Buying a new system and preparing for migration

Buying a new clinical system is called procurement. Your practice may also need to buy other software and hardware. 

You will need to do some work to get ready for migration. This should be done before the kick off meeting.

The people, teams or organisations who might be required in this stage of the migration are:

• integrated care board (ICB) 
• practice manager 
• current clinical system supplier

A new clinical system is known as a new Foundation solution on the Buying Catalogue. 

Make sure the new system meets your practice needs. If you cancel a migration after placing an order, your practice may get a penalty charge. You can find more in the CCG-Practice Agreement V2.

Pre publication draft versions of both the v6GPIT Operating Model and the ICB Practice Agreement v3 are available on FutureNHS, should you wish to refer to them. 

To proceed, you will need to:

1. Use the GP IT Futures framework. This is part of the Buying Catalogue which is currently being updated.  
2. Complete a business justification template for changing your clinical system.
3. Work with your practice staff, ICB and IT delivery partner to manage the migration.
4. Refer to the Primary Care (GP) Digital Services Operating Model for guidance.
5. Get funding approval from ICBs (and any local boards). This is for other costs like training, core hardware or software upgrades.

Before you order a new system, you need to agree on a provisional go live date. You should agree this with your practice, the ICB and any delivery partners.

When procurement is complete, the ICB or GP IT delivery partner places the order. This is done through the Buying Catalogue. 

The ICB or GP IT delivery partner approves the order. The system migration request gets sent to the new system supplier. This should include the provisional go live date. 

The new supplier receives and accepts the order.

The supplier will send a schedule of dates for key migration steps. These are for discussion at the kick off meeting. 

When you have agreed the provisional go live dates, the order will be sent to the buyer engagement team at GP IT Futures. 

The current supplier will provide data to the new supplier. This will be on the initial data production date. Suppliers have different lead times to provide this data. Some may need up to 5 weeks' notice.  

The ICB or IT delivery partner sends a formal data extract request to the current supplier. They should follow the steps below: 

1. Request a data extract form from the current supplier. 
2. Fill out the form with the requested extraction dates. This should include both initial and final data production. 
3. Return the form to current system supplier. 
4. The current supplier will do a safe and secure transfer of the data to the new supplier. 
5. The data extract will populate a test version of the new system during the initial data production phase. 

The actions above will need to be carried out for any other supplier who needs to migrate data. Examples include DocMan, a document management and scanning system, and INRstar an anticoagulation management software.

Plan a date for the kick off meeting. Include all people who will work on the migration process (see the list in the kick off section). 

After the kick off meeting, decide when to set up the technical survey.

Some IT delivery partners and suppliers conduct the technical survey remotely so may not need to be on site.