“We know CAE will always deliver. As a hospital, we’re dynamic and sometimes need to act quickly to support transformation. Often time is of the essence. With CAE, we can pick up the phone — and they will help… CAE employees are technically sound; they follow best practice and instil confidence. They have good account management and excellent ties with Cisco.” - Matthew Poxon, Head of Networks, Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Solving the core IT infrastructure dilemma

Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust was created in 2020 following the merger of three acute trusts. Its group of hospitals provide a huge range of clinical services and care for a population of over 1.2 million people in central and south Essex. 

Creating strong foundations 

During the period of the merger, significant parts of the core IT infrastructure at Southend Hospital and the other two Trusts were reaching end of life. With no support or patches available, this posed a significant security risk to the Trust – and each hospital department’s critical services – during the transition. 

Additionally, the three sites were using differing technologies, and systems needed to be merged to create a single domain, with a focus on security. 

CAE was tasked with delivering a reliable, scalable, and easy to manage next generation solution to meet the future network demands of the new Foundation. Along with planning and migration, ongoing support and training were needed to ensure the Trust gained maximum benefits from the new technology. 

A safe, secure solution 

The Agility Intelligence lifecycle and asset management tool was incorporated to improve network visibility, helping the Trust to easily keep track of inventory, and generate intelligence on future acquisition and disposal of assets, end of life dates, licences, and potential risks. 

CAE provided Wide Area Network connectivity, security platform and core switching, and managed the new equipment installations and disposal of old devices out of support in a seamless way. 

The future of the partnership 

CAE has provided reassuring 24/7 support to the Trust since 2016, including a four-hour on-site response for the new hardware. 

The Outcome 

By providing clear, straightforward snapshot information as to the general health of the network infrastructure, the management dashboard offers actionable intelligence that can be used for budget planning, improved vulnerability management and to highlight official support coverage. 

The Trust’s new network is more agile and able to take on new applications in a far more structured and secured way. New services and security features can now be deployed and updated across the entire network in minutes, not days. 

Users received one-to-one knowledge transfer and structured training to ensure they enjoy maximum benefits of this new technology, and efficient operations are maintained through ongoing support.