Technical Tax Office Berlin Moves Infrastructure With Fujitsu

The customer

The technical tax office in Berlin is the service provider for all tax and IT-assisted processes of the Federal state of Berlin and is attached to the Senate Department of Finance. 7,000 employees in 31 locations ensure that the tax returns of Berlin's citizens and companies are processed reliably, punctually and with a high degree of IT automation. For example, two years ago the tax software of the EOSS group (evolution-oriented tax software), consisting of 12 Federal states, was successfully introduced and the functionality of the Berlin tax authority secured in the long term.

The challenge

The solution

Fujitsu took up the challenge and by means of detailed planning in the sub-projects Technology, Move, Data Center and Contract ensured the necessary level of transparency as well as management of the service providers that had to be involved. Special attention was required for the infrastructure prerequisites of the new Technical Tax Office locations and in the ITDZ data center. The latest security requirements as regards access control, fire protection, uninterruptible power supply and efficient air conditioning had to be fulfilled without fail. At the same time, it was necessary to ensure fault-free operation of the tax offices and the EOSS process during the entire "Technical Tax Office Berlin Move" project. 

Fujitsu project management based all the necessary resources and funds on the master plan and used quality management and test runs to ensure reliable resumption of operation - not only of the hardware in the ITDZ data center, but also the administration workplaces of the Technical Tax Office Berlin employees in the Klosterstraße location.

The project

The "Technical Tax Office Berlin Move" project kicked off in February 2008: The BS2000 mainframe, all servers and the SAN storage components were to be reinstalled in the ITDZ data center, which now acts as the housing service provider for the tax authorities of the Federal state of Berlin, and to be operated economically in terms of energy and with intelligent air conditioning. Fire protection and access control also meet the state-of-the-art requirements there. The data center move had to be prepared in the best possible way, carried out in accordance with a master plan and given reliable support. Downtimes of several hours or days during core operating times had to be excluded from the outset. 

The de-installation, move and resumption of operation of the BS2000 mainframe, 300 physical and 57 virtual servers, various networks as well as the administration workplaces were to take place according to a precise schedule and be accompanied by measures to ensure fail-safety and by a series of tests. During the entire project from February 2008 to December 2009 a core team of 30 experts from Technical Tax Office Berlin, ITDZ and Fujitsu was responsible for the move within Berlin. Up to 117 employees were involved in the project.

As general contractor it was Fujitsu's task to:

• prepare the technical, organizational, operational and personnel conditions for the move
  
• carry out / handle the move itself quickly and without any interruptions
• support in an advisory capacity and supervise the implementation of the structural and security-relevant prerequisites in the new locations (ITDZ and Technical Tax Office Klosterstraße) 
• conclude all contracts with the external service providers that were to be commissioned 
• define the milestones and control the official acceptances of the sub-projects
  
• introduce weekly reporting of the project status

The benefits

The end was finally reached in December 2009: the entire project of moving the tax offices of Berlin was successfully concluded - all subprojects were ended on schedule and as contracted. Jochen Sieber, Director of the Technical Tax Office Berlin, considers the IT requirements for the TFA infrastructure and the reliability of the automatic tax process as met:

“Both during the planning phase and the implementation of the project I was constantly kept informed about all the milestones and about the status of the test results. I therefore had no reservations whatsoever that we would have any problems or downtimes with the relocation. Fujitsu has really done a very good job.” 

And the testimony that Fujitsu received is commensurate: Top marks in each case for the quality of the results, for schedule effectiveness, flexibility and cooperation.

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