Asckey acquisition of Eclipse-fm®
Following a period of intense negotiation, a deal has been struck between Asckey and the Healthcare Facilities Consortium (HFC) in which Asckey has acquired sole ownership rights for Eclipse-fm®, the leading asset and facilities management system used by the NHS. The deal includes full Eclipse-fm® product licensing, support and the Eclipse- fm® trademark and signals the end of a partnership between Asckey and the HFC of over ten years.
The acquisition corresponds with a period of sustained product innovation at Asckey, representing our continued commitment to product development.
Independent ownership now gives additional freedom for our in-house specialist developers to take Eclipse-fm® functionality to the next level. Eclipse-fm® is to form the basis of our new hard and soft facilities management tool fmfirst™.
This new, innovative, single source NHS site management product suite provides Estates and Facilities managers with an efficient, flexible and cost effective management tool.
As part of this, Eclipse-fm® is taking on a new identity and from version 7.1 onwards will be known as fmfirst-estates & facilities™. As well as maintaining all original features, future development of fmfirst-estates & facilities™ will look to maximise functionality for increased effectiveness and ease of use. It is the intention to provide any additional functionality at no additional cost to the user.
An immediate advantage of integrating the product into the fmfirst™ product suite will be the potential for interlinking functionality. Each stand-alone unit including fmfirst-cleaning™, fmfirst-stock™ and fmfirst-ebme™ can be linked to form a single integrated operating system with combined audit reporting capability. This collective strength and flexibility allows Trusts to build powerful, customised systems that fully match individual needs.
Bernard Hill, Commercial Director at Asckey commented, `Applying our 20+ years’ combined experience of delivering and supporting Eclipse-fm®, direct input from NHS Trusts and the latest ISO standards, our development plans for the fmfirst™ product suite aim to produce improved, efficient and most importantly -user-friendly functionality,’ he continued, `This acquisition will allow for maximum product performance and continued assurance over facilities management and audit compliance within healthcare facilities’.