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West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust was disappointed with service from another Citrix Platinum Partner. Following a formal tender, Axess Systems was chosen to provide Citrix management and support. Axess has consistently proved its technical expertise, responsive and friendly service, and value.
Client
West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital and community services to around 280,000 people in west Suffolk. It provides acute services from a 430-bed hospital at Bury St Edmunds, along with a full range of secondary care services. The Trust also offers community outpatient services at sites in Newmarket, Haverhill, Thetford, Stowmarket, Sudbury, Botesdale, and Mildenhall.
The Trust uses Citrix to provide remote access and virtual desktops.
Citrix enables secure, controlled remote access for home workers as well as third parties. Like other health providers, West Suffolk utilises a plethora of specialist medical systems and the suppliers can need external access for support. With Citrix technology, the infrastructure team can easily enable external access only for as long as its needed.
VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) is used by the Oncology and Pharmacy departments and both need ready access to ARIA Oncology Information System: here Citrix’s concurrent licensing model enables the Trust to make very cost-effective use of ARIA licences.
Additionally, West Suffolk is exploring how Citrix VDI can help provide a more moveable, manageable, and lower cost ‘Workstation on Wheels’ for use on wards. Clinicians need to move these from bed to bed as they record and manage patient treatment.
Business driver
The Trust needed high-level Citrix expertise to help with the development, management and support of its Citrix environment.
Although it had a contracted relationship with another Platinum Citrix partner, it became increasingly dissatisfied with the service it received.
“They weren’t providing the support and knowledge we needed: we’d ask questions, and we just weren’t getting responses and answers,” remarks Graham Mason, the Infrastructure Engineer focusing on Citrix at West Suffolk.
West Suffolk needed reliable access to trusted technical experts, at any time of day or night, seven days a week.
Solution
The Trust choose to review its options through a formal tender: seeking a knowledgeable partner to help support and manage its existing Citrix infrastructure and to provide the technical expertise for ad hoc project work.
It awarded the contract to Axess Systems because of its in-depth technical expertise and appealing pricing.
“They’d already proved their knowledge before we tendered, says Graham. “I’d met them and seen their deep knowledge at Citrix events
Axess’ managed service provides West Suffolk’s infrastructure team with around the clock, 24 x 7 support. The service includes proactive monitoring and Axess advises West Suffolk new security updates and vulnerabilities, so they can be swiftly addressed. It also provides twice yearly health checks, along with responsive, on-demand technical support.
As part of the initial service transition, Axess conducted a licencing audit, and a detailed health check, delivering immediate value to West Suffolk.
Benefits
With Axess’ specialist knowledge and guidance, West Suffolk has optimised security, closing vulnerabilities, improved licencing, saved money, and improved systems management.
“They’re worth every penny we spend on them,” states Graham, “because they get stuff done and they don’t delay over work.”
“Within minutes Axess discovered a substantial security vulnerability, that our previous supplier had left open for years,” explains Graham. “Axess found it, fixed it, and immediately proved their worth.”
Axess has also helped West Suffolk to review and consolidate its Citrix licensing, and to take advantage of the Citrix Universal subscription.
As Graham adds, “That alone saved us around £160,000, it’s reduced our admin overhead, by simplifying renewals, plus its given us the flexibility to move workloads between on premise and cloud.”
Graham has a good knowledge of Citrix, but finds it helpful to check his thinking with Axess, while his colleagues often need more hands on help.
“They’ll tell me if I’m on the right track, check if I’ve thought of this, or that, and if there’s a better way of doing things, they’ll talk me through it,” comments Graham. “My colleagues don’t have huge Citrix knowledge, so it’s nice that when I’m on leave they can phone Axess and have a remote session to guide them through making changes themselves.”
Axess is a specialist services provider, with in-depth Citrix expertise, all in-house, and with a strong focus on customer service.
“We’ve found with other larger suppliers that they push work back, and they push work back, potentially because they don’t have the resource, or the expertise, or are relying on a third party,” notes Graham. “With Axess, we know full well that we can talk to pretty much anyone there and they’ll have the answer, or know who has.”
“You can ping an e-mail and get a response ridiculously quickly, even if it’s just a question on logic, and if it’s patient or staff affecting, we’ll get a response fast,” observes Graham.
“I know the team well, and I trust them,” says Graham. “They’re friendly, and easy to work with and its more like dealing with colleagues than a supplier. There’s great continuity, because they don’t have a high staff turnover, so you’re speaking to the same people and that’s really helpful.”
“They go that extra mile, whereas a lot of companies will go that extra mile and then invoice you for it afterwards,” declares Graham.
Rob Smith, Senior Systems Engineer, at West Suffolk adds, “The support we receive from Axess Systems has been first-class. They work in partnership with you to ensure that the end result satisfies everyone.”
“Axess has consistently proved its technical know-how, and provided friendly and responsive service over several years, helping us to improve our service to the Trust,” declares Rob.
Graham concludes, “I’d happily recommend Axess for their expertise, knowledge, friendly and easy access, and responsiveness – they’re always happy to go above and beyond.”
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