British Army

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International Military Advisory and Training Team (IMATT)

“The most impressive aspect of this support is the Fujitsu staff that provide IMATT's remote help desk facilities and quarterly in-country visits. Sierra Leone is a testing place to run an IT system but through Fujitsu, the IMATT(SL) solution has become significantly more successful and practical.”

Customer's Challenge

The British led IMATT has approximately 100 international staff based in Sierra Leone where they provide the government with security and military advice and training, playing an important role in supporting the country's climb from the chaos of civil war.

During 2005, the locally serviced IMATT IT system suffered a catastrophic failure and, as a result of a chance conversation between IMATT personnel and staff from another military project that Fujitsu was working on, Fujitsu was recommended as an IT team that performed well in uncomfortable environments.

Fujitsu was duly invited to visit Sierra Leone to conduct a vulnerability assessment of the IMATT IT infrastructure and to recommend any improvements. The resulting report highlighted a number of key areas that needed addressing: there was no dedicated server room with a controlled environment; power was intermittent; there was no off line back-up provision and internet access was affected by the cloud cover on a local hill!

The need for the kind of IT that most people in the west would take for granted. But, of course, budgets were tight and conditions were less than ideal.

Fujitsu Solution

In May 2005, Fujitsu recommended a range of upgrades including a dedicated server infrastructure to run the various services, an environmentally controlled server room, automatic off line back-ups, anti-virus and firewall protection and an improved internet cafe facility for home contact (always a great morale booster).

Fujitsu also recommended a desktop refresh, as the existing estate of PCs and peripherals was something of a mixed bag, unreliable and hard to support without extensive specialist staff. This was done at a later date as a follow on project. As a result of these successful upgrades, Fujitsu was invited to support the new IT platform, which is carried out through a UK remote and in-country support agreement.

Benefits to our Customer

Effective

IMATT is now a more effective organisation. Their IT infrastructure is reliable with easily supported hardware and software. People are more effective, too, thanks to better links with home and the higher morale that this brings.

Connected

IMATT is now dependably linked to MOD systems via internet email and the www. Communications that used to rely on intermittent open email are now instant and secure.

Secure

Files no longer reside on local PCs; a hardware firewall and anti-virus suite protects from intrusion and viruses. IMATT now enjoys the same secure messaging as the rest of the British Army.

Supported

Fujitsu engineers visit IMATT four times a year to deal with scheduled maintenance, updating and any tasks that can't be dealt with remotely or by local, Fujitsu trained, support staff.

Our Approach

Sierra Leone is officially the poorest nation on earth. Conditions are basic, transport is unreliable, bureaucracy is obstructive and the climate (30 degrees plus all year round with high humidity in summer) is not ideal for electronic equipment.

On every visit, Fujitsu engineers have just a few days to carry out their tasks, with the window of opportunity often narrowed through customs delays and in country logistics.

For example, when installing the new server platform, 3 days were lost converting a toilet into a server room, fixing an inadequate power supply and enlarging the door! The job was completed on time however - by working through the night.

Similarily, when refreshing the desktop estate, the port customs refused to release the ISO container with all the equipment until 12 signature and a high degree of IMATT diplomacy was unleashed. This delay left just 2 days to complete the project, finished on time through an exhausting revised schedule.

Our Expertise

Fujitsu has provided Mobile Engineering support to the MOD since the 1970's and today, we're one of the UK Defence Industry's biggest IT partners. We have over 300 mobile support staff who are at least SC cleared, many of whom are international field engineers living and working alongside military personnel. Although Sierra Leone is one of the Army's smaller outposts, it enjoys the same enthusiastic willingness to go the extra mile that characterises Fujitsu support worldwide.

'The most impressive aspect of this support is the Fujitsu staff that provide IMATT's remote "help desk" facilities and quarterly in-country visits. Sierra Leone is a testing place to run an IT system but through Fujitsu, IMATT(SL)'s solution has become significantly more successful and practical.' Major Peter Wettenhall, Advisor Joint Communications Unit, IMATT(SL)