Fujitsu implements military messaging at New Zealand Defence Force

The New Zealand Defence Force comprises some 8,721 regular force, 2,275 territorial force Service men and women and 2,134 civilian staff across the armed services of Navy, Army and Air Force, operating as Three Services – One Force. The New Zealand Defence Force has a proud tradition extending from service in the South African War over 100 years ago to the present. Peace support operations have been a major element of its operations in recent years.

New Zealand Defence Force personnel are currently serving in 19 missions around the world, from Afghanistan and the Gulf of Oman in support of Operating Enduring Freedom, the global war against terrorism, to logistical support in Antarctica.

In September 2003, the New Zealand Defence Force decided to embark on a project to modernise its Military Message Handling System to a X.400 email-based system that would provide greater interoperability with the messaging systems of its allies, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom as well as the United States. While the existing system had been upgraded to a Windows GUI in the past few years, it was still running a legacy messaging application which did not provide the flexibility or interoperability the New Zealand Defence Force needed in the 21st century.

Defence forces use Military Message Handling Systems for a number of reasons. Military Messaging is a more formal communications process than email and with it comes a higher service element. For example, ordinary email has a very low level of assurance that an email has been received whereas in military messaging that level of assurance is much higher and often needs to be guaranteed. Military Message Handling Systems are used for correspondence between allied countries, in both operational (deployed) and non-operational environments.

In September 2003, the New Zealand Defence Force issued an open tender for a Military Message Handling System. It was looking for a solution which had been proven in the field and which was preferably an off-the-shelf solution. In February 2004 Fujitsu, which had previously designed and developed a Military Message Handling System for the Ministry of Defence in the UK, was chosen to deploy the Military Message Handling System for the New Zealand Defence Force.

Not only did the Fujitsu solution meet all the requirements stipulated by the New Zealand Defence Force, it was also a cost effective, tried-and-tested solution and able to be supported locally.

Squadron Leader Paul Drysdale, Project Manager for the Military Messaging System said, “The solution which Fujitsu presented was exactly what we were looking for. Fujitsu re-located personnel from the UK, who had worked on the Ministry of Defence project, to architect the system and train staff locally.”

The first phase of the project commenced in June 2004 and was completed in June 2005. A pre-production environment was built by Fujitsu, who carried out functional acceptance tests before moving to a production environment.

Paul Drysdale continued, “During the design and build stage we conducted a number of workshops with various categories of users across all three services. This was partly an education exercise to familiarise end users with the new system but also allowed us to find out more about the processes and procedures that might need to be changed in the new system, to make the transition from the legacy application as seamless as possible.”

In May 2005, New Zealand Defence Force successfully conducted a pilot of the system at one of its core units. At the end of the pilot the system was rolled out to all other members of that particular unit. The system is to be deployed progressively across the New Zealand Defence Force.

The New Zealand Defence Force’s Military Message Handling System provides formal message drafting, releasing, distribution and delivery facilities for the New Zealand Defence Force in a highly secure environment. The Military Message Handling System provides messaging services into the various branches of the New Zealand Defence Force, distributing messages based on content and organisational role level.

One of the major benefits of the new military messaging system is that it is tightly integrated into Microsoft Outlook and is therefore very intuitive to access and use. Unlike the legacy system users can now attach documents to military messages, a new feature which has been widely welcomed by end users.

The Military Message Handling System has been integrated into the New Zealand Defence Force’s existing communications network aiding in cost efficiencies. It is a flexible solution which is designed to be reconfigurable and to scale to the organisation’s changing needs. Automatic message profiling and increased interoperability with allied forces messaging systems are two key benefits of the new system.

“It also provides a secure Messaging System to use within the organisation. With the legacy system, you had to physically deliver a message to someone. The new system allows you to configure profiling options which provides the ability for individuals who have expressed an interest in receiving certain types of communications, to receive them automatically. This feature has been very well received.”

Paul Drysdale continued, “We are in the process of upgrading our communications network following which we will implement the new Military Message Handling System to the rest of the organisation. We aim to do this over the next six-12 months.

“Fujitsu was initially contracted to implement the Military Message Handling System and prove that it could work. The plan was always that the New Zealand Defence Force would roll out the system itself internally. Following the success of the first phase, we have recently extended the contract with Fujitsu to further expand and enhance the Military Message Handling System. Our engagement with Fujitsu also includes support of the Military Messaging System through to 2008.”

Squadron Leader Paul Drysdale concluded by saying that “We have built a strong and collaborative working relationship with Fujitsu. Their business and technical knowledge together with a sound methodical approach has been invaluable to NZDF in the successful delivery of this project.

For further information about Fujitsu’s work at New Zealand Defence Force, please contact: