Abstracts of Magazine FUJITSU 2003-9 (VOL.54, NO.5)

Special Issue : Outsourcing Business

• Outsourcing Market Trends and Related Fujitsu Activities

In the continuing severe business environment, Japanese companies are facing two conflicting requirements: they must reduce their costs, but at the same time they must use information technology (IT) to improve their customer satisfaction and make their corporate activities more innovative. To satisfy both of these requirements, Japanese companies are increasingly relying on outsourcing services. The Fujitsu Group provides total outsourcing services that can satisfy the outsourcing needs of any customer. These services are supported by nationwide data centers and networks, the latest system operation technology, the latest service quality control methodologies and tools, and the human resources required to utilize all of these. The Fujitsu Group is also expanding its outsourcing services into new fields, for example, capacity on demand and application portfolio management. This paper explains the benefits of corporate management of IT outsourcing and describes the features and future development of Fujitsu's outsourcing services and activities.

• Outsourcing Service Rendering System

Recent technological innovations such as broadband networks and utility computing and the zero-growth economy have encouraged enterprises to outsource a large range of their services. When a service is outsourced, it is important for the client and service provider to build good mutual relations, because service outsourcing is usually based on a long-term contract. To meet the needs of its clients, Fujitsu has developed new services, for example, Application Portfolio Management (APM) and Capacity on Demand (COD), and implemented optimum service management based on the concept of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL® (ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark of AXELOS Limited)). With these new services, Fujitsu has been maintaining and improving its service quality in order to forge long-term, trusting relations with its outsourcing clients. This paper describes how the service menu of our outsourcing service rendering system enables us to respond to clients' requests and maintain and improve our service quality.

• Network Outsourcing Service

Recently new telecommunication services have been continuously introduced in line with rapid innovations being made in network technology. This situation is resulting in a shortage of advanced network technical experts among the divisions of corporate information systems. Consequently, a heavy burden is placed on staff to maintain management operation of individual network systems. Moreover, information systems divisions are being asked to bear the responsibility for infrastructure planning and risk management, such as ensuring the security of corporate information systems based on business strategy. In response to this situation and customer needs, Fujitsu began offering the "Network Outsourcing Service" in September 2002. This service offers customers a one-stop solution that supports corporate network life cycle management based on the considerable experience in FENICS Network Services that have been used by more than 3,500 corporations. This paper provides an overview of the "Network Outsourcing Service."

• Outsourcing Service Management Methodologies

In today's complicated outsourcing business environment, with its diverse service scope, the quality of service provided by outsourcers may have an affect on the business performance of their customers.
Outsourcers must incorporate IT service management capabilities to optimize service quality, provide service performance reports to customers and to constantly improve the levels of services.
In order for outsourcing customers that wish to achieve the implementation of IT strategies utilizing Fujitsu outsourcing capabilities, this article explains IT service management methodologies used in the outsourcing process, covering 1) IT service management best practice, 2) outsourcing performance metrics, 3) risk management.

• Human Resources Development to Expand Outsourcing Business

Fujitsu is promoting a shift from the conventional system integration-conscious model toward a service-based business model as a basic concept for developing its business strategy. This concept is helping Fujitsu offer total solutions that provide high-quality services and improved usability of information technology by enhancing application packages, service products, and service infrastructures. The Software and Services Business Group is responsible for fostering new human resources that can respond to the drastic changes occurring in the business environment. This group has been discussing what kind of image the personnel who will promote Fujitsu's services should have. This paper describes how human resources can be developed to take a leading role in the future expansion of outsourcing business.

• Fujitsu's Outsourcing Centers

Fujitsu provides outsourcing services at three core data centers located in Tatebayashi, Akashi, and Tokyo. In addition to the conventional mainframe-based Systems Data Center (SDC), we also provide Internet access environments and run the Internet Data Center (IDC) to help our customers construct and operate their systems. Outsourcing services that control the operation of customers' systems must make secure and quick responses, provide a high level of overall security, and be highly efficient so their customers can conduct smooth business operations. This paper gives an overview of the three core data centers and describes their security measures and operation technology. It also describes how Fujitsu is constructing and operating a common network environment and how we manage information about the operation of our customers' systems.

