Smart began looking at tools to pull all of the Trust's data together some 18 months ago. After six months he chose SAP because the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in London still had BusinessObjects licences available through its framework, which is provided by BT. He had also carried out consultations with Gartner.

He said: "The NPfIT had selected BusinessObjects as its core reporting tool, so there were licences available through that route. We didn't think that there would be anything that SAP's tool couldn't do that we would want it to do."

All of the Trust's data resides in an SQL server data warehouse, through which BusinessObjects will then pull information. It is in the process of launching the main central portal through which employees will access most of the reports.

The application is also hosted on-site, where Royal Free invested in a new HP virtual environment approximately twelve months ago.However, despite this imminent milestone, Smart argues that the project is ongoing and will require a significant change in the business.

"This is a long-term project and one that is arguably more cultural than technical. We are asking the business to think about data differently and be more proactive in its use of data," he said.