iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF) Agrees New Five-Year Deals With iSOFT 7 Worth GBP12.6M

Sydney, Mar 16, 2011 (ABN Newswire) - iSOFT Group Limited ISF said today that the group of seven NHS trusts in England, known as the iSOFT 7, will extend their agreements for patient and clinical management systems for five years, in deals totalling GBP12.6 million (A$20.2 million). The contracts are worth GBP4.8 million (A$7.7 million) in licence fees and GBP7.8 million (A$12.5 million) for maintenance and support and run to April 2016. All seven are to extend contracts for iSOFT's patient administration system (PAS). The four of these trusts that use iSOFT's clinical management solution for order communications, results reporting and prescribing will also extend licenses, maintenance and support for a further five years. The trusts will take control of the contracts from NHS Connecting for Health. The five NHS trusts in London and two in the south of England combined to agree the original deal in 2006. "This is a hugely important development for iSOFT and one that demonstrates that these customers derive genuine value for money from our continued relationship," said Adrian Stevens, Managing Director of iSOFT's UK and Ireland business. "We are also aware of our responsibility to provide real value to our customers," Stevens added. "These new agreements are a measure of this and our capacity to provide solutions and services to match customer needs." "The iSOFT 7 rank among the country's most prestigious and innovative trusts and have again shown their confidence in our ability to deliver real value," said Andrea Fiumicelli, iSOFT's Chief Executive Officer. "We welcome the opportunity to continue the work we are doing jointly to further develop our solutions to optimize processes and workflows to find further efficiencies and savings and generally improve the quality of patient services and care." The seven are: Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust; Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust; Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust; University Hospital Lewisham NHS Trust; Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust; and Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust. All seven have used iSOFT's PAS solutions for over ten years. Colin Sweeney, Director of IT at King's College, says the seven are planning to run iSOFT systems for the foreseeable future. "From our point of view, the clinical functionality offered under the national programme does not match what we already have from iSOFT. "The precise details of the contract need to be agreed, but this is the best result possible as its causes the least disruption," he said. "The service is certainly an improvement on what we had before and at a price that the trusts feel is affordable." Under the contracts, CSC delivered iSOFT's PAS as a managed service from its UK data centre. A spokesperson for CSC told E-Health Insider: "CSC is committed to the healthcare market in the UK and view this contract as very important." About iSOFT Group Limited iSOFT Group Limited ISF is the largest health information technology company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, and among the world's biggest providers of advanced application solutions in modern healthcare economies. iSOFT works with healthcare professionals to design and build software applications that answer all of the difficult questions posed by today's healthcare delivery challenges. Our solutions act as a catalyst for change, supporting free exchange of critical information across diverse care settings and participating organisations. Today, more than 13,000 provider organisations in about 40 countries use iSOFT's solutions to manage patient information and drive improvements in their core processes. The group's sustainable development is delivered through careful planning, in-depth analysis of the market, and anticipation of our clients' evolving requirements. Our business is driven by the collective talent, experience and commitment of more than 4,700 specialists, including more than 2,700 technology and development professionals. A global network of iSOFT subsidiaries, supported by an extensive partner network, provides substantial experience of national healthcare markets. As a result, we offer our clients comprehensive knowledge of local market requirements in terms of culture, language, working practices, regulation and organizational structure.