[UK] NHS seeking £1.7 billion HR and payroll system

The National Health Service (NHS) is looking for a company to manage HR and a new electronic staff records system as part of a procurement worth up to £1.7 billion, The Register reports.

The UK’s publicly funded NHS is one of the world's largest employers, it pays around 1.8 million staff via its current Oracle E-business Suite-based HR and payroll system.

According to documents released this week, the NHS is looking for a company to take over the running of that system and implement its replacement.

The procurement takes place via the NHS Business Services Authority, an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Under the Future NHS Workforce Solution programme, the authority requires "a new transformed integrated workforce management solution for the NHS in England and Wales," the tender notice said.

The authority reportedly wants a supplier to manage the current electronic staff records (ESR) service and to "transform, develop, implement and manage a future NHS workforce solution and, once migration of user organisations completes, decommission the ESR service."

The ESR is provided via NHS Shared Business Services – a joint venture between the health service and French outsourcer Sopra Steria – but it is run by a managed service contract which expires in August 2025. Oracle eBusiness Suite underpins the current integrated HR, payroll, learning management and business intelligence capability.

IBM reportedly won a contract to run the ESR in 2014 but the system goes further back. According to a PwC review of the system, the implementation was completed by March 31, 2008. "The Oracle database that supports the ESR Application is hosted on six production servers which run on the AIX [IBM's Unix flavour] operating system," the report said.

The NHS expects the supplier to run the existing ESR service, including ongoing development, from September 2025. It then expects the vendor to "design, develop, configure and test the future NHS workforce solution from contract award including pilot implementation."

The supplier will be responsible for the implementation and running of the new system as well as its decommissioning.

In addition, the contract is an HR outsourcing deal. It addresses talent acquisition, core HR, payroll, compensation and benefits, learning, career development and performance management.

An earlier procurement notice had reportedly considered a replacement integrating ERP and HR/payroll into one system.

A discovery project launched in 2020 was designed to "build upon the work being performed within the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) and Integrated Single Finance Environment (ISFE) programmes to identify the likely benefits and drawbacks of adopting an integrated ERP versus separate ESR and finance systems," the notice said.

However, the current notice shows HR/payroll is being procured separately from the project to replace the ERP system; a £300 million project assessed to be a "red" risk by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, in 2021. The 2022 report reduced that assessment to amber.

Source: The Register

(Links and quotes via original reporting)

The National Health Service (NHS) is looking for a company to manage HR and a new electronic staff records system as part of a procurement worth up to £1.7 billion, The Register reports.

The UK’s publicly funded NHS is one of the world's largest employers, it pays around 1.8 million staff via its current Oracle E-business Suite-based HR and payroll system.

According to documents released this week, the NHS is looking for a company to take over the running of that system and implement its replacement.

The procurement takes place via the NHS Business Services Authority, an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Under the Future NHS Workforce Solution programme, the authority requires "a new transformed integrated workforce management solution for the NHS in England and Wales," the tender notice said.

The authority reportedly wants a supplier to manage the current electronic staff records (ESR) service and to "transform, develop, implement and manage a future NHS workforce solution and, once migration of user organisations completes, decommission the ESR service."

The ESR is provided via NHS Shared Business Services – a joint venture between the health service and French outsourcer Sopra Steria – but it is run by a managed service contract which expires in August 2025. Oracle eBusiness Suite underpins the current integrated HR, payroll, learning management and business intelligence capability.

IBM reportedly won a contract to run the ESR in 2014 but the system goes further back. According to a PwC review of the system, the implementation was completed by March 31, 2008. "The Oracle database that supports the ESR Application is hosted on six production servers which run on the AIX [IBM's Unix flavour] operating system," the report said.

The NHS expects the supplier to run the existing ESR service, including ongoing development, from September 2025. It then expects the vendor to "design, develop, configure and test the future NHS workforce solution from contract award including pilot implementation."

The supplier will be responsible for the implementation and running of the new system as well as its decommissioning.

In addition, the contract is an HR outsourcing deal. It addresses talent acquisition, core HR, payroll, compensation and benefits, learning, career development and performance management.

An earlier procurement notice had reportedly considered a replacement integrating ERP and HR/payroll into one system.

A discovery project launched in 2020 was designed to "build upon the work being performed within the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) and Integrated Single Finance Environment (ISFE) programmes to identify the likely benefits and drawbacks of adopting an integrated ERP versus separate ESR and finance systems," the notice said.

However, the current notice shows HR/payroll is being procured separately from the project to replace the ERP system; a £300 million project assessed to be a "red" risk by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, in 2021. The 2022 report reduced that assessment to amber.

Source: The Register

(Links and quotes via original reporting)