Spotlight on NEP
The Interview
Christine Hall, Managing Director
Who and what is NEP?
NEP is a consortium of 68 business units in the NHS which is hosted by Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation.
NEP are our people and NEP Cloud is the system.
We have the only complete enterprise, resource planning (ERP) cloud solution in the NHS today. Members are benefiting from the technology and the solutions we have developed alongside our system partner Oracle using Cloud ERP Fusion (SaaS). It is the only all-encompassing solution that is shared, managed, and developed wholly by the NHS today, ensuring 100% of all resource and investment is kept within the English NHS.
What makes you different to other ERP Providers?
Our NEP solution is seen as a true enabler to our experienced Finance and Procurement NHS colleagues, to expand on opportunities and help them innovate using the latest technologies. The beauty is that in true NEP style, we share, engage and collaborate constantly with both clients and all our partners, ensuring we continue to offer the best technologies and value for all the NHS. Plus, we do things once, which is cost-effective and benefits the whole of our membership.
Why do you think it is important to have this model for an ERP system in the NHS today?
The flexibility we have is immense, enabling us to adapt easily and quickly to change, whether that be specific reporting requirements or NHS policy.
These changes do not come as chargeable extras, nor do the 12-weekly cycle of software upgrades, it is all part of the service that we provide, ensuring our members are always on the latest technologies.
We all constantly see policies and initiatives about how to improve back office services, processing, digitalisation and enhancing procurement as well as the ‘one solution’. Well, we have it here today at NEP; with an expandable single instance, multi organisation solution, using single common key data sets. We offer a shared system whereby the control is fully maintained at business unit level by the organisation. Equally, we also facilitate shared service opportunities where our membership can easily run local shared services without having to move solutions. The solution is here and the NHS owns it. Perfect also for specific groups of NHS organisations as we integrate seamlessly and have the group reporting capabilities as standard.
Paul Dunn, Executive Director of Finance
What benefit do you get from NEP Cloud as a Director of Finance?
For me, it is the ability of NEP Reporting supporting a breadth of information on which we can base decision-making, including delivery of that information to all business stakeholders.
The technology of NEP prompts and encourages change in process and we are seeing constant improvements in how we transact and in how we report which is certainly making significant benefits across the Trust.
Where do you see the value of NEP Cloud in the future?
Reporting within NEP has a multitude of options matching the right reporting tool for the user, for example, the new budgeting reporting dashboard. We have the ability to report across the NEP estate today, considering ICB’s it would be simple task from an NEP perspective to provide what they need in terms of reporting, whilst still enabling each NHS Organisation to continue to control their own timetables for payments, closedown, and reporting, yet enabling sharing and collaborating data and information across the NEP membership.
Would you consider any other solution?
No, as we would certainly not get the same features, functionality, nor the level of service at the cost we are paying. NEP is the best value solution and for what we get and use we receive a major return on our investment.
Paul Sutton, Head of Compliance, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
What benefits does your organisation see from NEP Cloud?
We see it as delivering and offering the Trust much more enhanced capabilities, increased automation, and our reporting capabilities have significantly improved. With the significantly increased focus on budgets and forecasts, we actively work with NEP and other consortium members to further enhance the budgeting, planning, and forecasting suite, to minimise effort, create a faster turn around and improve accuracy. The whole solution provides confidence in strong financial control on a very resilient platform along with true value for money.
Collaboration is a fundamental USP for NEP, can you give an example of this from a user perspective?
Yes, most certainly, there are lots of examples, like the development of Cash Management, the Making Tax Digital development and most exciting is the NEP Reach Reporting which is a true testament to how collaborative working actually works. Taking the best ideas from a number of Trusts. NEP has turned this development around exceptionally quickly; so we now have budget holder dash boards available in real time. A fantastic collaborative achievement and one that will continue as NEP Reach Reporting is further enhanced.
Alison Chew, Associate Director of Finance, Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
NEP Governance is key to the Consortium, as a Board member; can you explain why is that important?
At the NEP Board we make decisions on behalf of members and I believe it is important that everyone has an opportunity to have their say. It is also essential that decisions taken are based around value.
What do you believe are the most important key drivers from the NEP Board perspective?
The key drivers of the NEP consortium are in supporting patient care by providing the world leading finance and procurement solution in the NHS. The strength in the consortium comes from collaboration, shared knowledge and experience which drive the best value for money on behalf of the NHS. All of this is underpinned by strong governance, which is the bedrock of the consortium.
In your view, do you think NEP Consortium is successful?
Yes, it is successful. The shared knowledge and experiences are a key benefit to all of its organisations. In particular the networking forums work really well enabling staff at all levels to link in with colleagues in other member organisations and share best practice. Additionally, the structure of NEP enables the consortium to support national agenda initiatives collaboratively, saving significant time across the NHS as well as enabling quicker implementation of new processes and features.
Should anyone be interested in joining NEP, how would they go about it?
NEP Governance easily enables any NHS Organisation to join the NEP Consortium under the terms of our robust governance structure arrangements, which has been approved by Procurement and our Lawyers of the Host Trust.
Johnny Needham, Oracle, Transformation Director, Public Sector & Healthcare
Would you explain why your partnership with NEP is important to Oracle across the healthcare sector.
Oracle is dedicated to improving patient care and supporting practitioners across the healthcare sector. To do this requires driving innovation across the entirety of the industry – from frontline patient care through to back office functions. By using Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, NEP is enhancing the financial operations for the NHS Trusts it serves, which ultimately allows the Trusts to focus on providing care to patients.
What do you consider NEP’s strength is in terms of supporting the NHS?
NEP is able to help NHS Trusts standardise financial processes on a single cloud-based platform to reduce costs and improve controls.
Sir James Mackey, Chief Executive, Host Trust
Finally, the last word from Sir James Mackey.
NEP continues to flourish demonstrating how our NHS colleagues manage, develop and run the most successful finance & procurement Cloud solution in the NHS today. The collaboration across the membership is exceptional and validates its place within the NHS. We should all be proud to be part of our very own NHS solution.
Get to know the people, partnerships, and collaborative values that continue to drive innovation and success across the NEP Consortium.
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