions ensures the delivery of quality and excellence to DHSC. Hitachi Solutions should be very proud of their track record in DHSC.
The Benefits
- A single strategic partner across both the Finance and Operations and Customer Engagement platforms
- More responsive, efficient and effective support, helping DHSC better serve citizens
- A solution maturity assessment guiding a blend of tactical and strategic improvements
- Seamless LTS management of upgrades and enhancements across both systems
- Continuous, iterative improvement built on trust, transparency and a united team
What’s Next?
Moving forward, Hitachi Solutions will continue to collaborate closely with the department, taking on greater responsibility in the Microsoft Dynamics arena to support DHSC’s growth. With many service and solution improvements still to assess and deliver together, the focus remains on prioritising value for DHSC in the years ahead.
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