Wellington, November 13, 2000
Fujitsu and partner Computer Associates will launch the extension of their Enterprise Management Centre IT infrastructure for small and medium businesses at seminars in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch this month.
"We have done the hard yards and have now packaged a service for SMEs that has hitherto only been affordable for large enterprises," Fujitsu outsourcing services manager John Fisher says.
Fujitsu defines small and medium businesses as organisations with 100 to 800 desktops in their national or international networks.
He says the EMC services follow recent outsourcing wins with Air New Zealand and the Legal Services Board. The service package incorporates helpdesk, systems monitoring, and systems management. The Legal Services Board is one of three early adopters of the EMC services for small and medium businesses.
The package addresses many challenges faced by New Zealand chief information officers, Mr Fisher says, such as reducing costs, staff recruitment and retention, keeping abreast of technology developments, managing change, and transforming business for the new economy.
He says managing an organisation's IT infrastructure involves more than providing skilled technicians with systems management tools.
"It has required careful design of systems and the structure of our support organisation to allow customers to share the investment in technology, tools, people skills, and operational processes that bring the cost equation down. It is an excellent example of critical mass bringing financial gain and improved use of technology to many."
Small and medium sized businesses face the same pressures to achieve competitive and business benefits from IT, as large organisations, Mr Fisher says.
Fujitsu's customers have signalled that four areas are especially important - high availability of systems, maintaining high staff productivity, security of information, and converting these areas into measurable business advantage. The EMC uses CA-Unicenter and other tools to monitor and manage critical systems. This ensures high systems availability and avoids problems before they can affect operations.
Staff productivity is maintained because systems are reliable, and the EMC helpdesk swiftly resolves staff problems or requests for assistance.
"The helpdesk gets people back on the job quickly," he says. Helpdesk staff include trained analysts who can diagnose and fix problems, or provide on the spot tuition about software applications.
Mr Fisher says security is a concern for businesses that depend on IT for every day interaction with suppliers and customers. Often an organisation's competitive advantages and intellectual property, depend on the integrity of its computer systems.
EMC technology is often upgraded to avoid falling service levels and unnecessary cost. This is an advantage of outsourcing, as such investments are often out of reach for individual organisations, he says.