We have worked on 7 successful EPR transitions to date and are aware of some of the pitfalls NHS organisations may encounter which is why we have written this guide.
Pre Qualification Questions
We are aware of the huge effort NHS organisations go to when reviewing supplier bids, it is not uncommon for tenders of this magnitude to go to public tender, which creates an enormous burden on NHS bid reviewers, potentially reviewing 20+ bids and slowing down the time available for the actual project. What’s more it can unfortunately lead to the cheapest bidder being contracted, when they are unqualified to bid, on a promise that they can’t fulfil, creating a lot of wasted effort and an unsatisfactory outcome.
For this reason we typically recommend to leverage the G Cloud framework for lower fees and minimal friction for the client.
In cases where a public tender is still required, in order to save both effort for the NHS and also the bidders who are unqualified to bid, a set of Pre Qualification Questions is normally requested before bidders complete a full response in order to ensure compliance.
This results in a manageable number of 2-4 bidders who are actually qualified to do the work.
Here is an example list of such Yes/No questions:
- Can the supplier evidence at least 3 successful Epic EPR transitions where they managed and delivered the full integration across all systems?
- Does the supplier have an up to date “Cyber Essentials Plus” certification for Information Governance?
- Does the supplier have at least 5 Epic Bridges certified employees?
- Can the supplier evidence working on one other Epic EPR programme using Lyniate Rhapsody as the integration technology?
Structure the Tender for less risk
Epic EPR programmes often involve very large teams of around 200 employees, contractors and consultants. Assuming that your average “fully loaded” resource cost is £500 per day that equates to £500K per week, and a 1 month delay could result in £2 million of extra cost. Some suppliers may promise to deliver everything under a fixed-price but may not realise the effort involved in supplemental services in order to hit the deadlines adding a significant risk, an unlevel playing field for bidders and a high chance of selecting the cheapest bidder without the focussing on quality.
We therefore recommend to structure the tender as follows to select the right partner:
- Focus the core integration tender on the design, build and unit testing and UAT support of the integrations within Rhapsody and Epic Bridges.
- Allow the supplier to provide supplemental services beyond the initial tender that would support the programme that can either be carried out by the NHS organisation or by the supplier. For example, this could include vendor engagement or running the Epic Test Scripts inside Epic and managing the various stakeholders through the testing process.
Manage Scope & Approach
During vendor engagement and each of the Epic delivery waves it often transpires that some system vendors are not ready to integrate because of contracting, or that they do not have an environment, or a team available or that its not possible without changing their system in some way, and those systems may get delayed. This will lead to some vendors coming out of scope and others coming into scope, which is not well suited to a fixed-price engagement.
We therefore recommend NHS organisations state a preference for fixed-price or time and materials integration services based on the following:
- Fixed Price – If you have > 85% degree of confidence that the scope will not change. Then allow an internal contingency budget of 15% to 25%, knowing that the scope will change.
- Time and Materials – If you have <= 85% degree of confidence that the scope will not change.
In either case, we recommend to verify the number of resources proposed by the supplier with Epic and other Epic clients to ensure that it is enough to deliver the EPR Programme on time.
