NHS staff to be first for Office 2007

21 Dec 2006

NHS employees are set to become some of the first people in the UK to get copies of Microsoft Office 2007 when it ships early next year.

Thanks to the Home User Scheme of the NHS's Enterprise Wide Agreement with Microsoft, health service employees will only have to pay a fraction of the standard price to be among the first to get hold of the full copies of Microsoft's new Office software.

John Coulthard, head of health for Microsoft UK, told E-Health Insider: "If NHS staff order in January they will be among the first in the country to get a copy of the new software."

He added: "To get their almost free copy all they have to do is register with their NHS email address on our website, and they can pay £18 to be a brand new boxed copy of Office 2007."

NHS staff who don't want to wait until January can already take advantage of the home User Programme, which forms part of the contract with NHS Connecting for Health, to enable NHS staff to buy heavily discounted copies of Office 2003 or Office XP Professional. From the end of January the options will change to either Office 2003 or Office 2007.

The Home User Programme helps NHS employees save more than £300 on each purchase, and is available via a new online resource centre for the NHS. Deliveries are currently taking 8-10 days.

Coulthard says that since launching the new online site in August the take-up of the Home User Programme has been huge. "Since we put the new site up about 65,000 people have downloaded copies of Office."

The boss of Microsoft's NHS business team said that anyone working for the health service buying a computer for home use this Christmas should consider taking advantage of the scheme. "If you're buying a PC for the home or use by your family you should take a look at this. It's silly to spend more on software than you have to."

He explained that the home user part of the NHS EWA was introduced to help ensure all NHS staff have the opportunity to become more familiar with the standard PC desktop and operating system software used across the health service. "The NHS wants its people to be familiar with the technology they will use at work."

Coulthard added: "Putting better technology in people's hand is also a win for Microsoft – it's enlightened self-interest."

Reader's Comments

Recommended to the Max

24 Dec 06 14:12

We took advantage of this as trainers with the CRS as we support ECDL users as well. It cost £18 and the CD was with each of us in 8 days. It's the full version too with PowerPoint and Access.

Actually - it's the only perk I've ever gotten as an NHS employee; but is so badly promoted in the NHS that no mature NHS student has ever heard of it! Shame.

Publicity

04 Jan 07 10:01

I've placed a comment on our Hospital intranet forum to advertise this. Since I'm also the Pathology Webmaster, I'm going to put a link on the front page of our website.

When can we order Office 2007?

08 Feb 07 22:02

The HUP website is still only offering XP and 2003 rather than the new version as promised, anyone know when we will be able to be the first to get our hands on Office 2007 as per the headline?

I just asked Microsoft and...

14 Feb 07 13:02

Unfortunately we do not have any information referring to your query as to whether the MS Office 2007 will be available trough the HUP scheme, but please be advised that your Benefit Administrator will receive the relevant information in due course. But as we believe it should be available within the next months.

Should you have any further queries please feel free to contact us again.

Kind regards Konstantin Zilelidis

Microsoft Home Use Program Team HUPVALUE@MSDIRECTSERVICES.COM

CfH Statement

02 Mar 07 22:03

The following is a statement from CfH concerning the Microsoft Home User Programme regarding Upgrades to Microsoft Office 2007

"Microsoft have confirmed NHS employees are entitled to participate in the HUP and receive a licensed copy of Microsoft Office for home use as part of the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement.

Users however will not be able to get Microsoft Office 2007 until late March 2007. In addition, users who have purchased MS Office XP, can later purchase MS Office 2003 or 2007. However, once the new copy is provided, users may not use the old version.

If you have already ordered a copy of Microsoft Office 2003 during the period of the current Enterprise Agreement using your current NHS email address, you may have to wait until the next Enterprise Agreement comes into effect on 16 May 2007 before ordering a copy of Microsoft Office 2007.

More details shortly.

The Home User program is available to all Enterprise Agreement customers and you will need to go to the web site and order as normal.

Contact: Andrew Raynes ETD Programme Manager Southern NHS CFH (Andrew.Raynes@nhs.net)"

I hope this is helpful!