• Integrated Management of Data Centers and Networks for Proactive Operation Management

Data centers and networks are pivotal facilities for executing outsourcing services and therefore must be highly available and reliable. Open system technologies and high-speed, wide-area networks have laid the foundations for establishing new services and enhancing the economical efficiency of existing ones. On the other hand, they are making it difficult to effectively manage data centers and networks. To overcome this problem, we require new technologies that will enable us to detect problems (which are sometimes latent) in the early stages and then quickly locate their causes. Fujitsu has already developed various technologies in this area, including a prognostic-detection technology that can monitor an entire data-center/network system and detect both conspicuous and subtle abnormalities. Currently, we are developing an important core technology for providing on-demand services. This is a control technology that can autonomously prevent the occurrence of detected latent problems by changing the configuration of a system. These new technologies will enable proactive, integrated management of data centers and networks to prevent latent problems. Moreover, we expect to add a technology for analyzing and evaluating the utility of the services we offer. We also expect that our integrated management technologies will evolve into a management system that guarantees high availability and reliability and also maximizes the benefits that our outsourcing services provide to customers.

• System Operations Outsourced by Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.

Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. is outsourcing more and more of its information technology (IT) system operations to Fujitsu so that its IT Systems division can concentrate on strategic planning of IT projects. As an outsourcing service provider, Fujitsu operates and maintains its clients' information systems, which consist of mainframes, security systems, networks, servers, and personal computers. Therefore, the clients can obtain these services from Fujitsu on a one-stop basis. To ensure high-integrity support in every aspect of our outsourcing services, we have introduced Service Managers and Service Directors, set service-level targets, continually evaluate the performance of our services, and improve them based on the service level agreement (SLA) we have with each client. We have effectively used our call tracking system (CTS) to manage our services and built on-site support bases to support the main business sites of our clients. This paper describes the outsourcing services we are providing to Mitsui Chemicals.

• Practical Examples of Network Services

The advance of communication technology and the rapid development of the Internet have made it possible to construct broadband networks at low cost. Also, encryption techniques for performing secure communications have been established and various network services have become available. These network services are increasingly being regarded as important IT tools, and a structure for providing network services to businesses is emerging. This paper describes four examples of how customers are using Fujitsu's FENICS network service to make their businesses more efficient and improve their customer satisfaction. The four examples cover the implementation of Web-based remote access, the achievement of real-time business with mobile networks, the establishment of an IP telephone-based communication environment, and the enhancement of network management reliability through outsourcing.

• Maintenance Services Provided by Insurance APM Center

Considering the life cycles of typical applications, it is understandable that applications are usually more expensive to maintain than produce. However, it seems difficult to determine how money has been spent in a maintenance phase, because applications are often left unused or are maintained manually. In response to this situation, Fujitsu is offering the Application Portfolio Management (APM) service. This service helps customers to efficiently maintain their enormous application assets. This paper describes the services that the Insurance APM Center provides to the insurance industry so it can perform efficient and low-cost maintenance work. It also explains how these services are benefiting insurance companies and looks at the future prospects of the center. Lastly, this paper gives an overview of the functions and tools of the APM competency centers that support the Insurance APM Center.

• Business Transformation at UK Post Office^®

Post Office^® Ltd. has some 17,000 Post Office branches, making it Europe's largest and most accessible retail network. As such, it is uniquely positioned to provide a wide range of value-added services to the local community, including government information and banking services. To achieve this aim and to pave the way for the development of future product offerings, Post Office Ltd. needed a secure, networked counter system that would enhance the service provided to major clients, improve its competitive position, and enable the development of new business areas. The Post Office transformation was Europe's biggest-ever non-military IT contract. It was awarded to Fujitsu Services.

• Case Study of Fujitsu's Human Resources Services Center

In February 2000, Fujitsu established the Human Resources Services Center (HRSC) based on a call center system. By making good use of information technologies, the HRSC has centralized many of the company-wide personnel and general affairs services, including inquiry reception and responses to face-to-face and telephone consultations. Eventually, the HRSC will integrate not only the human resources and general affairs operations of Fujitsu's 40 internal business bases, but also those of the other companies in the Fujitsu Group. When this integration is completed, the entire Fujitsu Group will be more efficient and competitive than ever. In 1996, Fujitsu became the first major company to implement a large-scale, Web-based workflow system. This system is called "MyOFFICE" and uses Fujitsu's "Interstage" as middleware. Many companies in the Fujitsu Group have been using this system via an application service in addition to Fujitsu's backbone system in order to manage human resources and implement general-affairs services. This system is used by about 100,000 employees. This paper describes the HRSC as a case study of shared services and infrastructures.