Three Shires announces agreement with E-Box

The Three Shires Batch PFI Scheme has announced it is using E-Box's web enabled document collaboration tool PFINet.

The Three Shires Batch PFI Scheme has announced it is using E-Box's web enabled document collaboration tool PFINet.

The £132 million scheme involves the Three Shires Batch procuring mental health accommodation, community hospital and a Learning Disability Service and it has utilised E-Box's PFINet throughout the procurement.

This project - only the second ever Batch procurement under the Department of Health's Batching initiative - has benefited from PFINet by utilising a single method of communication between the Batch procurement team and the actual bidders.

This has given the project a secure, online, auditable and structured information repository for both the bidders and the Batch team, ensuring fully secure communication between both sides.

The Scheme utilised PFINet throughout its initial stage when the bidders were announced (Arden - Costain and Alfred Mc Alpine; and Investors in Health - Balfour Beatty and Mill Group) and will continue to be instrumental in the project during the evaluation stage, through to announcement of the preferred bidder in May, and throughout final construction.

Nick Hughes, Managing Director of E-Box, commented: "It's exciting for us being involved with this, the second Batch, because we're also being used for the first Batch procurement - Northern Batch".

" This means that we're becoming the de facto industry standard for PFI collaboration tools and working with a wide range of clients on how they can best structure their communications and document management systems." Cont _ Tina Brown, Project Officer at Derby Mental Health NHS Trust, said: "PFINet has made the management of the procurement process very much easier".

" We're able to keep track of all the documents, requests for information etc as well as monitor who is making use of this facility".

" We have no qualms about the security of the site, and have experienced no problems in this area".

"The support staff are always extremely helpful and should you have any concerns/problems they are always dealt with most efficiently".

"The E-Box team have helped to make the use and implementation of PFINet around our Batch a smooth and hassle-free process.".

Back to top