Fujitsu Services

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Fujitsu Services

Fujitsu chose to transition its internal IT Helpdesk from the UK to another country to improve the cost-effectiveness of its own operations.

Customer's Challenge

Fujitsu Services is one of the leading IT services companies in Europe, Middle East and Africa. It has an annual turnover of £1.74 billion (€2.58 billion), employs 14,500 people and operates in over 20 countries.

One of Fujitsu's core service offerings is the provision of IT Helpdesk support for the hardware and software used by thousands of customer staff in over 50 countries. Every day the 2,000 call centre agents of this award winning 24/7 x 365 service successfully handle 40,000 calls in 14 different languages.

“Key to the success of our Helpdesk operations has been a commitment to continual improvement in the level of service that we offer,” comments Guy Storer, Offshore Operations Manager, Fujitsu Services. “We are constantly listening to the needs of our customers and looking for new ways to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of our service. So, when more and more of our customers began asking us about moving their Helpdesks to an offshore location, we knew this was a new service that we could offer, based on our extensive Helpdesk expertise and global reach.”

Fujitsu's Solution

Fujitsu chose to transition its internal IT Helpdesk from the UK to another country to improve the cost-effectiveness of its own operations.

“We had already applied Fujitsu's unique Sense and Respond® approach to identify and remove the root causes and costs of operational problems in our IT and support service. As a result, the helpdesk operations has achieved significant staff reductions,” continues Guy Storer.

“While most of our customers already benefit from the use of Sense and Respond as part of our service, Fujitsu also applies the approach for customers before transitioning their Helpdesks, as there's really no point in offshoring before reducing the unnecessary calls - it just adds complexity and locks in cost year in year out.”

Fujitsu looked at a number of possible offshore locations before choosing South Africa, because of its time zone and similarity to the UK operation. The transition strategy was then simply to recreate the same role profiles, standards and procedures that were used in the UK within South Africa.

Guy Storer explains, “Fujitsu has an award winning, best of breed approach to the provision of Helpdesk services, so why change? Why not just replicate all of the things that make us strong in another location? After all, you don't really want to be managing a change programme at the same time that you are transitioning.”

“We did spend a lot of time, money and effort on ensuring the legality and protection of personal data moved offshore, including conformance with the Data Protection Act, the Information Commissioner’s requirements and the laws of the host country. This knowledge and experience will be used to help our customers, so that they don't have to re-invent the wheel.”

As part of the project, Fujitsu also took the opportunity to migrate its Helpdesk services onto the next generation of Call Centre technology, using Voice over IP (VoIP) and full multimedia channels of communication. “This did add a degree of extra risk to the project,” comments Guy Storer, “because we were using the new the VoIP system over an international circuit for the first time. However, the whole system was working within six weeks and it now means that we have a state-of-the-art communication platform that will benefit our customers as well as the rest of the company.”

However, perhaps the real proof of the project's success lies in the fact that most of our 16,500 users still do not realise that the service is now being provided from South Africa. “We're still delivering the same high level of service to our users,” adds Guy Storer, “so it's business as usual - it just costs less and the weather's nicer!”

Benefits to our Customer

Fujitsu and its customers already derive many significant advantages from using the Helpdesk service, including:

• Increased employee productivity due to the rapid resolution of problems, with access to Fujitsu's extensive technical and operational expertise
• Cost efficiencies and economies of scale using Fujitsu's proven management methodologies and centralised resources
• Agreed service levels that can then be measured and effectively managed
• Accurate budgeting for support services, with predictable costs.

However, the offshore transitioning of its IT Helpdesk service has also provided a number of additional benefits:

• An expected 20% reduction in UK operational costs over three years
• Increased levels of service, with the introduction of new service improvements
• Greater operational flexibility using an advanced communication platform, which will become the de-facto standard for all future projects.

Guy Storer says, “We would never inflict anything on our customers unless we had tested it on ourselves first. Through this project we have felt the pain and learnt the lessons of moving to an offshore Helpdesk so that our customers gain from our experience.”

“The bottom line is that the move offshore has reduced our IT Helpdesk costs, while still delivering the same, or even higher, level of service. Now, using the considerable experience that we have gained in the transitioning of Helpdesks, together with our range of best practice procedures, proven technology and unique Sense and Respond approach, we can help our customers to realise the same benefits. We can cost-effectively replicate the service in any country that they choose, whatever the size or complexity of their operations.”

Our Approach

A key element in the successful transition of the Helpdesk operations to South Africa was the sharing of knowledge and experience between the current and new Helpdesk managers and agents, who spent several weeks in UK shadowing their counter-parts.

Guy Storer says, “You cannot underestimate the amount of knowledge that needs to be transferred, particularly for a complex IT support desk. Even experienced staff need to learn the job as if they were just starting, so that they know the practice as well as the theory.”

Fujitsu also staged the service testing and “Go Live” in four phases of non-voice transactions, partial voice, full voice and finally service control. “The advantage of going live with the no voice transaction first,” continues Guy Storer, “was that it took away the agents' nervousness about understanding dialects and they could get used to the new processes and procedures gradually. In fact, some of our customers expected to see a dip in the quality of service during the transition, but it simply didn't happen because of our careful approach.”

In addition, to cut the time it takes for agents to familiarise themselves with the terminology and jargon that callers use in different regions and businesses, Fujitsu allocates dedicated teams to each client, rather than simply having a pool of agents answering calls from all client companies. The result is a greater understanding between agents and users, which leads to a much higher quality service.

Our Expertise

Over the years Fujitsu has continually refined its Helpdesk operations to stay ahead of the demands of new technologies and evolving business practice to a point where its services are recognised as the benchmark by which IT support should be measured.

Guy Storer comments, “Fujitsu is not only a global company, known in virtually all markets and countries, but also a trusted Helpdesk supplier with a rapidly expanding offshore capability, so what better combination could you want to ensure the quality and cost effectiveness of your Helpdesk services - wherever you chose to host them?”