Dublin-based tech firm wins €30m NHS contract

DUBLIN-BASED iB Solutions has won a €30.2 million five-year extension of a software-hosting contract with the National Health Service (NHS) in Britain.

The firm will host Oracle financial and purchasing applications for NHS Shared Business Services (SBS), an outsourcing company which is a joint venture between the British department of health and outsourcing specialist Xansa. The value of the contract does not include software licences as NHS-SBS has an enterprise-wide agreement with Oracle.

The managed service will be available to 2,300 NHS users, with plans for it to rise to 3,200 within two years. IB Solutions will service the contract from its data centre in Prestwich outside Manchester.

The company is a subsidiary of Australian healthcare technology group IBA Health. It was founded as McKeown Software and was acquired by Torex in 2001. Torex was subsequently acquired by iSoft in 2004. Following overruns on an NHS contract and restatement of results iSoft was acquired by IBA for some £140 million (€178 million) plus debt last summer. ISoft has a contract to implement an electronic patient health record system for the Health Service Executive.

IB Solutions has won a number of large managed-service contracts in the British health sector in recent months. In December it won a $40 million contract with a consortium of 56 NHS organisations in the North of England.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times