Introducing ESR Integration to Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals

Posted on 17 July 2018

Identity Experts worked with Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals to implement an automated connection between ESR and Microsoft Identity Manager, improving employee productivity and IT security.

Changing work practices and a newly-mobile workforce means that modern organisations must deal with an increasing number of security and IT access challenges.

For a large organisation, keeping such information up-to-date can present further challenges. From coping with slow and manual processes to the lack of control and audibility, problems can be complex, growing, and have serious consequences.

The Challenge

Such a situation was encountered by Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals (DBTH). DBTH is an NHS Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust with one of the busiest emergency services in the country.

DBTH serves a population of more than 420,000 across south Yorkshire, north Nottinghamshire and the surrounding areas, and runs three hospitals: Doncaster Royal Infirmary, Bassetlaw Hospital in Worksop and Montagu Hospital in Mexborough.

With more than 6,800 IT users across the Trust, DBTH was faced with a range of issues with regard to system/data access and security, as Head of ICT, Nigel Hall, explained.

“Keeping up to date with regular staff changes with our existing manual processes was simply not working. We could not ensure that new starters got access to the systems they needed in time, or leavers’ access was removed from the system promptly. This meant that both employee productivity and security were being comprised. So we knew we needed to implement an automated system.”

The Solution

After reviewing the options available, DBTH decided to implement Microsoft Identity Manager (MIM), an integral part of the Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) solution.

“Using the NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR) system as the ‘gold standard’ for employee data, we wanted to ensure the information on this system was reflected throughout out entire IT infrastructure,” explained Nigel.

“This would guarantee that as soon as changes were made to ESR, they would be quickly reflected in all the relevant IT systems.”

How We Helped

As MIM was a new system to the Trust, they looked for an experienced partner to help them implement it and ensure they were getting full value out of their investment.

After a thorough procurement exercise, DBTH chose to work with Identity Experts. “I had known staff from Identity Experts for a number of years,” said Nigel, “So, I was familiar with both their expertise and experience in working with MIM.”

“In addition, they were able to offer a unique customised connector from ESR to MIM that would make the task so much easier.”

 

Our consultants started the project by getting to grips with the existing paper-based processes behind the creation of new accounts. This enabled our team to then configure MIM to ensure that when a new record was created in ESR it automatically took care of creating the relevant Microsoft Active Directory (AD) record to ensure staff were given immediate access to the systems and data they needed to do their job.

They also setup the system to take a feed from an in-house application to handle generic, and non-staff accounts.

IE consultants then implemented a customised setup of MIM and trained the relevant DBTH staff to ensure they would be able to more easily maintain the completed system going forward.

What’s Changed?

Once the system had been running for some time, DBTH were fully able to realise the benefits of their MIM investment, including:

  • Improved day-to-day management of identities and access
  • Time-consuming and manual processes are now automated and standardised
  • Starter productivity increased
  • Leavers have access to sensitive systems revoked promptly

“I feel confident that with IE’s help and ongoing support our identity management and security within the Trust is now in safe hands.”

 

What the Customer Thinks

“The IE staff demonstrated a real understanding of the needs of an NHS establishment in this area from day one,” said Nigel.

“This insight was reflected in the fact that they were able to explain to us how we could enable a new generic outbound feed from ESR to more easily integrate with MIM.”

“The whole project took just under 3 months,” said Nigel. “All the way through I was impressed with IE’s professionalism, ready availability and expertise in identity management.”

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