Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Working with Phoenix and Microsoft, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NNUHFT) accelerated digital transformation as a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic by improving everyday work with technology that positively impacts lives.

In March 2020 when the first COVID-19 national lockdown hit, millions of organisations including the NHS were compelled to fast-track their digital transformation plans to accommodate staff and service users’ need for remote access. For Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NNUHFT), this meant accelerating the digital strategy it already had in place to enable remote working using off-site devices for its workforce. However, the global shortage of devices due to the sudden increase in demand for equipment such as laptops, meant that an alternative that would allow staff to work securely and effectively from their own devices was needed.

As Microsoft’s Partner of the Year 2021, Microsoft recognised the work Phoenix was doing with Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and recommended us to NNUHFT. We worked with the Trust to deploy a live AVD environment with managed service across the organisation, accelerating the agility and mobility of its users and empowering key NHS workers to deliver better patient care.

With more staff working from home and some patients unable to attend in-person appointments, the need for a solution was so urgent that proof of concept was skipped and the adoption, deployment, and use of AVD was accelerated.

NNUHFT Technical Authority – Digital Health, Ben Goss explains, “Ultimately, the driver was the COVID-19 pandemic – when the first lockdown hit, we went from being an on-site organisation to having to enable our users to work remotely, pretty much overnight. With just under four weeks from initial discussion to deployment, the team at Phoenix have not only helped us to rapidly deploy AVD, but also keep AVD and Azure running and assist our users with any issues through its managed service. As Azure was new to us and the skills needed to manage it are limited within our own teams, the continued support Phoenix provide to our staff is invaluable.”

Enabling its staff to work remotely has also resulted in the Trust overcoming some of its physical space constraints by ensuring that more precious space within its hospitals is dedicated to clinical care.

From what began as an emergency project, the benefits of utilising technology to improve its processes and services has resulted in lasting, positive change for NNUHFT’s staff and service users. Because of this, the Trust has also recently deployed Azure Essentials for a small number of workloads and plans to continue to support its staff and service users through a long-term hybrid working environment, with the help of an on-going managed service from Phoenix.

Edward Prosser-Snelling concludes, “We’re on a journey of digital transformation, which includes encouraging more of our people to utilise technology to support them in their daily roles. Long-term, full-time remote and hybrid working opportunities are now possible through our work with Phoenix and Microsoft, and they have helped us to demonstrate the power of technology within our Trust.”