More than Just a Helpdesk

by Ron Condon Strategy for Business, issue 9. - Summer 2002

Fujitsu's award winning helpdesk centre in Holland plays a vital role in supporting computer users in corporations across 55 countries.

Think of the NASA control room, and you'll get some idea of the new Fujitsu Services Infracentre in Maarssen, Holland, inaugurated internally on July 26, 2001. Here, just as in that more famous American space command room, operators keep vigil over screens checking progress and watching out for trouble.

But the Infracentre staff are not looking for spacecraft; they are monitoring the state of computer systems belonging to Fujitsu Services' customers across Europe. And as long as all the lights stay green, the operators have little to worry about. Only when they see a light change to orange or red, then they know it is time for swift action.

Much of the time, they can access the system in question remotely and make a fix before it causes any problem. If the fault needs some local intervention, they can alert the local engineer to carry out the necessary work. In all cases, the aim is to eliminate - or at least minimise - any disruption to the efficient working of the customer's information systems.

Remote systems management is part of a range of services offered from the company's international centre in Maarssen. This proposition provides a powerful set of tools to help companies run their information systems at peak performance, which is called by Fujitsu Services, 'the Productivity Centre'.

The name says it all - the purpose of the services is to make companies more productive by allowing them to get on with their jobs without worrying about faults in the IT infrastructure.

Frank Boekel, country manager in Holland, explains: "Take a typical office situation. If you have a problem, for example, printing a document from your PC, the first thing you do is to ask a colleague to help. Immediately we have two unproductive people. He can't help so you ask another colleague - and eventually you end up with five or six people standing around a machine trying to make it work."

With the Productivity Centre, the first thing the user does is telephone or email the helpdesk. An operator can usually provide instant help in solving the problem and the rest of the office carries on with its work. For the user, this is a quick and simple solution, but it masks a system of huge sophistication and scope.

The 'user' in question could, for example, be a Portuguese accountant working in Lisbon for a multinational company. When he calls the helpdesk, he dials a four-digit internal number and probably thinks the technician answering the call is located somewhere in the building.

In reality, the call is routed straight through to a Portuguese speaker in the Maarssen helpdesk who has a complete picture of the user's desktop machine - its hardware configuration and applications software. Although hundreds of miles away, the helpdesk operator can offer just as much help as someone leaning over the user's shoulder looking at the same screen.

Indeed, the helpdesk operator has an even deeper insight into the state of the overall system. For instance, the Infracentre may have spotted that a particular server is becoming overloaded and will have already given instructions on how to overcome the problem to the helpdesk operator.

International reach

The main elements of the Productivity Centre are the Helpdesk, the Infracentre (providing remote management) and Asset Management. The latter provides the means whereby the helpdesk operator can have a complete picture of the user's system, and is a key part of the overall offering.

But as helpdesk general manager Erik de Vlaam explains, the benefits go much further: "Typically in a company, during our process of discovery for asset management, we will find over 20-40% more equipment than the company knows about. For example, in one company we discovered 50 lease contracts for laptops that were long dead, even though the leasing company was still billing for them."

With all the IT assets logged, it is then possible to make the best use of the hardware and software, to terminate redundant leases, and generally begin working more effectively.

As a central repository for all support calls, and with the latest technology to track trends, the helpdesk is also in a perfect position to see when certain systems or pieces of equipment need replacing.

Standards and consistency

Another cornerstone of the Fujitsu Services approach is to encourage - and help - customers to rationalise their IT infrastructures.

By their very nature, nearly all organisations accumulate their IT systems over many years. The result is usually a mixture of different and incompatible systems, each requiring special skills and different contracts with a variety of suppliers. Frank Boekel says: "Standardising the systems has an instant effect on total cost of ownership."

"We meet customers who have no control over what applications they allow to run on their network. They fail to realise that if you run hundreds of applications, they are likely to collide and cause problems. Therefore, the customer should put into place a process so that no new application will be allowed on the network without being checked."

By instituting a complete review of the systems requirements, Fujitsu Services can help the customer create a standardised IT infrastructure that will be much easier to support, will run more efficiently, cost less to run, and will be less likely to break down. Frank Boekel says: "We can improve the productivity of end-users, the customers' IT assets and the overall IT infrastructure."

A people business

Fujitsu Services' helpdesk and remote systems management services clearly rely on some of the most advanced technology available, but technology alone is not enough - you need the right people to use it.

The centre in Maarssen has placed great emphasis on getting the right people with the right skills, and implementing clear processes to help them operate at their best.

With 15 languages spoken on the helpdesk, the service is global in scope and able to cope with the demands of most multinational companies.

But as general manager Erik de Vlaam underlines, the ethos of the centre is very different from a lot of other organisations. Instead of imposing working practices on the operators, the management encourages them to think constantly about how to improve processes and to give a better service.

He says the approach - called Interactive Management Methodology - "turns the entire business upside down and gives the responsibility for process improvement to the front-line staff." Staff work to on-screen protocols, but where they see changes are needed, they can work as a team to introduce improvements.

The result is a system that keeps up with the changing needs of the customer, and most importantly, provides the end-user with instant relief. "Our philosophy is that the solution is only one call or one email away. You pick up the phone and get a friendly operator, and you get help," de Vlaam says. "We aim to get at least 60% first time fix. We might need help from someone else - for instance an on-site engineer - but we co-operate with the engineering force to get the solution carried out. It is a single point of contact both logistically and emotionally."

Fujitsu scoops double at Call Centre Awards

Fujitsu Services achieved a double success at the European Call Centre of the Year 2001 Awards, being the only company to win two awards.

The Best Call Centre People Development Programme went to Fujitsu Services for the company's implementation of its management strategy, called the Interactive Management Model.

This alters the roles of the front-line advisors, and gives them much more responsibility for developing the service they provide. The programme has created a 20% increase in customer satisfaction and a 25% reduction in operating costs. Moreover, Fujitsu Services won for the second year the National Contact Center Award 2001 in the Netherlands.

The Kevin Hook Award for Innovation and Creativity went to Stephen Parry, Fujitsu Services' call centre development manager, for his efforts to improve general standards across the call centre industry.