NHS moves email to Exchange

The National Health Service (NHS) has announced it will be moving its massive email platform to Microsoft Exchange 2007 running Outlook.

The NHS IT service Connecting for Health launched NHSmail in 2004 with Cable & Wireless on a Mirapoint system, a CfH spokesman said. The timeline of the transition to the Microsoft system has not yet been announced, he added.

One of the more popular aspects of the embattled National Programme for IT (NPfIT), NHSmail it has been endorsed by the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing. It has 260,000 registered users, making it one of the biggest enterprise message systems in the world.

Despite the success of the Mirapoint system, the NHS and Cable & Wireless decided to upgrade the mail system following a feasibility study, saying in a statement that while the system was the best at the time, advancements in technology mean that other options better suit the ever evolving requirements of the massive NHS system.