Information Technology Service Management

NSS is seeking to procure licences for an IT Service Management (ITSM) solution that supports 18 key ITSM practices. These practices are either currently in use or are planned as part of NSS’s evolving ITSM capabilities including Incident Management, Service Desk, Service Request Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Service Level Management, Knowledge Management, Service Catalogue Management, Service Configuration Management, Infrastructure & Platform Management, Capacity and Performance Management, IT Asset Management, Release Management, Availability Management, Measuring and Reporting, Service Continuity Management, Monitoring and Event Management and Supplier Management.

The scope of this procurement is currently for NSS ITSM at present. Currently NSS has a need for approximately 500 ‘agents’ that will use the platform.

The end user / customer numbers should be considered as NSS wide (approximately 3,500 staff) for the purposes of this procurement. As part of the ‘Once for Scotland’ initiative, NSS anticipates extending these ITSM capabilities to other NHS Scotland boards as service maturity increases.

Additionally, with the planned integration of NHS Education for Scotland (NES), shared ITSM services are expected to be implemented across both organisations. Therefore there is a requirement for scaling potential.

Current Platform and Transition Plans: NSS is currently contracted with a SaaS platform that delivers ITSM functionality, along with modular features for Project, Programme, and Portfolio Management Services (PPPMS) and timesheet recording. NSS intends to transition away from these modular components to alternative solutions once the new ITSM platform is operational.

The current platform also hosts several custom-built applications that support additional business services. NSS plans to fully divest from these custom applications and migrate to more sustainable architectural alternatives.

Implementation Services: NSS will require technical implementation services to architect, build, test, and deploy the new ITSM solution. NSS will provide internal resources to manage and support the project and conduct any necessary business analysis throughout the implementation process.

The Vision for the ITSM Procurement Project is to procure a best-in-class tool to replace the current installation of ServiceNow to deliver services to NSS. Once procured, this tool will be configured and implemented by an implementation partner with support from DaS.

As part of the implementation relevant DaS staff will be trained as required. This implementation partner will need to adapt to NSS’ culture and configure the new tool to best reflect NSS’ ambitions.

It will improve efficiency, deliver greater internal NSS experience of IT services and requests, and support a new operating model within the ITSM delivery team. The tool will also have the potential to scale, allowing DaS to offer more services to NSS and extend our services to other NHS Scotland boards.

We aim to complete the procurement and implementation of this new tool by the end of 2026/27 so that both cash and non-cash benefits can be realised early 2027. This procurement will be run as a restricted process.