CIS Live Service National Changes for Pharmacies

Details of the forthcoming changes from SCWCSU follow below:

We write to advise of forthcoming national changes to Care Identity Service (CIS), the smartcard management application.  This is in order to align its technical infrastructure to current technologies.  We are hoping you can communicate this as far and wide as possible throughout the pharmacy community so they are aware of the implications of these changes please?

The first stage of this upgrade involves moving the Live CIS Service to the Cloud.  This will improve the stability of the platform by removing reliance on ageing physical hardware. The transition will take place between Friday 7 May (BST) 18:30 and Monday 10 May (BST) 08:00.

• During this time users will still continue to be able to authenticate and use their cards logging in exactly as they do now.
• What will not be available during this cut-over period is the ability to be able to manage smartcards (unlock/renew certificates), change access (addition/removal of access) for users or register new users.  

What can be done to mitigate for the down-time

• Ask users to self-renew their expiring certificates if they are getting system messages asking them to renew their smartcard, alternatively ask their Sponsor or RA ID Checkers for assisted renewal.  
• Assign any new access, remove any access for leavers and register any new users before the down-time.