System C Healthcare · 2015–2017 · Product Director

System C

Problem
The NHS needed enterprise software that worked across secondary, primary, community and social care, in one of the most complex health systems anywhere.
Decision
Bring patient data to the bedside by acquiring and integrating two mobile products, and modernise the platform on Microsoft Azure so the portfolio could deploy and sell faster.
Outcome
Three electronic health record products serving more than 300,000 users, with mobile access for clinicians and nurses and a platform re-architected for continuous delivery.
System C, Connecting Care
A gloved hand and a cartoon hand forming a heart in a hospital corridor
The Vitalpac website on a tablet and a phone
Referral Assistant conversation asking the clinician about the patient's situation
The System C assistant character

Context

From 2015 to 2017 I was Product Director at System C Healthcare, responsible for three electronic health record products — Medway, CareFlow and Graphnet — serving more than 300,000 users, with P&L responsibility for multi-million-pound product lines.

System CAcquisition of The Learning ClinicAcquisition of CareFlow

What the real problem was

System C supported a wide range of services across the NHS: secondary, primary, community and social care, each with its own workflows, governance and buyers. This was a complex B2B enterprise problem. We had to win new business through long procurement cycles while continuing to meet the needs of existing customers running our products every day.

At the same time, clinical work was moving away from the desk. Most hospitals were still pushing “computers on wheels” between beds, and clinicians and nurses needed patient data in their hands.

What happened

Mobile at the bedside: I led the acquisition and integration of two mobile health products, VitalPak and CareFlow, bringing patient data to clinicians and nurses where care happens.

Electronic prescribing: I launched an electronic prescribing product across multiple health systems, connecting to the NHS Spine and integrating with e-prescribing services.

Modernisation: I led the roadmap for re-architecting our infrastructure and products on Microsoft Azure, to support rapid deployment, continuous integration and simpler maintenance.

Leading at scale: I managed nine product managers and coordinated across more than 200 engineering, design and specialist roles, at one of the largest UK-based healthcare software providers.

What I would do differently

The hardest part of the role was balancing customer demand, sales demand and a technical roadmap to modernise the portfolio. In the end we invested in modernisation, because it was what would make deployment and sales cycles faster, let us bring new propositions into the portfolio and support cross-selling across the business.

Given the chance again, I would make the same decision. What I would change is how closely we worked with customers through it: explaining earlier and more directly why some things were delayed, and what they would gain as a result.