NHS Scotland publishes £206m tender for cloud integration solution

NHS Scotland has published a tender worth £206 million seeking a cloud solution to consolidate HR, finance, payroll and procurement processes across the country’s regional health boards.

The tender for a 15-year contract, published on 19 May 2025, aims to to procure an ‘integrated, cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution’ and a systems implementer to design, deliver and implement the chosen SaaS solution to meet the requirements.

Commenting on the tender, Graham Watson, executive chair of NHS Scotland partner InnoScot Health, said: “This is undoubtedly positive news for a health service looking to deliver on its modern, forward-thinking ambitions.

“It is a much-needed step and will be hugely welcomed by aspiring workforce innovators, with NHS Scotland striving to provide a flexible, agile, and cost-effective environment supporting both better joined up service delivery and more progressive ambitions.

“In the short-term, it is vital that the right SaaS platform is identified, along with a trusted systems implementer to support a strong design, delivery, and rollout.

“If that is achieved, then in the longer-term, the benefits are clearly huge – from the potential to revolutionise patient care in Scotland by improving data management, to enhancing collaborative efforts, and lowering costs.”

SaaS and system integrator suppliers must enter a “bidding partnership” from the outset and jointly offer “a cohesive solution and delivery approach” in order to apply for the contract by 18 June 2025.

The competitive procedure will result in two national contracts from National Services Scotland (NSS) – one with the technology vendor, and another with the systems integrator.

The proposed budget will be split, with £120m given directly to the cloud-based SaaS solution, and the rest spent on implementation costs.

Scotland’s ‘Care in the Digital Age: delivery plan 2024 to 2025‘ states that it plans to complete the full rollout of a new national GP IT system, before moving to a single cloud hosted solution by 2026.

The plan pledges to “support and develop our current and future leaders to drive, deliver and embed digital transformation across Scotland’s health and care service”.

Last year, NSS contracted OneAdvanced Health and Care’s cloud-based software to serve as a document management system across all GP practices in Scotland.

In May 2024, the Scottish government confirmed to Digital Health News that its ‘Cloud First’ digital health strategy had been delayed following a recent budget review and settlement.

The Cloud First strategy is intended to encourage and support public sector bodies to use cloud services and realise the benefits of cloud computing by focusing on sharing information and knowledge.