Inland Revenue

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Flexible, Scalable, Centralized IT Solution

The Challenge

The Inland Revenue operates four datacentres supporting more than 50,000 staff in 600 locations in the UK. Email was restricted to 5,000 people at head office.

The Solution

As part of a complete desktop refurbishment, the Infrastructure 2000 programme (i2K), Inland Revenue installed enterprise exchange from Fujitsu Services -- a centralised solution based on Microsoft Exchange that combines several Windows NT-based servers in one system. With built-in resilience to ensure that the e-mail service can be maintained even if a server fails, it has centralised back up and archiving which is less expensive and simpler than a distributed arrangement. It also has features such as constant service and enhanced scalability. Fujitsu Services is a Microsoft Global Alliance partner and Microsoft Certified Solution Provider and enterprise exchange has the full approval and support of Microsoft.

The Benefits

The Inland Revenue staff have a high performance system designed to run at optimum level at all times. Increased efficiency in communication will enable the Inland Revenue to improve customer service. Business continuity is assured and the new infrastructure provides a basis for future developments to allow more work to be done electronically, maximising effectiveness. The Inland Revenue has reduced costs because it has fewer servers and simpler networking with most system management handled remotely from one central office. In addition, the centralised solution is flexible and highly scalable.

The Implementation

The decision to implement the Infrastructure 2000 (i2K) project was taken in May 1998. The i2K project goal was to upgrade the whole working environment of the Inland Revenue, giving 50,000 users a standard messaging system by the end of 1999. Since 1994, the Inland Revenue’s IT functions have been managed by EDS and together EDS/IR managed the introduction of about 6,000 new users a month, with a record peak of over 9,000 workstations deployed in June 1999 alone. By focusing the strategy around Microsoft BackOffice products, starting with Fujitsu’s enterprise exchange solution, and by using an infrastructure of industry standard systems that are easy to support and maintain, the organisation’s communications were streamlined to provide business continuity and a flexible, market-centred approach.

The Expertise

Fujitsu Services' understanding of large-scale systems impressed Derek Howard, Director of the IT infrastructure programme within the Inland Revenue. "We needed a partner that had a proven track record of delivering high-availability continuous service as well as people who understood the importance to the business of maintaining that continuity," said Howard.

"The benefits have been enormous. Not only do we have a standardised system that is reliable and easy to support and manage but we also have the foundations for future developments into workflow and better methods of working." Derek Howard - Director of IT Infrastructure, Inland Revenue.

"Fujitsu Services provided all of this and more. Part of that mindset is that they had built something that would give us a guarantee that even when a part of the system crashed, we would not lose the message. The message would be recoverable. The central solution therefore looked economical compared with a dispersed solution, and it had many other advantages," continued Howard. "It had a lot of additional features in terms of resilience and back-up, constant service and enhanced scalability that no one else was offering."