Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust delivers digital excellence with Lenovo’s Windows 11 devices

Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust (BDCFT) provides award winning services to support communities throughout their lives. These include services in children’s and community health, learning disabilities and mental health.

The Trust’s Green Plan embeds sustainability within its operations, including procurement, while the Trust aims to become a “digitally outstanding” organisation.

In his role as End User Device and Software Senior Analyst, Matthew Pointer plays a key role in implementing this strategy throughout BDCFT’s sites. Along with many of his colleagues, he’s worked with Converge for the last five years.

Streamlining staff workflows with USB-C displays

Since the relationship between the Trust and Converge was established, the two organisations have collaborated on a wide variety of deployments.

The Trust initially upgraded to USB-C monitors from Iiyama – a new technology at the time that allowed the Trust to move away from dedicated docking stations, which saved money and reduced IT complexity across the Trust.

Matthew explained that the move to USB-C displays helped the Trust create “smarter working spaces” throughout the Trust. As he explained, staff just “come up with their laptops and plug in. It’s so easy for our staff now.”

Thousands of tailored Windows 11 devices deployed smoothly

Since those initial deployments, Converge has become BDCFT’s supplier for notebooks and Lenovo Small Form-Factor PCs.

“We’ve been updating to Windows 11 devices for two or three years now, all with Converge,” said Matthew. The Trust has upgraded thousands of devices during this time.

The Trust collaborated with Converge and Lenovo to put together appropriate specifications for BDCFT’s requirements – which involved devices with Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 processors, a minimum of 16GB of memory and 256GB SSDs.

Those weren’t the Trust’s only requirements, either, given Bradford’s ambitions to become an agile and “digitally outstanding” organisation. 

“We needed smart cards and the possibility of adding mobile connectivity,” said Matthew. “We looked at other ranges and not all of the ranges had that capability – but the Lenovo L Series ticked all of the boxes.” 

It wasn’t just about picking the right specs, either, because the new devices needed Windows 11 images that helped staff get to work on day one.

BDCFT, Converge and Lenovo collaborated on creating Windows 11 images that could be rolled out quickly across all new devices, with appropriate apps then downloaded to devices using Microsoft Configuration Manager – so staff enjoy a smooth, seamless experience with new machines.

Compliance and security were paramount in this installation as the Trust achieved a full Windows 11 roll out ahead of the end of Windows 10 support by the end of September.

“Our initial images were uploaded using the Lenovo portal,” said Matthew, “and Converge then recreated our configuration across the entire deployment remotely. We had no issues.”

Seeing clearly with Microsoft Teams Rooms

The collaboration between Converge and the Trust has extended beyond end-user devices and to Audio Visual deployments.

Converge’s consultative approach has seen BDCFT design, configure, and deploy an updated Microsoft Teams Room solutions. These have improved communication between the Trust’s staff – whether they’re on-site or working remotely.

The Trust has advised that they’re “extremely pleased” with the deployment, and explained that “the pricing, clarity of quotes and account management are all first-class, too.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Matthew. “We’re very happy with Converge and how we work together,” he said. “They are very easy to get on with, they always visit us and have made us feel really welcome. It’s an excellent partnership.”