BUPA moves to .NET systems

Independent health insurer and provider, BUPA, has signed a two year contract worth over £5m with technology company Edenbrook to develop new systems based on Microsoft .NET to support BUPA’s UK insurance and membership services.

Edenbrook, a Microsoft Gold Partner, will build a core of systems that interface with BUPA’s finance, web, legacy and data warehouse services. The work will be done in three phases ending in 2007.

The contract award was awarded following successful existing work by the company to build a Service Oriented Architecture on .NET for BUPA International’s systems.

The systems to be built will be based around .NET Windows Forms and will be accessible over the internet, even through low bandwidth connections.

Steve Anderson, director of Edenbrook, said: "I am excited about the opportunity to transform the systems landscape for BUPA. By assisting BUPA with the business change along with the design of a technology solution that encompasses enterprise best of breed Microsoft technologies we feel that BUPA will be able to recognise real benefits immediately and have a platform for the future."

John Lister, chief information officer at BUPA, said: "Their [Edenbrook’s] modern approach to development coupled with detailed technical and business understanding ensures we are able to achieve our challenging business and IT transformation timescales whilst ensuring a high-quality system that meets the real needs of the business."

According to BUPA, the systems being put in place will be easily extendable so that their business applications can be easily changed or updated in the future. A programme team of 120 staff will work on the project.