Occupational Safety and Health

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Fujitsu's Partnering Programme helps NZ's OSH organisation

Fujitsu has delivered Microsoft Windows 2000 and Active Directory to New Zealand's Occupational Safety and Health organisation (OSH) across a wide area network to all 21 OSH sites - a deployment so geographically widespread that it was a first for New Zealand. The system was designed, tested, and the concepts proven at Fujitsu's Integration Centre in Wellington, ensuring the standard desktop images would work as designed from the moment Fujitsu installed them in OSH branches.

Fujitsu's onsite service support allows OSH to monitor its network remotely via a monitor running at Fujitsu's Enterprise System Management Centre. If work is needed on OSH hardware, Fujitsu engineers are dispatched. Fujitsu also provides OSH with general advice on IT purchasing and development directions.

Fujitsu has become OSH's trusted IT Infrastructure partner in the four years since the organisation first contracted it to supply and roll out servers and desktop computers and set up local area networks in branches. Since then, Fujitsu has helped establish a wide area network linking OSH sites from Whangarei to Invercargill and helps maintain OSH's IT system with WAN monitoring and on-site service support.

Whilst the recent migration to the Windows 2000/Active Directory environment delivered significant benefits, the upgrade was potentially difficult. Networks with Windows 2000 and the Active Directory had been installed in individual cities but was now required on a more extensive, national scale by OSH.

In order to minimise problems associated with networking Windows 2000 between OSH's 21 sites, the system was designed, tested, and the concepts proven at Fujitsu's Integration Centre in Wellington. OSH's information unit manager, Colin Todd, applauded this approach: "The Integration Centre allows things to be progressed in a good standard way, and we'll probably use it for every roll-out we ask Fujitsu to do in future."

With new Dell servers installed and the Windows 2000 WAN in place throughout New Zealand, the next stage is to replace OSH's 264 desktop machines and 105 laptops. Fujitsu has developed standard images of all software to be installed on these machines, which ensures they will work as designed from the moment Fujitsu installs them in OSH branches and plugs them into the upgraded network.

The relationship with OSH is based on Fujitsu's Partnering Programme methodology. This structured approach promotes shared understanding of what partners want to develop together, how issues should be resolved and how key tasks and the ongoing relationship should be measured and reviewed. It can include third parties, and at OSH it included the telecommunications provider, Clear Communications. Regular partnering workshops help to keep things on track and ensure the relationship moves forward.

Colin Todd is enthusiastic about the process: "It's refreshing to do business with a company that really believes in partnership, rather than 'them and us and give us your money'. It's not a distant business relationship. There are benefits in a partnering programme such as this that I haven't experienced working with other people in other areas.

"Things like the people - the value they add by good common sense and well-applied industry knowledge, good research capability, and excellent advice. The level of commitment isn't 100 per cent - it's 120 per cent. And that's not only from the account manager - it's from the engineers we have on-site, it's from the people who go out to the branches and do the work. You can't put a dollar value on that level of commitment."

OSH has its own IT staff, who look after most of the day-to-day operation of the various computing systems. They run their own help desk, administer their database and Exchange servers, and look after the organisation' s Internet and intranet systems. So why not do the lot instead of outsourcing to Fujitsu?

"If we had a larger team, we might well do," says Mr Todd. "But we just don't have the people, and nor do we have the capacity to physically store gear that is being rolled out. If we tried to look after everything, we'd have a lot of excess capacity at times, and we wouldn't always have the right expertise when we needed it."

"Basically, they add tremendous value to our whole IT infrastructure," says Colin Todd.