Surrey NHS choose Open Source Plone CMS

At their meeting on Monday 17th January the Senior Management of the Surrey NHS Health Informatics Service (Surrey HIS) decided to choose the “Plone” Open Source Content Management System as the basis of all Internet and Intranet requirements across the NHS in Surrey.... Peter White commented "Our choice wasn't only based on cost. From a rigorous analysis of 7 major systems, we found that the Plone system came top in terms of performance and features too"...."We expect to use Liverpool based 'Blue Fountain Systems' as our major technology partner to develop our Plone strategy during the coming months."

The organization provides Web systems and support for 16 NHS Trusts including 7 Primary Care Trusts and 4 major Acute Hospitals. The Solution was proposed by Peter White - a senior Surrey HIS Manager with responsibility for Web development across the Surrey Area.

"Our choice wasn't only based on cost...the Plone system came top in terms of performance and features too." Said Mr White - a senior Surrey HIS Manager

He explained "In the past open source has been shrouded in mystery with decision makers often considering open source systems as unstable, insecure and without support making them unsuitable for mainstream business applications.

However this opinion is changing as more and more organizations both in the private and public sectors opt for open source systems as a cost effective fully supported and secure solution."

He added "We expect to use Liverpool based 'Blue Fountain Systems' as our major technology partner to develop our Plone strategy during the coming months."

Aidan McGuire, Sales Director at Blue Fountain
Systems said "This decision by Surrey HIS sends a clear message that open source systems are viable as business solutions and are well able to compete with propriety software applications."

Blue Fountain Systems have also implemented open source content management systems for the Council for Healthcare Excellence (CHRE) and the Postgraduate Medical Education Training Board (PMETB).