We are writing to you let you know that an upgrade to the PCSE IT systems will take place overnight on Friday 29 September.
There are no functional changes to PCSE Online, and no changes to interface specifications, message schemas or data validation, during this upgrade. The upgrade applies to our internal systems only.
We expect to complete the implementation of the upgrade by 6.30am on Saturday 30 September, and will then need to complete internal user acceptance testing (UAT), which should take approximately 4 hours.
Please be assured that lessons have been learned following the last update, which caused issues for users. We do not expect to experience similar issues.
After user feedback following the last update and as part of our aim to provide better visibility of future updates, we are providing you with two scenarios for the time taken to complete implementation and UAT, before resuming business as usual (BAU). We hope this will assist you in planning your use of PCSE Online on 30 September.
| Scenario | Implementation start and finish | UAT start and finish | Impact for users |
| #1 (likely scenario) | 29 September 6.00pm – 30 September 6.30am | 30 September 6.30am – 10.30am | System available at 6.30am
UAT and BAU running concurrently until approx. 10.30am |
| #2 (worst case scenario) | 29 September 6.00pm – 30 September 9.30am | 30 September 9.30am – 1.30pm | System available at 9.30am
UAT and BAU running concurrently until approx. 2.00pm |
When the system is up and running on Saturday morning, UAT and BAU activity running together may result the system running a little slower. This is expected to improve in line with the timelines above and should not be a cause for alarm.
If you experience any issues using PCSE Online during this period, we ask that users check for status update banners on the PCSE website and that where the issue remains, users complete an online Ophthalmic General enquiry via the Contact Us page on the PCSE website – see below example:
Where you are asked to enter your enquiry details, please include ‘PCSE IT Upgrade’ as the subject of your enquiry and remember to attach any screenshots of the issue you have encountered – see below example:
We thank you for your cooperation as we complete this important upgrade.
