PROJECT CASE STUDY 3

Practitioner Pension Scheme
NHS Pensions Agency

The Project

All data for the NHS Pension Scheme is stored in a MS SQL Server database. However, the calculations necessary to administer schemes for Medical and Dental Practitioner members are beyond the scope of the general pensions system. These calculations could only be performed by experienced members of the NHS Pensions Agency staff using two parallel, cross-checking systems (one a proprietary product, the other an in-house amalgam of MS Excel and MS Visual Basic) and required a great deal of manual input. The two parallel systems were not only cumbersome but with the advent of new pension scheme rules would become obsolete.

The project was to develop a solution that would replace these legacy systems and extract up-to-date data from the SQL Server database to provide a single environment from which Practitioner calculations under both the old and new rules of the new NHS schemes could be made and stored. These calculations are in some cases extremely complex and the specification was challenging. Calculations needed to be both accurate and precise and the system required high degree of performance tuning to meet target time for the calculations.

Our Input

Brooks Gamble Ltd led the technical development of the system, setting coding standards, determining appropriate methodologies and developing program code. Work comprised the design and development of a new system interfacing with MS SQL Server databases and applying several processing routines using complex business rules and calculation methods. System outputs included a range of reports in PDF format stored within the database and output in hardcopy form.

The solution using Oracle PL/SQL and APEX was adopted enthusiastically by the user base and required minimum training. During the project we provided ‘hands-on’ coaching of user staff in uses and best practice for APEX and PL/SQL.

The results of the project were considerably faster processing times, added functionality, storage of result sets within an Oracle database, more flexible outputs and automatic generation of statistics for management reporting. The new system was developed quickly, to detailed and complex specifications, meeting tight deadlines. 

 

The Client’s View

“Having had Brooks Gamble Ltd working alongside the NHS Pensions Agency team for some time, we had total confidence that they would help deliver a smooth, slick system for this project, and the result was all we could have asked for. They responded positively to the tight deadlines and the detailed and complex specification and provided a strong technical lead in the development, encouraging and supporting our own staff throughout the process.”

“Understanding that the final product must not simply meet the technical scope of the work but provide a usable system has been a major strength of the solution.”

“The success of this project has been a large factor in the business decision for NHS Pensions Agency to make a significant commitment to Oracle and to look to Oracle/APEX as the preferred in-house solution in the case of both small scale departmental applications and large scale business critical developments.”

STEVE NEWMAN – Assistant Director Information Management and Technology

NHS Pensions Agency, Fleetwood, Lancashire