Barts Health NHS Trust modernised its IT service management using Alemba Service Manager to improve service performance, governance, and staff experience across a large, complex healthcare environment.
Hear from Barts Health NHS Trust’s ICT Director on how improved ITSM maturity is supporting staff productivity and patient care.
David Rimmer, Head of ICT Service Delivery, Barts Health NHS Trust
When we first started using Alemba Service Manager, we were largely limiting ourselves to basic Incident and Request Management. Since then, we’ve introduced a number of automation processes. These range from automatically detecting issues and logging tickets, to assigning them to the correct teams to ensure speedy resolution, and putting approval processes in place.
The automated workflows within ASM have allowed us to improve our SLAs and the overall user experience we provide. Automation has also enabled us to manage processes that require security, information governance, and budgetary approval, ensuring that requests are appropriate before being implemented across the network.
One of the key areas we tackled early on was reporting and dashboards. Being able to see a live, real-time view of the service has been invaluable in helping us understand what’s happening and where improvements are needed.
Fay Stevenson, ICT Director, Barts Health NHS Trust
ASM has allowed us to create a standard way of supporting our staff with Incidents and Requests across all of our hospital sites. Having a single platform has also helped us improve productivity across the service.
In working towards HIMSS INFRAM Level 6, it was important to demonstrate that this wasn’t just about implementing technology. It was also about how that technology is supported and governed, and ensuring it runs smoothly for our staff.
We use dashboards extensively across the service delivery team so they can clearly see priorities, from P1s through to P4s, and understand where focus is needed to move things forward, resolve issues, and close tickets effectively.
The work the team has done with ASM, and with Alemba, has improved both the service and the productivity of the teams that support our staff. That means clinicians and other staff can focus on looking after patients, rather than worrying about technology.
Barts Health NHS Trust undertook a long-term programme to improve the maturity of its IT service management processes, evolving its use of Alemba Service Manager to strengthen governance, improve service performance, and better support staff across a large, complex healthcare environment.
“The work with Alemba has improved the service and the productivity of the team which supports our staff so they can get on with the job of looking after patients and not worrying about the technology.” Fay Stevenson, ICT Director, Barts Health NHS Trust
Consisting of over 100 agents in IT, and 100 more in other departments such as Finance, Procurement, and Accounts, the Barts Health ICT team is responsible for serving approximately 24,000 end users.
Barts Health NHS Trust is one of the largest NHS trusts in England, delivering world-class clinical services to approximately 2.5 million people living in east London.
Barts Health NHS Trust is one of the largest NHS trusts in England, delivering clinical services to around 2.5 million people across five major hospital sites in east London. The ICT function supports approximately 24,000 end users and plays a critical role in enabling safe, reliable, and secure digital services across clinical, operational, and corporate areas of the Trust.
HIMSS Accreditation Day
“We could see that ASM had the potential to do most, if not all, of our immediate and future needs and were confident that Alemba could help us on this maturing journey,”
In late 2020, Barts Health NHS Trust launched a long-term programme to improve the maturity of its IT service management processes. While the Trust had been using Alemba Service Manager since 2019 to support Incident and Request Management, the ICT team recognised the need to reassess how the platform was being used to better support its evolving maturity goals.
Although ASM was delivering value in day-to-day service operations, capabilities such as Change Management, surveys, and data analytics were underutilised. This prompted a broader review of how the platform could support more structured governance, improved visibility, and long-term service improvement.
With confidence in the platform, the Trust was able to focus on developing its service management processes to support the wider objectives of the programme.
The primary objective of Barts Health’s ITSM maturity programme was to improve the end-user experience of IT services and the service desk, making it easier for staff to access support and complete requests.
To support this, the ICT team set out to modernise the self-service portal by expanding request options, improving usability, and simplifying navigation.
The programme also included the introduction of additional ITIL-aligned processes, such as Problem Management and a Service Catalogue, to extend the value of Alemba Service Manager beyond core Incident and Request handling.
Improving visibility and monitoring, alongside establishing stronger governance for infrastructure changes, was a key requirement of the project.
Achieving HIMSS INFRAM accreditation was identified as an important benchmark of overall digital and infrastructure maturity, helping to validate progress and guide future plans.
Barts Health wanted to improve IT efficiency and reduce reliance on the ICT service desk by making it easier for staff to resolve issues through self-service. This required better insight into recurring problems and a more proactive approach to service management.
“Part of the frustration was knowing that the ASM tool could do so much more than we were using it for, and that we could be so much more efficient.”
The existing self-service portal delivered limited value and was often bypassed in favour of phone calls and emails, placing additional strain on service desk teams and reducing productivity.
Many ITSM processes were not fully integrated within Alemba Service Manager and were handled manually, limiting visibility and contributing to repeated issues and reactive working.
Change Management and reporting were largely manual, preventing the Trust from benefiting from built-in workflow, automation, and up-to-date analytics.
As part of its ITSM maturity programme, Barts Health significantly expanded how Alemba Service Manager was used, with a focus on improving the end-user experience and strengthening service governance.
“Being able to see the impact of changes through reporting was invaluable in guiding future improvements.”
The first priority was establishing reliable reporting and analytics. This gave the ICT team clear visibility into performance, enabled progress to be measured, and created a baseline for future improvements.
With reporting in place, the self-service portal was redesigned to improve usability and engagement. Generic service tiles were replaced with more specific request options, helping users submit better-quality information first time and reducing follow-up effort for service desk staff.
Improvements were also made to core ITSM capabilities, including Incident and Request Management, surveys, and the CMDB, alongside the introduction of new processes such as Change Management, Problem Management, High Severity Incident Management, and a Service Catalogue.
Alongside the ASM programme, Barts Health was progressing wider infrastructure initiatives, including network upgrades, cloud migration, and preparation for HIMSS INFRAM assessment, with Alemba consultants providing guidance throughout the journey.
Example of an ICT Service Management reporting dashboard from Alemba Service Manager
This example illustrates the level of operational reporting and visibility available to Barts Health NHS Trust using Alemba Service Manager, supporting service governance and decision-making in a complex NHS environment.
The improvements delivered through the ITSM maturity programme led to a measurable uplift in service quality and user experience across Barts Health NHS Trust.
Redesigning the self-service portal and replacing generic request tiles with more specific options ensured the right information was captured first time and routed to the appropriate teams, in some cases automatically. This contributed to an improvement of more than 15% in resolution performance against SLAs.
Increased confidence in the self-service portal also reduced reliance on phone and email channels, allowing service desk teams to prioritise urgent, time-critical issues more effectively.
As a result of wider improvements to governance, reporting, and infrastructure maturity, Barts Health NHS Trust became the first organisation in the UK - and the first healthcare organisation in Europe - to achieve HIMSS INFRAM Level 6 (out of 7).
The assessment recognised the Trust’s strong approach to governance, Change Management, and strategic alignment, as well as its ability to link infrastructure maturity directly to improved clinical and operational outcomes.
As part of its commitment to continual improvement, Barts Health NHS Trust continues to evolve its use of Alemba Service Manager. The following initiatives are currently planned or underway:
Barts Health NHS Trust is one of many healthcare organisations supported by Alemba Service Manager. Speak to our team to learn how ASM can support service management in your organisation.
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