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It was wonderful to welcome so many of you to our Annual Community Summit in Birmingham. The event was a great success, with attendees connecting, sharing, and learning so much. We certainly came away with a host of new ideas and a wealth of insights to help guide how we support you into 2026 and beyond.
This Newsletter brings you all the highlights and announcements from the event, but should you require any further information, reach out to your Digital Transformation Consultant or email info@ndl.co.uk.
Automate 8.1.2 - this builds on Automate 8, which introduced:
• Signposting, to let you develop faster, more change-resilient automations.
• Access to point-in-time Control Trees.
• Azure Virtual Desktop Support.
• Automatic handling of bot screen-scaling.
Automate 8.1.2 is now on general release, and you can read the full Release Notes and get the latest download here.
Digitise
There are updates coming for both aspects of the Evolve Digitise module: Digitise Forms and Digitise Apps:
Forms 3:
• A host of new Elements to make your forms really pop, including the Video player, the QR code generator, and the Star rating.
• Time-out extensions and support for new form-based script events.
• Support for Microsoft Entra ID, enhancing security and access controls. Also includes support for external users who wish to use personal Microsoft accounts.
• Major improvements to accessibility, with support for the WCAG 2.1 AA standard (support for WCAG 2.2 AA is expected to be released later this year).
Apps 11:
• Support for full audio recording and playback.
• Enhanced push notifications, optimised for high volume processes. Includes support for the latest push notification standards.
• Deployment via Apple Business Manager.
• Extended device support, including an upgrade to the latest iOS SDK to comply with Apple’s latest App Store requirements.
Evolve 1.9
Hub, Flow, and Connect are now more intrinsically linked than ever, with all three modules being released together as Evolve.
This next release focuses on making codeless data manipulation as simple as possible, allowing users to move data between databases, web services, and other data repositories – all as part of Flow, and all without using any code. Whether dealing with disparate data sources, complex RESTful APIs, email payloads, or more, it couldn’t be simpler!
New features include:
• No-code Connect integration.
• Drag-and-drop data mapping.
• Data Schemas.
• For Each looping.
In combination, this next level of functionality is a real game-changer. In practical terms, it means you can build a solution that aggregates several narrow AI solutions – for example, to transcribe and summarise a voice recording into real, structured data, stored directly in a data source in minutes, not hours and days, exemplifying the power of Evolve.
All the above is available from today in a public beta. If you would like access to this, please get in touch with your DTC, and we will be happy to help.
Many of the features detailed above come from our work on Evolve 2.0, and we’ll be providing an update on that in Community Connect 2026.
A reminder that, as well as the productivity features in all the Evolve modules, 2.0 brings the ability to deploy Evolve to non-Windows environments. This means that customers can save on both license fees and computer costs by deploying to Linux or using Containers, in addition to having the choice of SQL platforms other than Microsoft.
We will be providing periodic updates on Evolve 2.0 throughout the rest of 2025, and if you would like to be considered to join other customers on the Early Adopters’ Programme, please reach out to us.
This session explored the various types of AI and how it can be applied successfully within a real-life setting. Gareth Handley (NDL’s CTO) explained how Evolve can be used to provide aggregated AI services to support digital transformation. The NDL Technical Team demonstrated how it’s possible to incorporate multiple AI services without any coding in just a few minutes – an astounding accomplishment!
This was then supported by examples from Circle Healthcare, who took us through their AI journey. One of the projects covered was the introduction of an intelligent workflow to process 5,000 equipment assessment reports daily – generating outcomes without human intervention. This proved to be a fascinating and powerful demonstration of how Evolve opens a world of services from some of the best global AI providers.
A massive thank you to all our NDL community members who shared their project stories with peers from across the Public Sector.
It was great to hear about the different projects that are happening through the sharing of challenges and project successes, not to mention learning about members’ plans for the future.
Recap on some of the fantastic sessions from Summit.
In the session with HCT, the team shared insights into the Trust’s automation journey and digital strategy. They discussed how they have utilised NDL Digitise to streamline pathways for patients accessing services at the trust, and how they have used Evolve’s Automation capability to integrate patient data directly into the back-office systems across the trust.
Want to know more about this project? Reach out to your Digital Transformation Consultant for access to the recent webinar HCT delivered in collaboration with NDL.
SRS showcased the meeting support solution that allows social workers to go out into the field and record meetings with service users. SRS described how multi-layered AI engines then transcribe and summarise the conversations in a highly structured way. The support tool can be used offline and has the potential to be applied to different meeting types across the public sector.
The project showed how NDL Evolve can be used to leverage and aggregate multiple AIs – an excellent example of how AI can be used in a real-life setting.
You can hear more about this project in our most recent NDL Inspire webinar – get in touch with us today to watch.
In UHMB’s presentation, the team talked about their work around the Patient Portal and PIFU initiatives that were built using the NDL Evolve platform. The project showed how digital technologies can improve the end-to-end patient journey, providing patients with a much better experience, whilst allowing the Trust to better allocate time, appointments, and resources. This process isn’t just within UHMB; it is also being rolled out across the wider OneLSC.
This is a highly replicable project that can be applied to a range of settings and organisations.
See the patient portal in action in the UHMB webinar from earlier this year.
The PAH presentation focused on automation and how the digital projects align with the overall strategy within the Trust. Currently, they have over 40 digital and automation projects, with one of the latest being the integration of the Badgernet NICU system with Oracle Health. The trust is also using the power of AI to review scan data and even help improve some HR processes.
There are lots of exciting projects going on at PAH. Reach out to your DTC to learn more about the projects.
Turning to the Local Authority Landscape, New Port City Council shared how they have been using Evolve’s Automate functionality to transform council services.
Newport Council have a plethora of projects where automation has been applied, including cleansing and transferring old data sets, for the ‘Tell Us Once’ service, rent reviews and benefits processing, automating the provision and distribution of Welsh and Central government grants in the aftermath of Covid, and checking the DBS status of taxi drivers.
The team also discussed their plans and ideas for using NDL Evolve in the future.
Speak to your DTC to find out how these projects could be applied in your organisation.
This year, we had several round table sessions that explored the services that local authorities and NHS trusts need most.
These sessions included:
Local authority and NHS APIs – Identifying APIs that could be the most useful for local government and healthcare service delivery.
LG
• DVLA Vehicle Keeper information - KADOE
• DBS Check
• Rural Crime API
NHS
• FHIR
- ERS
- GP Connect
• Microsoft Graph
AI for local authorities and the NHS – Identifying emerging AI services which apply to local government and healthcare service delivery.
• Personal Information Redaction from Documents (Social Work / Legal / Medical)
• Document Translation
• Speech to text
End-to-end process design – Examining the most common end-to-end processes amongst NDL Community members.
The output of these sessions identified many services that we can now prioritise to have them available ‘out-of-the-box’ or as templates for the NDL Community to use. The session proved to be very interesting, informative, and creative.
A huge thanks to everyone who came to Community Summit, and a special thanks to our customer presenters and panellists.
Don’t forget to ask your DTC about the Connect and AI offer we announced in the closing session.
