IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Tender description

NHS National Services Scotland (formerly the common services agency), on behalf of NHS Scotland, wish to contract a service provider to provide a bespoke catering information system to replace the current methods used in all NHS Health Boards across Scotland. The contract will be let as a single-supplier framework by NHS National Services Scotland and will be available for use by all health boards, including special health boards and any associated organisations engaged with health boards in the provision of healthcare in Scotland. The successful supplier will be expected to, migrate data from legacy systems, implement new system, train users and support the system throughout Scotland. A National Licence for the software may be purchased. The system must be supported for a minimum of 7 years from the project completion date. The need for a National Catering Information System (NCIS) was first identified whilst catering reviews of NHS Boards were being undertaken in 2013 as part of the national strategic review of soft facilities. During the catering review process, catering managers identified the need for a catering IT system that could provide them with timely data across a number of service areas, to enabling informed decision-making for the service, without the need to wait for official finance statements. The proposed NCIS will include the following modules: — stock planning, management and control, — production planning, purchasing and waste management, — recipe costing, — financial, management, benchmarking reports, — non-patient catering sales reporting and analysis, — bedside electronic patient meal ordering and delivery. Scope The overall project objective is to implement an integrated IT solution to support the management of food production and catering services. NHS Boards require a system that will support the tracking and analysis of all aspects of catering production and service for both patient and non-patient catering services. The catering service also requires a system that will allow NHS Boards to develop their own bespoke reports, for example financial management reports, trend analysis, and benchmarking. The system must have the ability to manage individual patient menu choices, the collation of orders into a consolidated list for the production of the food and split the resulting food order into individual wards for the delivery of the food, then return to individual choices for the serving of the food. To ensure that the NCIS covers all aspects of catering, the system must have the ability to manage and maintain non-patient catering services and sales. The system must either have the ability to provide nutritional analysis functionality or integrate with current nutritional systems. To achieve all of the above the system must be web enabled and have the ability to be used on multiple platforms such as PC and handheld devices, and must work both on and offline.