Bath, UK 19 February 2013: Eduserv, a not-for-profit IT services provider to the public sector, today announced that it has signed a contract with the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), to deliver Identity & Access Management Services (IAM) through its OpenAthens solution to over 1.5 million users. The two year deal, which benefits the NHS in England, will enable users to access all centrally procured online information such as bibliographic databases, e-journals and e-books.

"We are thrilled to have signed this contract with NICE," says Dan Almour, Business Director, Eduserv. "It is vital that major public sector organisations such as the NHS have the latest information and resources at their fingertips, so documents can be accessed both onsite and remotely.

"This will make accessing information and data quicker and easier for end users as well as helping the different NHS Health Authorities in England to make better use of their budget by collating usage reports which are then broken down by resource and user group."

Through OpenAthens, organisations are able to manage multiple licenses for e-books and e-journals and provide access to them from one portal. This gives administrators total visibility as to which publications and documents are being accessed and lets them manage subscriptions in a cost effective manner.

Eduserv has been delivering this service to NHS trusts in the UK since 2003, and this reprocurement demonstrates the value that NHS users derive from this resilient, easy-to-use service.

"Today's announcement will bring many benefits to more than 700 NHS affiliated organisations in England", says Alexia Tonnel, Director of Evidence Resources at NICE. "By delivering IAM services to hospitals across England, the service allows OpenAthens users to look for the information they need more efficiently, whether using the service for professional development, on ward rounds, or in accident & emergency departments."

OpenAthens currently has over 4 million users worldwide, with customers including 50% of UK universities, the Department of Veterans Affairs (USA), Philips Research and South Australia Health.

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NICE took responsibility for the management of the Access and Identity Management Service for the NHS in England in 2009 when the contract was novated from the National Institute for Innovation and Improvement as part of the transition of the National Library for Health into NICE.

About Eduserv
Eduserv is a not-for-profit IT services company with a mission to help public good organisations make better use of IT. Services include cloud infrastructure, identity and access management, IT consultancy, web development and managed hosting. In addition to healthcare and academic organisations worldwide, Eduserv's customers include the Department for Education, NHS Direct, British Red Cross, Victim Support and Scottish Water.

For more information, contact:

Jo Bridger
Eduserv
Head of Marketing Communications
Jo.bridger@eduserv.org.uk
01225 474 307

Alex Brooks/Amy McKenna
Rocket Communications
Eduserv@rocketcomms.net
08453 707 024