Essentia Transforms NHS Estates Management with MRI Evolution

Essentia, the estates, capital, and facilities arm of Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, is undergoing a comprehensive digital transformation by implementing MRI Evolution. This initiative aims to consolidate data, streamline processes, and improve asset performance across one of the UK’s largest and most complex healthcare estates.

The Trust manages multiple hospital sites, some with a history spanning centuries, alongside cutting-edge medical facilities. Balancing these contrasting demands requires an integrated, intelligent approach to estates management—one that harnesses data, automation, and predictive intelligence to enhance both operational efficiency and patient outcomes.

The Challenge: Siloed Systems and Inconsistent Data

Historically, Essentia has relied on multiple disconnected systems, making it difficult to obtain accurate, real-time insights into asset performance, compliance, and operational efficiency. These challenges have included fragmented data across different platforms, which has made reporting time-consuming and inconsistent. The reliance on manual processes, such as spreadsheets, has further complicated estate and lease management, limiting visibility into lease terms, asset conditions, and maintenance schedules.

Additionally, a lack of integration between estates data and clinical systems has made real-time decision-making on critical infrastructure nearly impossible.

“We have had issues with siloed ways of working,” explained Zoe Galea, Performance and Reporting Manager at Essentia. “We have been looking for some time to produce a business case for an enhanced solution. It’s been a long-standing agenda item, so we’re really excited to be finally doing it.”

Phil Mitchell, Director of Operations at Essentia, echoed this sentiment: “Digital systems are absolutely crucial to how we deliver services. We have been fragmented in terms of the systems we use, and there’s a real drive towards modernisation and integration.”

With these issues in mind, the decision to migrate to MRI Evolution was driven by a need to create a centralised, data-driven approach that would improve operational efficiencies and support the Trust’s broader digital strategy.

The Solution: A Unified, Predictive FM Platform

The transition to MRI Evolution will allow Essentia to create a fully integrated digital estate, enhancing service delivery and asset performance.

“Our vision is a highly performing estate, underpinned by predictive intelligence to optimise the quality of our infrastructure for the safety and comfort of our patients and staff,” said Phil. “The mission is to build a fully integrated digital estate that drives the best possible asset performance, providing an environment where patients and staff can thrive.”

Streamlining Space and Lease Management

One of the key areas of focus in Essentia’s digital transformation is property and lease management.

“Right now, managing leases is a fairly labour-intensive process,” explained Phil. “We’re using spreadsheets and various trackers to understand where our leases are. There’s little intelligence in the system, and we lack insight into lease terms and conditions.”

By adopting MRI’s lease management solution, Essentia aims to centralise property data, enabling teams to make better strategic decisions. “Having all lease information in one place, with the ability to extract key details at the click of a button, will be really useful,” he added. “At a higher level, it will help us develop strategies to maximise the use of our estate.”

Similarly, space management will play a crucial role in helping Essentia streamline operations. “We’ve just gone through a significant change process regarding space,” said Phil. “The recognition is that we need to be leaner, and to do that, we need a system that automates some of our manual processes and integrates with our other platforms. The fewer touchpoints a customer has to navigate, the better. A consistent and efficient system will help us optimise how we use our space.”

Aligning Estates Management with Patient Care

A key objective of the transformation project is to ensure that property management decisions positively impact patient care.

“At a very basic level, this is about patient comfort,” said Phil. “If we can overlay occupancy data with room temperature, ventilation, and cooling, and understand how those factors contribute to patient comfort, that’s huge. When you scale that across the estate, it becomes a significant improvement.”

Beyond comfort, ensuring a safe hospital environment is paramount. “We have people in some of the worst health conditions they’ve ever been in, and they rely on our buildings and infrastructure to help them recover,” he added. “Whether it’s ventilation in operating theatres, water system safety, or fire door compliance, all these factors contribute to patient safety. Any way we can integrate data to describe how we’re performing against these risks is absolutely crucial.”

A New Era of Data-Driven Decision-Making

Essentia is also adopting MRI Agora Insights to move from retrospective reporting to predictive data analysis.

“We do the best we can with data and reporting, but it’s very retrospective,” explained Zoe. “Right now, we report most things a month in arrears, but when I first joined, it was sometimes two months in arrears. Moving from retrospective to predictive reporting, where we can see trends before issues occur, will be a game-changer.”

The ability to overlay multiple datasets will enable smarter decision-making. “There’s so much potential,” she continued. “Better business planning, productivity improvements, operational efficiencies, and stronger financial assurance. It all starts with having the right data in one place.”

A Collaborative Approach to Implementation

The collaboration between Essentia and MRI is designed to go beyond a simple system rollout and operate as a long-term partnership focused on continuous improvement and user adoption.

MRI is providing dedicated onboarding and training to ensure successful adoption across all teams, ensuring that the system is tailored to meet operational needs. The implementation strategy has been designed to ensure that Essentia’s teams feel confident in using the software from day one, with MRI offering ongoing support and real-time monitoring.

MRI Software has been working closely with Essentia to support a smooth transition. “I think that’s where the partnership piece comes in,” said James R Foster, Senior Account Manager at MRI.” We bring the technology, and Essentia brings the on-the-ground expertise. How we come together and merge our abilities is going to be critical to driving continuous improvement.”

A Digital Partnership for a Complex NHS Estate

The implementation of MRI Evolution is set to go live in September, with early benefits expected to be visible within the first three months.

“Some benefits will be long-term, but even in the short term, we expect better user engagement and time savings,” said Zoe. “We’ll start seeing the impact as soon as teams begin using the system.”

Essentia is also considering future enhancements, including energy management solutions, to align infrastructure decisions with sustainability goals and patient care needs.

With MRI Evolution and Agora Insights, Essentia is setting a new standard for estates management within the NHS. By consolidating data, integrating predictive intelligence, and aligning estates operations with patient care and financial sustainability, Essentia is paving the way for a more agile, efficient, and future-ready healthcare estate.

Ultimately, this is about creating an estate that performs at its best for patients and staff. If we can make better decisions with predictive insights, integrate our systems more effectively, and improve efficiency across our operations, we’ll be in a much stronger position.

Phil Mitchell, Director of Operations, Essentia