NHS Wales has launched a Microsoft 365 Centre of Excellence to support staff in the use of the software.
It is hosted by Digital Health and Care Wales with the aim of boosting sustainable improvement projects across the country’s health service by sharing best practice, developing knowledge, supporting new ideas, and helping to scale successful M365 solutions across health boards.
The move builds upon the work of the existing programme team, which has guided the implementation and development of M365 since the move from multiple contracts to a single NHS Wales-wide deal in 2019. The organisation said this has increased the digital capability of the service and provided savings of £11.7 million of three years.
It added that, alongside more familiar tools like Teams, Word and SharePoint, the centre of excellence is supporting NHS bodies in exploring the use of Microsoft Power Platform, which includes Power Apps, Power BI and Power Automate.
New era
Damian Mayer, interim head of the centre, said: “We’re entering into a new era of possibility with M365 and what its tools can do for NHS Wales colleagues.
“The previous M365 programme team did a phenomenal job of embedding the tools and developing the frameworks around them. The centre of excellence will carry that work on and continue to innovate and explore opportunities for improvement, for the benefit of colleagues and the citizens of Wales.
“We encourage all those with clinical or operational challenges that they think can be solved by digital solutions to join the network or get in touch with us.”
NHS Wales also runs an M365 Champions Network and has encouraged interested staff to get in touch.
