NZ's Legal Services Agency

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Fujitsu's partnering methodology pays dividends for NZ's Legal Services Agency

In October 2000, New Zealand's Legal Services Agency engaged Fujitsu on a five-year partnership contract that has seen the Agency's e-infrastructure undergo a complete update and be fully operational within three months. Latest generation software and applications are now networked to the Agency's regional offices. As a result, the Agency now uses the newest generation of Microsoft Office and all staff can work with the core legal platform, LA Office.

Fujitsu is providing ongoing management of the IT system plus sophisticated help desk facilities.

The Agency is a small government organisation that processes legal aid, undertakes law-related education and research, and funds community law services throughout the country. Fujitsu's first big task was to migrate the organisation from an ageing platform based on Windows 3.1 to a modern 'thin client' network, spread through nine regional offices plus Head Office in Wellington. The network is based on Microsoft Windows 2000, with high-level thin client facilities provided by the Citrix Metaframe product.

The new system incorporates 60 new low-specification terminals plus 40 older desktop PCs. Thin client technology meant the Legal Services Agency could buy low-cost new terminals, recycle existing PC stock and then run them all like modern full-specification machines.

The system has a high level of built-in future-proofing, with plenty of scope for new software and network enhancements - even new offices can be added with minimal fuss. Future hardware upgrades can be mainly confined to new server equipment rather than expensive new desktop PCs. The new Windows 2000/thin client e-infrastructure was designed and tested in Fujitsu's Integration Centre. Having this advanced facility had helped secure the contract for Fujitsu, and Tony McCone, the Agency's project manager for the upgrade, was very happy with the results:

"Fujitsu was able to do extensive testing before rolling anything into our environment, and we were all confident the solution was going to work.

"It was a very staged cutover, and that's a great advantage of having thin client. System intelligence all resided at the central location, so we could cut people over as and when it suited, with minimal disruption to daily business.

"We gave Fujitsu a pretty short timeframe to do the project - another month would have been a luxury we could both have done with. But they met the deadline - they pulled out the stops and we were very satisfied with the way the project was managed."

Having designed and installed the new IT system, Fujitsu now runs it from its Enterprise Systems Management Centre. The Agency has no IT staff of its own and even the network servers - the intelligence for the system - reside in Fujitsu's premises. According to Mr McCone, Fujitsu's Call Centre help desk was an additional attraction of outsourcing the new system.

"Fujitsu's help desk is well thought of in the industry, and it certainly impressed us. Their monitoring of faults, additions, moves and changes is extensive and their reporting facilities are beyond our requirements." Specifically designed to be cost-effective for small to medium-sized businesses, the ESMC offers management, monitoring and day-to-day administration of a customer's e-infrastructure, through to backup facilities management. The ESMC can also host customers' servers, and is doing this for the Agency. When faults are detected, they can often be corrected remotely by ESMC staff, but where necessary Fujitsu engineers are dispatched to the site.

For smaller organisations like the Legal Services Agency, the ESMC takes advantage of economies of scale that result from Fujitsu's sophisticated monitoring and help desk services already set up for large customers.

The relationship between Fujitsu and the Agency is based on Fujitsu's Partnership methodology. Says Mr McCone: "We originally took it as part of the general Fujitsu mix, but we've found the partnering approach to be a very positive aspect in its own right that's worked well for this project."