Update on Core Technology Refresh Order Management Technology

Over the last two years we have made significant progress in onboarding customers to our new Oracle Platform for eDirect orders. We have steadily moved approximately 2,000 customers onto the new platform and now have 75% of business volume transacting through the new solution. This has taken a great deal of collaboration with both suppliers and customers and we’d like to take the opportunity to say thank you.

Next steps:

Whilst the majority of customers have transitioned successfully we are aware a few customers and suppliers have raised eDirect queries/incidents which we are working through.

What has happened and what are we doing?

The recent issues have affected an average of 0.3% of eDirect orders and is being treated with the utmost priority to resolve.

Our IT team has identified the cause of the problem and actions are in place to fix the source of the issues.

So far this has happened for one customer, however, until we have a permanent solution in place we are monitoring all customer orders.

How is this being managed?

• The Project Team is working closely with all the affected NHS Supply Chain teams and customers to manually work around the issue.
• The IT team is working on a long-term solution which should be in place by the end of next week.
• We are proactively monitoring eDirect orders nationally on a daily basis so if there is going to be a problem, we can identify it in advance and the customer can be contacted and alternative measures put in place 

If you experience any issues, please report via our Customer Services team as usual. Please be reassured this is being treated as an urgent priority. See our Useful Links section for the Customer Services team’s contact details.

Core Technology Refresh Order Management Technology eDirect Release

The Core Technology Refresh (CTR) project is a multiyear programme replacing our core order and warehouse management systems.

See our Useful Links section to read more about our ambition and progress across CTR.

The CTR eDirect release provides our first step onto our new Order Management Technology which processes all our eDirect orders.

What is eDirect?

eDirect is an established ordering route enabling us to offer products to the NHS not currently stocked in our warehouses. Customers order products through our catalogue that are delivered directly from the supplier, these products are identified on the catalogue with our eDirect logo.

Currently, 656 customers are regularly transacting with us through eDirect, with over 1 million orders spending approximately £800 million each year. Through eDirect we strive to provide efficient and speedy delivery routes of goods and services to the NHS.

What has happened so far?

It is a great achievement to bring eDirect order management technology online. Our teams have been working hard on the solution with the first release going live in November 2021.

What is next?

Currently CTR is etablishing a new order management platform, replacing the current system with modern a cloud-based infrastructure. Following the success of going live with our first customer in November 2020, we will continue with our phased approach of onboarding customers from late 2021 in to 2022.  We will shortly be communicating to our next group of customers who will be transitioning onto our eDirect platform in November.

Will there be any customer impact?

We do not expect any interruption to our service during the transition and ask customers to continue to order in their normal manner.

How is this supported?

During our transition of the first customer we entered Early Life Support (ELS). This enables a dedicated team to monitor each process of the transition and effectively manage any issues with no impact to the customer.

If you have any questions regarding the CTR eDirect order management technology release, please contact: