Finstaship

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Finstaship

“We effectively outsourced the risk to Fujitsu, because we knew that our new IT and telephony systems would be guaranteed to work.” Mika Maaranen – Manager of IT Services, Finstaship

Customer’s Challenge

With a fleet of 30 ships, Finstaship is one of the largest and most diversified shipping companies in Finland. It provides private and the public sector customers with ice-breaking and offshore services using multi-purpose icebreakers, buoy tender and maritime construction services, oil spillage dispersal services, ferry services and ship maintenance and cargo services.

When Finstaship was demerged from the Finnish Maritime Administration (FMA) in 2004 it was set-up as a separate, state-owned company. As such it needed to acquire and develop its own IT and telephone systems for its offices, as well as satellite, wireless networking and traditional telephone services to connect its ships to shore.

“We were moving to new premises, and at the same time had to build the office IT and telephone systems from scratch. The challenge was made more difficult by the tight schedule. In order to get our business started, we had to get all the hardware and software up and running in no time,” says Mika Maaranen, Manager of IT Services, Finstaship.

Fujitsu Solution

Finstaship chose to outsource the operation and ongoing support of its IT infrastructure and telecommunications services to Fujitsu, based on the use of its managed service operating model, called Patja in Finland. The agreement covers about 50 workstations at Finstaship’s offices in Helsinki and Turku and originally around 130 workstations onboard the ships of the Finstaship fleet.

“We chose Fujitsu because we were convinced of the benefits of its managed service approach, which is comprehensive and easy-to-use. We wanted to get all of the IT infrastructure and telecommunications matters off our hands, so that all we needed to do was pay the bills and contact the Fujitsu helpdesk if necessary,” explains Mika Maaranen.

However, with a fixed deadline by which Finstaship had to be demerged from the FMA, there was very little time in which to establish the new services. “This was another reason why we chose Fujitsu,” adds Mika Maaranen. “We had to set up our new systems and processes very quickly, in under three months, so we wanted to de-risk the project by using an established and proven service concept. Using an application service provider to run services from a central facility significantly reduces start-up times. In fact, everything is available almost on-demand.”

Having initially ensured that the basic IT infrastructure that was already installed onboard the company’s ships, including workstations, servers and local area networking, could be fully supported, Fujitsu is now responsible for the outsourced management of all of Finstaship’s on-shore IT infrastructure. The main services being provided by Fujitsu include a central IT user helpdesk, the remote management of the company’s IT systems and applications, on-site support to resolve any issues, and the tracking and management of all IT assets.

As well as supporting Finstaship’s mobile solutions, such as Mobile Enterprise with e-mail and calendar features, Fujitsu is also providing a whole range of telephony services, including the provision and installation of phone-lines, switchboard operations, Voice over IP (VoIP) and mobile sim-cards. “If your aim is to lower your costs, it pays to have all your services managed by one supplier,” says Mika Maaranen.

Finstaship is a particularly advanced user of VoIP telephony, with VoIP phones being used in its offices in Helsinki and Turku as well as onboard ship. “VoIP is easier to use than traditional phones in situations where users switch rooms. You can simply unplug the phone from the network outlet and reconnect it in another room,” says Mika Maaranen. “However, we have also deployed IP-phones onboard our ships, so that we can get rid of our old telephony system. The less equipment we have, the less we have to worry about maintenance.”

Fujitsu's sim-cards have been deployed in Finstaship's office environments, and some are also being tested onboard its vessels. Mika Maaranen continues, “Before long we noticed that we were making cost savings by deploying Fujitsu's sim-cards. It is rather difficult to make exact calculations, but in the new system our internal GSM and VoIP calls are free. So, when someone from outside calls to one of our VoIP numbers and the call is forwarded to a mobile, the call becomes internal and is, therefore, free of charge. Fujitsu's service has also reduced our rates per minute.”

Looking back at how much has been achieved in such a short space of time Mika Maaranen says, “Our separation from the FMA could have created a major headache for us if we hadn’t been able to get our new IT infrastructure up and running in time, but Fujitsu’s involvement totally de-risked the project. We effectively outsourced the risk to Fujitsu, because we knew that our new IT and telephony systems would be guaranteed to work. No other company offers such a comprehensive range of managed services.”

The Benefits

Outsourcing the management of its IT infrastructure and telephony services to Fujitsu has enabled Finstaship to:

• Reduce costs – by sharing its centralised technical and management resources Fujitsu can deliver IT support cost-effectively
• Optimise system availability – proactive system management is ensuring optimised IT performance and reduced downtime
• Increase productivity – rapid problem resolution is minimising business disruption and enabling users to continue working longer
• Improve business agility – services can be scaled up and down quickly to meet changes in demand
• Access specialist resources – Fujitsu’s extensive range of business, technical and commercial expertise is available on an ‘as needs’ basis
• Budget accurately – costs are entirely visible and predictable over the contract life
• Simplify supplier management – using Fujitsu as a single point of contact for all service management issues reduces management time and overhead costs
• Focus on the core business – Finstaship can concentrate resources on future requirements and higher value activities, rather than support processes.

Mika Maaranen comments, “Using Fujitsu’s managed service generally means that we have an assurance that price levels are cost-effective, because overhead costs are shared across other services and processes. There are also no hidden or surprise costs, so it’s very easy to plan for. And, of course, we only have one company to deal with – we don’t have or want the capability in-house to manage multiple suppliers, because it just doesn’t add any value to our core business.”

Our Approach

Fujitsu’s managed service approach is a continuous development process through which Fujitsu assumes responsibility for the management of an organisation’s entire IT infrastructure, so that there is a single point of ownership and control.

Rather than just providing specific services, the managed service is designed to meet agreed customer requirements, such as “incident and problem management” so that the focus is firmly placed on delivering the agreed level of service, customer satisfaction and responsiveness.

“A key aspect of Fujitsu’s managed services is its unique Sense and Respond approach,” explains Mika Maaranen. “By continually examining the needs and IT skills of end-users and analysing incident profiles Fujitsu is able to proactively identify areas where additional training or guidance can prevent the same problems from happening again and again – which obviously saves us money and increases productivity.”

This approach has also seen Finstaship’s end user satisfaction with the IT support service progressively increase by nearly 20% to a point where the average rating is now 9.2 out of 10.

Our Expertise

Fujitsu has been delivering consistently high levels of service to the public sector and businesses around the world for more than 30 years.

Its support services, procedures and infrastructure are constantly being refined to meet the evolving needs of customers, and ensure that they can be delivered effectively and economically.