The Microsoft Citizen Service Platform is currently powering the first two of their kind e-services for the elderly. The third Local and Regional Government (LRG) Solutions Forum in Bilbao was the stage where Microsoft announced that UK partners Cerrus International and CareWorks had leveraged CSP in order to introduce new services aimed at elderly communities in China and the UK. In China, the assisted living facilities of Sun City, built on the outskirts of Beijing, offer care for over 7,000 people.

“China has the largest ageing population in the world and, as such, needs a world-class solution to help it meet the goals of its recent healthcare reforms. This is the largest community ageing system of its kind and truly validates Cerrus’ offering as a basis for a national care system. To deal effectively with the growing ageing population we need care homes, care villages and care cities which are hubs of local life,” revealed Stewart Maxwell, CEO of Cerrus International.

Maxwell added that CSP was precisely the right platform to provide flexible care services via the Cerrus International Saturn 3 technology system. Saturn 3 not only centralizes and allows for permanent monitoring of patient data, but also enables cost reduction when it comes down to provisioning elderly social care.

“Social care is a key focus area of Microsoft Citizen Service Platform. Microsoft technology provides both a vision and a solutions platform architecture that seeks to deliver economies of scale and flexibility, providing governments with the tools they need to balance ever-shrinking budgets against the needs of an ageing population and rising citizen service expectations,” explained Bruce Greenstein, managing director for Health and Social Services, Worldwide Health at Microsoft.

In the UK, CareWorks has built CareDirector on top of the Microsoft Citizen Service Platform. Designed as a management system for social care, CareDirector also takes advantage of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM technologies, and served to reinvent the wheel when it comes down to the way social services are delivered in Medway Council (Kent) in the UK. “Technology has an important role to play in the drive for personalisation and self-directed social care. By using technology to empower both workers and citizens, we can revolutionise the provision and delivery of social care worldwide as seen through the Sun City and Medway Council projects,” Greenstein added.