Allianz Shared Infrastructure Services GmbH

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Allianz Shared Infrastructure Services GmbH

“What distinguishes Fujitsu is its commitment: it is all about trust, a partnership approach and close working relationships... It really is a win/win,” says Dr Kurt Servatius, Chief Operating Officer, Allianz Shared Infrastructure Services GmbH

Challenge

With a turnover of over €100 billion in 2006 and 166,000 employees, Allianz Group is one of the world’s leading financial institutions. It provides a wide range of insurance, banking, and asset management services and has grown progressively by moving into emerging markets through mergers and acquisitions.

Allianz's extensive IT infrastructure in Germany was being managed by its subsidiary, IT service provider Allianz Shared Infrastructure Services GmbH (ASIC). However, ASIC wanted to standardise, consolidate and streamline operations by forging a long term strategic partnership with an external vendor for the supply, installation, support and maintenance of Allianz's desktop, network and telecommunication services in Germany.

"The partnership was designed to help German Allianz business units retain and strengthen their market leadership in providing quality consulting services. Innovative and low cost IT services will greatly help us achieve this goal," says Dr Kurt Servatius, Chief Operating Officer.

Solution

Following an extensive competitive evaluation of ten potential suppliers, conducted for ASIC by IT sourcing consultancy TPI, Fujitsu was chosen to provide a strategic outsourcing partnership for desktop, network and telecommunication services. Under the deal, which is worth €400 million (£274 million) Net over five years, Fujitsu will be the main service provider for ASIC, focusing on supply, installation, support and maintenance.

The key services provided by Fujitsu include service desk, onsite services/IMAC, remote systems management, configuration management, evaluation and test, software-packaging and distribution, projects, network and voice services, service management and security.

Explaining the decision ASIC comments, "The breadth and quality of Fujitsu’s services portfolio impressed us and our customer. However, as well as having the capability to optimise the services provided to our customers, a major factor in our choice of strategic partner was the ability to provide ASIC employees with long-term job security and good career development prospects. Fujitsu fits this description to a ‘T’ in that it is the number three IT services provider worldwide, is very well positioned on the European market and the company clearly has its sights set on growth in the German IT services market."

After the signing of the outsourcing contract on 15th May 2007, the transfer of operations to Fujitsu was successfully completed in just six weeks, marking an important milestone in the project’s transition phase. Norbert Koenig, Senior Advisor, TPI, comments, "We support many transition phases in the course of our customer projects, but this one I will keep in good memory due to its outstanding professional management. Within only six weeks, both ASIC and Fujitsu met all milestones and contractual obligations by showing an exemplary cooperation. As a result, the transition took its course without interruptions. The way the transition was done can be seen as a role model in terms of leadership."

As part of the transition process nearly 500 staff have been successfully transferred from ASIC to Fujitsu and integrated into a larger, pan-European service organisation. These highly experienced and qualified experts are now playing a key role in Fujitsu’s ambitious growth strategy both in Germany and in the field of managed desktop services, ensuring long-lasting job security.

On 1 July 2007 Fujitsu took over the operation of the workplace network and telecommunication infrastructure from ASIC. This includes responsibility for the operation of 100,000 devices and 37,000 printers, and the support of 4,000 applications and 125,000 service desk users making 670,000 calls a year. Throughout the contract Fujitsu will also provide 7,500 man days of project services.

The relationship with ASIC has now moved into the transformation phase. Fujitsu is currently renewing systems and processes, and optimising operations by deploying its own proven, in-house methods in order to help ASIC achieve its strategic aim of providing better and safer IT services at a lower cost, while at the same time ensuring that normal business operations can continue to function smoothly.

Dr Servatius says, "ASIC has always believed that Fujitsu would not make a deal that it couldn’t deliver. However, what distinguishes Fujitsu is its commitment: it is all about trust, a partnership approach and close working relationships. As a result, the whole process is on schedule and we have had positive customer feedback. It really is a win/win."

Benefits

The outsourcing services being provided by Fujitsu will enable ASIC to realise a number of key benefits:

• Improved customer service – users will receive a consistent level of service and support across all business areas
• Reduced costs – standardising and streamlining the IT infrastructure and support processes will remove waste and significantly reduce operational costs, generating year-on-year savings
• Increased productivity – improved application performance and reliability and rapid problem resolution will minimise business disruption and down time and enable users to be more productive
• Improved business agility – services can be scaled up and down quickly to meet changes in business demand and operational priorities
• Access to specialist resources – an extensive range of business, technical and commercial expertise is available on an ‘as needs’ basis
• Accurate budgeting – costs are entirely visible and predictable over the contract life
• Simplified supplier management – a single point of contact for all service management issues reduces management time and overhead costs
• Enhanced management control – a strong governance model ensures 30 service level agreements (SLAs) are continually measured and monitored through 70 reports each month
• Focus on core business – ASIC can concentrate its resources on future requirements and higher value activities, rather than managing its infrastructure.

ASIC adds, "Through our long-term, highly focused partnership with Fujitsu we have gained the flexibility and operational synergy necessary to support our German customers, Allianz Germany and Dresdner Bank, with innovative and cost effective IT services. As a result, there is a clear opportunity for Fujitsu to takeover the management of the non-core services in our other European markets."

Approach

From the start of the evaluation process Fujitsu demonstrated that it fully understood ASIC’s ‘story’, in terms of its operational drivers, business case and requirements. ASIC also felt that there was close operational match as both organisations were going through similar organisational changes. In particular, Fujitsu’s German activities had been growing steadily, especially following the recent acquisition of IT outsourcing and consultancy services company TDS, and it clearly planned to make further investments in this market in order to achieve it aim of being one of the Top 10 IT services providers in Germany by 2010.

In addition, Fujitsu also committed to a step by step reduction in the price of its services over the course of the contract. These savings will be achieved by introducing new technology innovations and optimising its processes and service delivery through the use of ‘lean services’ methods, based on Fujitsu’s TRIOLE concept and Sense and Respond® methodology.

Expertise

With over 30 years experience of supporting the needs of customers, Fujitsu has a proven track record in providing complex systems integration and management services that reduce costs, improve productivity and customer services and deliver a compelling return on investment.

Throughout the acquisition and delivery phase Fujitsu has kept the same team, which ASIC recognises as being of key importance to the project’s success in terms of building relationships and its confidence in Fujitsu. Dr Elspermann, Chief Service Officer, ASIC, says, "My impression of Fujitsu was that this was a team who knew what they were talking about. Fujitsu also made it very clear where the boundaries are and what was possible and not possible."