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On Friday CSC confirmed speculation that it is withdrawing its former iSoft products from the UK’s GP IT market. Having reviewed its strategy for the UK primary care market, CSC has decided not to support its GP applications Synergy, Premiere and Ganymede beyond current contractual commitments. CSC will provide support until at least the end of October 2013 for practices in England and Northern Ireland, and March 2014 for practices in Wales.
CSC’s decision to pull out of the UK primary care market appears to be the right one for the company. The former iSoft and Torex applications have been losing market share to rivals with newer products, and the GP market isn’t a core one for CSC. Indeed, we’ve long questioned the logic of CSC’s decision to offer its National Programme for IT in the NHS (NPfIT) customers both the iSoft applications and software from rival TPP, under a subcontractor relationship it ‘acquired’ when it took over Accenture’s NPfIT contracts.
Nevertheless, around 580 GP practices in the UK use CSC’s software, almost 6% of the English market and 13-15% of practices in Northern Ireland and Wales. These practices will be shocked to have to find a replacement application at relatively short notice, and seemingly without any additional funding for migration. For other suppliers in the GP sector, CSC’s decision is of course an unexpected bonus – the likes of EMIS, InPS and TPP will be eager to step into the breach (for more on these suppliers PublicSectorViews subscribers should see the UK Healthcare SITS Supplier Landscape report).