Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust
Following the successful implementation of License Dashboard Enterprise Edition, Leeds Partnership NHS Foundation Trust can now effectively and automatically control its Software Asset Management program
Formerly known as Leeds Mental Health Teaching NHS Trust, Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust was awarded NHS Foundation Trust status in August 2007.
Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust provides specialist mental health and learning disability services to over 619,710 adults within the Leeds Metropolitan boundary. Each day it provides help to over 2,000 people.
Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust constantly strives to provide the best possible care and support, working closely with related organizations to provide effective, accessible and modern mental health and learning disability services.
Working in partnership with the local community, its core purpose is to improve the mental health and well being of the people of Leeds.
The Challenge
Following the end of the NHS Connecting for Health's (CfH) software licensing agreement with Microsoft, all NHS Trusts/FTs, PCTs, SHAs, Arms Length Bodies, Hospices etc are now solely responsible for all aspects of funding, purchasing and managing Microsoft licenses. This means that Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust now has to ensure it is correctly licensed for Microsoft software.
Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust recognizes that it has a legal obligation to ensure that all externally sourced software which is run or installed on any of its computer systems has been legally acquired. In addition it is the responsibility of the Trust to ensure that it holds bona fide software licenses and they remain fully compliant with the terms of the manufacturers license agreements.
Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust also understands the commercial implications of non-compliance and the ineffective management of software licenses. With this in mind, Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust decided to embark on a program to review its current software licensing agreements, evaluate its procurement techniques and implement an on-going Software Asset Management (SAM) strategy.
The Background
Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust already has Microsoft Systems Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM) deployed across approximately 3,000 devices on the Trust's network. While SCCM successfully reports on the software installations made across the Trust's network, like most other discovery tools, it still generates too much unstructured data. It is a real challenge then to further manipulate this data into a format that enables the Trust clearly to identify and report upon the status of the applications deployed.
License Dashboard's unique 'Data Cleanse' feature has enabled Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust to extend the software recognition process of Microsoft SCCM and further distil the discovered software, highlighting the associated license
liability of all installed products.
The Solution
After the successful implementation of a Proof of Concept workshop, Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust decided to utilize License Dashboard Enterprise Edition.
The workshop provided Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust the following key deliverables:
- The License and Contract Inventory feature within License Dashboard enabled the trust to import record and track all available license evidence detailing vital characteristics such as license model, metric, constraint, maintenance and purchase history
- Using the built-in advanced license intelligence, License Dashboard automatically created an aggregated view of the Trust's installation rights - creating a fully reportable License Entitlement Statement
- Import of Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust Microsoft SCCM data
- Data Cleansing' of the Microsoft SCCM data to highlighting the associated license liability of all software deployed on the Trust's network
- Automated allocation of License Entitlement against software deployed
- Provide a Baseline Software Compliance Statement
- Provide Best Practice, Policies and Procedures guidelines
The Benefits
Following the successful implementation of License Dashboard Enterprise Edition, Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust can now effectively and automatically control the entire lifecycle of its software assets from purchase, to upgrade and beyond.
The Trust can now:
- Add evidence of all subsequent license purchases into the License Inventory
- Easily report and display evidence of all available licenses
- Easily demonstrate software compliance
- Produce a wide variety of standard reports such as: Microsoft ELP Report, Software Compliance Report, Maintenance Schedule Report
- Add audit runs on an 'as and when' basis to further analyze Microsoft SCCM data
- Report on all software usage
- Report on Licensable Status of all software deployed
- Add bespoke clinical applications to the License Dashboard Dictionary
Russell Hornshaw, IT Manager, Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust, concluded:
"The ending of the NHS Microsoft Enterprise Wide Agreement has posed us major challenges regarding the control of Microsoft Windows, Office and Client Access Licences (CALs). Managing the transfer of licenses between PCs when they come to their end of life, while obtaining new licenses for additional machines was becoming a major headache.
"To overcome these challenges we worked with License Dashboard who helped us select a solution that would strengthen our Software Asset Management processes. License Dashboard Enterprise Edition fulfilled these requirements and enhanced our existing investments. Its integration with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, and the expert help of License Dashboard's audit team has matured our SAM capabilities so that we can now effectively manage and report on all of our software license base."