Moves from SeeBeyond to Java CAPS

London, 17 September, 2010 – Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) has chosen and implemented a new integration engine in order to create a more stable and robust environment for the huge number of interfaces between clinical and administrative processes across the Trust's two sites in Nottingham.   The challenge of new departmental systems being developed all the time, as well as the sheer number of messages moving through the system a day, meant the Trust needed a more reliable integration engine that could handle the increasing complexity and pressure of a hospital environment but also enable the IT team to spend less time on day-to-day maintenance issues.

On the advice of healthcare integration experts Integrella, NUH has chosen to move from SeeBeyond ICAN to Sun's Java CAPS.  The move from SeeBeyond to Java is already having significant impact in terms of a more stable integration engine, meaning the IT team are spending less time rebooting the system and responding to maintenance issues and thus able to focus their time and efforts on more innovative Trust technology projects.

Although a new system has been chosen, the move to Java CAPS has balanced the need for innovation with common sense.  The integrated development environment (IDE) between the old and new engines is very similar so has required a very minimal learning curve for the team – ensuring no disruption to service and access to systems for frontline clinicians.

Nikki Turgoose, head of change management, ICT Services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said:  "The integration engine is at the heart of any Trust's IT and we knew we needed to do something to stabilise our existing environment so that we could create a more flexible architecture to move forward with. Integrella's recommendations not only met our strategic objectives but also made the most of our existing investment and team skill set.  We now have a much more stable environment and frontline colleagues who are reaping the benefits of the IT team being able to focus more on developing and innovating for the wider hospital rather than dealing with maintenance issues."

Commenting on the integration engine, Marcus Davies, co-founder and CEO at Integrella added: "We were conscious that our recommendations to the Trust needed not only to meet their strategic objectives, but make the most of their existing investment.  Too often technology refreshing is done on a 'rip and replace' basis but that is not always the right approach.  NUH needed to re-architect what it had to ensure it received all the benefits of the new stable integration environment, but the team could transition comfortable to an environment they felt familiar with."
 
As part of the transition to Java CAPS, Integrella has also developed a dashboard to provide a high-level view of how the integration platform is performing.  The dashboard, which is accessed via the Internet, enables the team to monitor the system 24hours a day via any Internet-connected device – making out of hours monitoring, for example via mobile devices, very straightforward.

The move to Java CAPS has also resulted in the NUH interfaces team being able to support the Trust's wider IT strategy of virtualisation.  The new approach has meant fewer physical servers are required and the virtual servers can be used more productively.  This has led to significant saving in physical space, further cost savings and reduced energy consumption.