NJW Deliver Web Based Procurement to Bristol NHS

15 May 2007, Nigel Warrick

United Bristol Healthcare NHS instructed njw to design a Web based
procurement system for the Estates Department. The original system was
MSDOS based and resides on individual client machines. The new system is
web‐server based, written in Java, data storage within an RDBMS and access
provided through a web‐browser. A security hierarchy is installed to
maintain access rights to all parts of the system.

The system comprises of four main sections and has been Live for 12 months
as a business critical application:

1. Works order and invoice creation and tracking – Web‐based screens
   provide similar look and feel to the current system (in terms of location
   of text entry fields etc). Two main user input forms are provided to
   enable the creation of works orders and invoices. Navigation screens
   provide search criteria for previous works orders invoices etc.
   
2. Administration Module – There are several static data elements within
   the system to enable the creation of works orders and invoices.
   Examples of these would be contractor/supplier data, cost centres,
   deliver to addresses etc. Although initial data‐loading will be
   undertaken via a bulk data‐load, a simple means of updating and adding new static data is provided. Again navigation screens are
   provided to search for existing data.
3. Reporting – Although the requirements for several of the reports are
   yet to be defined, screens are provided with various filters to view
   works orders / invoices by various parameters and categorised by the
   static data incorporated into the system.
4. Security – Each user of the system has to be authenticated. Security
   roles are given to control access to certain parts of the system. Each
   user is allocated a role therefore enabling access control to all parts of
   the system. Administration is required to manage user accounts etc.
   Session tracking are used by each screen to ensure the user has been
   validated and remove any means of by‐passing initial login.
   

The system has been live for 12 months and is now business critical
because it manages the Hospital financial transactions prior to interaction
with the corporate SAP Solution.