The UK Health Security Agency has awarded a contract to Amazon Web Services, which the government body indicates is intended to help ensure consistency and data quality while reducing duplication

The UK Health Security Agency has signed a six-figure deal to help bring order to the organisation’s stores data.

The public health body – which operates as an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care – this week entered into an initial one-year contract with Amazon Web Services, with which the agency signed a £50m cloud-hosting deal last month.

The agreement is valued at £885,582 and covers the provision of the xDM product from specialist software firm Semarchy.

The company’s website says that the tool is designed to bring together “master data management, data intelligence, and data-integration capabilities into a singular, potent data application that can be deployed in any environment”. The aim is to allow users to “harmonise, analyse, and manage their data more efficiently”, the product description adds.

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For its part, UKHSA indicates that it hopes its use of the technology will enable the agency to tidy up and better manage its data.

In a newly published procurement notice, the health body says that it was seeking to “a centralised reference data management and master data management solution within the UK Health Security Agency to streamline data operations”. This solution should support the agency by “ensuring consistency, eliminating data duplication, enhancing data quality, and facilitating more accurate reporting and analysis”, the notice adds.

The agency last year revealed plans to create a national “multi-threat dashboard”, that would build on data gathered and components built during the coronavirus crisis. The new and expanded platform is intended to keep the public informed about future health emergencies.

Also announced this week was another government contract win for Semarchy – this one awarded directly to the firm, by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The £612,000 deal, which came into effect on 1July and runs for three years, covers the delivery of the tech firm’s Cloud Master Data Management product. The Semarchy website states that the tool is designed to allow users to “quickly integrate and transform data from every possible source in one place”.