Case Study

Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust – Windows 11

Fully outsourced managed service to deliver a large-scale Windows 11 upgrade within tight timescales at a fixed price.

Executive Summary

This is the account of a Desktop Operating System (Windows 11) and hardware refresh project on behalf of the Northern Care Alliance (NCA), delivered by max20 Project Solutions.

Below you will find the details of how max20 Project Solutions managed the precise delivery of the complex migration of the NCA’s client estate to Windows 11. This was achieved without disruption to patient care within a tight timescale that had an immovable end date and within budget.

Key Highlights:

  • In excess of 900 known applications UAT tested.
  • End of life & incompatible hardware replaced.
  • Introduction of automated processes
  • Windows 10 devices upgraded across 4 Acute and c100 community sites
  • Asset data collected, collated and cleaned.
  • Trust wide multi-faceted communications strategy
  • Training and education materials
  • Clear list of software exceptions captured with remediation identified.

In numbers:

  • 900+ Applications tested.
  • 2000+ individual pieces of hardware replaced.
  • 19500+ Windows 10 devices successfully upgraded.
  • 800 Desktops repurposed as Thin clients and redeployed
  • 25000+ Records collated to deliver as clean as possible asset data.
  • Network of 100 Champions established
  • <1% of the estate remain for remediation and extended support.

The Challenges

max20 Project Solutions was tasked with the delivery of a large-scale Windows 11 rollout across the entire NCA estate without interruption to clinical services or digital teams. This was to be achieved against a fixed end date as Windows 10 was End of Life.

Initially estimated at 17400 endpoints across 4 Acute Hospitals and 100+ community sites. Prior to the rollout c900 applications had to be tested to ensure compatibility which was further complicated as the Trust has 2 distinct W11 images.

Additionally – 1750 desktop and laptop computers needed to be identified and replaced due to incompatibility and approximately 800 desktops were to be repurposed and redeployed to support the trust VDI infrastructure. A review of the trust build process was undertaken with subsequent identified remediation delivered.

The Solution

Ensuring a smooth transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11 in a complex multi-site NHS Trust.

The NCA partnered with max20 who provided a fully managed, flexible, multi-disciplinary team to deliver;

 

  • Full project management and reporting
  • Communications strategy and execution
  • Identification of all in scope devices
  • Creation of Trust wide Champions network
  • Full site surveys including identification of replaceable devices
  • Identification and compatibility sign off for all applications
  • Assistance with image development
  • Introduction of advanced automation tools for mass deployment
  • Imaging and specialist configuration
  • Deployment support at all locations
  • Deployment support at the Service Desk
  • Asset management
  • Project closure documentation and full handover to NCA

In line with the max20 methodology of delivering such projects – this fully managed project provided appropriate resources to cope with the demands of each phase. Management on the ground controlled all activities including scheduling, logistics, imaging, deployment, post-deployment support and full reporting. max20 management liaised with Project Managers and reviewed ongoing progress and reporting with the team. This resulted in reporting to the Trust’s senior stakeholders to ensure a full understanding of progress. Any issues were escalated and remediated in a timely manner.

The team itself was flexed at times throughout the project to meet the demands at each stage. For example, the addition of support to ensure logistics for the laptop clinics were managed and executed. Additionally, as is often the case, we added juniors to the team from the start to initially provide support, but also to train them in the technical tasks associated with refreshes within the NHS thereby continuing to support max20’s focus on Social Value.

The first objective was applications sign-off. A focus upon the applications testing process resulted in the drafting and approval of an applications testing SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) this key step would enable the project to test and sign off applications in a controlled and accountable manner with retained test artefacts.

The next area to review was the method and mechanism of delivery of the IPU (In Place Upgrade), additional senior EUC (End User Compute) resources were brought into the project to identify and remediate the technical obstacles to IPU. Support documents were created and shared with the BAU teams for any issues encountered.

Toast pop up notifications were designed and deployed to laptops and workstations to enhance uptake of the IPU offering along with pushing awareness and enabling location where devices were to be replaced that did not have an existing asset database location.

These changes were delivered in controlled and targeted sprints to enable key steps to fulfil the successful deployment of the IPU within the clinical settings capacity for change.

The project developed and delivered a comprehensive communications & training output utilising several key methods. This included the creation of a “Digital Champions” network coupled with a Microsoft Teams channel, Direct SLT (Senior Leadership Team) site meeting attendances, the trust intranet pages and weekly training and support sessions attended by the Project team communications lead, the project manager and a rotating technical representative.

 

The Outcomes

Following three months of aggressive applications testing initial momentum was built when the first larger cohorts of devices were deployed following their application estate sign off. Further testing ran until August when a critical mass of applications was released allowing large volumes of IPU to be made available taking the deployment numbers from circa 1k to 18.5k in around 12 weeks with a further 1k delivered in the final 4 weeks taking the delivery to 19.5k.

Post application sign off and IPU release, the project focus was aimed at the challenging areas;

  • Devices whose software estate needed additional effort to allow upgrade.
  • Devices where hardware was non-compliant and required replacement prior to Windows 11 being deployed where applications sign off and clinical schedules allowed.

A list of devices that hosted the non-compliant software was built and constantly challenged and reviewed to reduce the volume that would remain on Windows 10. The trust ran project enabled remediation works in parallel to the Windows 11 project rollout. With the drive of the Windows 11 project the numbers of paused software devices fell significantly from an initial 2500+ to sub 200 representing less than 1% of the estate. This effort resulted in exceeding client expectations and business case requirements.

The final phase of delivery was the build, test and release of Windows 11 into the two virtual environments which the trust utilises across two domains. This was enabled by the comprehensive testing carefully chaperoned by the max20 Project Solutions team upon 100+ Windows 11 test devices in the hands of trust colleagues.