Established in 2006, Informatics Merseyside is an NHS shared service providing Information Management and Technology (IM&T) services to NHS partner organisations and customers across the local health and social care economy. With one of the largest IT service desks in the NHS, Informatics Merseyside handles 132,000 requests per year, providing 24 hour support to users from specialist NHS trusts, clinical commissioning groups, general practitioners and professional bodies.
While the majority of requests are currently made via phone and webforms, Informatics Merseyside is innovating by integrating new channels such as live chat into the central Sunrise incident management process. This delivers real-time support and enables staff to capture more information on issues, solving them faster.
Sunrise provides the adaptable platform for multiple innovative projects that automate previously manual processes, saving time and making life easier for users. These include password reset, whereby Sunrise authenticates the user directly, and the immediate and automatic provision of permission to access particular folders on NHS Trust systems, which previously took a working day to complete.
A further digital initiative emulates the consumer online shopping experience - an equipment request portal enables users to select software, hardware and services, while helping them to build a business case, and automatically recommending additional products they may require. Built on Sunrise, it further helps reduce any set-up and support time by providing an up to date and centralised picture of IT assets. Interoperability with the core Sunrise platform additionally enables remote support sessions and pushing pop-up notifications to the user, for example in the case of a major incident requiring their action, while telephony integration is on the near horizon.
Committed to ensuring industry best practice, Informatics Merseyside was the first NHS IT service desk in England to achieve 3-star certification from the Service Desk Institute (SDI). Sunrise provides the reporting, data and processes Informatics Merseyside needs to efficiently meet its SDI certification requirements. Certification enables the organisation to review its operations against strict criteria, helping it to continually improve its services.
“As with the entire NHS, we have a focus on efficiency, and Sunrise enables us to automate many of our processes, giving staff time to handle more complex, more challenging jobs where they can really add value,” said David Gordon, Head of IT Service Operations, NHS Informatics Merseyside. “Our Shift Left strategy aims to automate activities, freeing up service desk time. Sunrise has helped drive a cultural change within the organisation, allowing us to innovate and deliver the easy experience that our increasingly digital customers expect, whatever their needs,”
Sunrise is underpinning Informatics Merseyside’s central aim of delivering fast, efficient service that meets and exceeds customer requirements. Surveys show a 98% customer satisfaction with the service desk, testament to the benefits the team is delivering.
Geoff Rees, Director of Business Services and Sales of Sunrise, comments: “The role of the service desk is changing rapidly – moving from reactive incident management to proactively supporting a better, consumer-led experience for all users. The success of NHS Informatics Merseyside in extending the services it offers into areas such as online shopping, live chat and automation, based on our platform, demonstrates how the service desk can accelerate digital innovation, benefiting the entire organisation.”
