"I'd like to see employees do two things. Firstly, I would like to see them develop the confidence to go to the data themselves and interrogate it - find the detailed analytic questions that they want to ask. The business can begin to draw insights themselves and then ask our analysts to do more detailed analysis using higher-end techniques."

He added: "We are also very keen to do things like simulation and also segmentation of patients to see what is driving particular behaviour."

When asked about the cost of the project, Smart wasn't willing to say. However, he did mention that implementing BusinessObjects isn't about saving money, it is about improving productivity at the Trust.

He said: "I don't think we are expecting to see cost savings, as I am not anticipating that we will be reducing the number of analysts. What we are aiming for is an increase in productivity, for the actual volume and value of analysis to increase."

Smart also highlighted the main challenge of the project, where he said he underestimated the work required on the data warehouse prior to implementation.