Abstracts of Magazine FUJITSU 2009-3 (VOL.60, NO.2)

Special Issue: IT Infrastructure Services

• Fujitsu FSAS Aims for a Better Tomorrow through Its "More Secure & More Creative" Approach

To solve its customers' information technology (IT) problems, Fujitsu FSAS Inc., as a leading company of IT infrastructure services in the Fujitsu Group, offers solutions in the IT infrastructure area. We try to create an IT environment that relieves customers through the safety-oriented design and construction of customer systems and the maintenance of stable operation to create valuable services that can strengthen the business strategy of customers that use IT. The key here is our approach based on the concept of "More Secure & More Creative". To raise each customer's corporate value and contribute to its efforts to improved its competitive edge, we are accelerating the mechanism of the one-stop solution and playing the driving role in IT infrastructure services in the Fujitsu Group through industrialization of the infrastructure service.

• IT Infrastructure Systems Integration Service and Field-Specific Solutions

Fujitsu FSAS Inc. began to provide a design construction service for network infrastructure in the latter half of the 1990s and has since provided a design construction service for servers and groupware. However, for mission-critical open systems, the need for design construction that considers reliability and total system performance has recently risen. Against this background, the IT Systems Infrastructure Technology Center was established in 2007, and infrastructure systems integration for infrastructure design and construction was begun. An information technology (IT) infrastructure delivery service aimed at efficient system introduction was also begun. Fujitsu FSAS aims to create a revolution in IT infrastructure integration services by leveraging the design construction services of the past. This paper describes the introduction of each service and future plans.

• Technologies Supporting IT Infrastructure Delivery Services

The Fujitsu Group offers an IT infrastructure delivery service that can rapidly integrate a high-quality information technology (IT) infrastructure through its "industrialization" of IT services. The service works through the standardization and automation of every single process related to IT infrastructure integration, pursuing "time saving", "high quality", and "ecology". This service can contribute to a faster launch and more stable operation of a customer IT system in terms of less trouble at the customer's office, less packaging, and faster IT system integration. It is powered by kaizen-style activities such as an IT infrastructure integration process directly connected with a computer products factory, infrastructure design skills that consider operation and maintenance, order process streamlining, and feedback to product development.

• Standardization of IT Infrastructure Technology —Approach to Quality Improvement through Practical Standards: ITIMAP and ITSMOP—

Under the banner of information technology (IT) infrastructure industrialization, the Fujitsu Group is implementing improvements by standardizing, simplifying, and automating the design & construction and operation & maintenance of the IT infrastructure. The basis for standardization is the solution-oriented system development engineering methodology (SDEM). Results and know-how for achieving success were extracted by determining the location of a problem, the hardware at that location, and events occurring there. These results and know-how were integrated into the practical standard. Finally, Fujitsu FSAS's IT System Infrastructure Technology Center reorganized them as two practical SDEM standards: the IT infrastructure architectural method and process (ITIMAP) and the IT service management, maintenance, & operation process (ITSMOP). This paper introduces these two practical standards, the structure of the working processes, and activities aimed at spreading and improving them continuously through an improvement cycle.

• Comprehensive Operation and Maintenance Model for Better IT Operations

For the operation and maintenance of information technology (IT) systems, Fujitsu already provides a practical standard "IT service management & maintenance & operation process (ITSMOP)". However, to further improve the level of customer service, Fujitsu thinks that related persons including customers should have a complete understanding of the operation and maintenance, so it has established a comprehensive model of the operation and maintenance of IT systems. This model is suitable for IT-using customers that request a system design based on their own detailed specifications. It is based on the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) concept, Fujitsu's standard processes and in-house expertise, and service product components. It also unifies working items into a practical form. This paper gives an overview of Fujitsu's Comprehensive Operation and Maintenance Model.

• Life Cycle Management Service Based on Information Technology Infrastructure Library

As the information technology (IT) systems used by a company increase in complexity, functionality, and coverage, the work of the IT system administrator managing the IT infrastructure also increases. This gives birth to a growing need for safe, high-quality, and reliable IT outsourcing. The Fujitsu Group provides a life cycle management (LCM) service to fully address the problems that arise with the IT infrastructure within a company, and it runs eight Fujitsu LCM Service Centers across the country for the same purpose. With regard to the environment and an emphasis on security, each center has various certifications such as ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and follows the approach of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). The centers apply vigorous service quality management and strive to make continuous improvements. This paper describes improvements to the customer LCM Service achieved through the ITIL approach by examining an example of an ITIL-based Fujitsu operation service.

• Reforming and Retaining Fujitsu's Maintenance Service —All for the Customers—

Founded as one of Fujitsu's maintenance service providers, Fujitsu FSAS not only continues to provide practical services today, but also designs and controls them. Changes in social needs for computer systems and in customers' system environments and needs have forced us to reform our maintenance role, the service provision process, and the work of our customer engineers. Our maintenance service is currently midway through the transformation. On the other hand, there are several matters that the Fujitsu Maintenance Service Group must retain and inherit despite the environmental changes in maintenance service. These have been cultivated though our long-term experience of performing maintenance for our customers. This paper explains the activities of the Fujitsu Maintenance Group for stable operation and customer satisfaction and summarizes items to be reformed or retained.

• Challenges in Maintenance Quality Innovation

One of the biggest challenges for customers is to ensure the safety, security, and stability of their information technology (IT) systems. When they choose an IT service vendor, the key deciding factor is a proactive approach to IT system safety, security, and stability combined with prompt recovery in the event of a system failure. As a key player in IT infrastructure services within the Fujitsu Group, Fujitsu FSAS faces two challenges in trying to improve maintenance quality and efficiency. One is to adapt the maintenance methodology to ever changing environments and the other is to improve the maintenance process in a cost effective manner. This paper introduces activities and results related to its efforts to achieve maintenance quality innovation.

• Change in Support Structure

With mainframe systems changing to open systems, its customers' systems becoming diversified, and the social impact of systems increasing, the Fujitsu Group is changing its maintenance service methodology to meet customer needs. To do this effectively, it must integrate the Fujitsu customer engineer (CE) partners who support the maintenance services of the Fujitsu Group. Fujitsu FSAS is promoting the optimum arrangement of CE personnel and improvements in service lineup in cooperation with its CE partners. It is also aiming at complete and efficient maintenance services. Through this change in support structure, Fujitsu FSAS will strengthen the service systems of the Fujitsu Group.

• Approaches in Back Office Work —Speed-Up, Product Improvement, and Trouble Prevention—

A maintenance and operation support service called "SupportDesk" is being provided by Fujitsu to support the stable operation of the information technology (IT) systems that are indispensable to our customers' business. Fujitsu Support Center's OSC (One-stop Solution Center) supports various open system products that compose a system and has professional engineers available to solve promptly and accurately any trouble reported by customers. To enable rapid problem solving, the back office is taking a multiple-pronged approach featuring automatic analysis of division/investigation, local support for urgent trouble, a frequent occurrence watch for trouble prevention, and advice from professional engineers at the SupportDesk. Moreover, a customer support engineer called a Technical Account Manager is on hand to provide premium support in the High Availability service, which is one of the SupportDesk's options. This paper introduces these approaches to the stable operation of customers' systems.

• Center CE Maintenance Service

Fujitsu provides the Center CE Service as an optimal maintenance service solution for customers with large-scale, nationwide systems. A customer engineer (CE) located at a center, who has thorough knowledge of a particular customer's system, supervises the installation, construction, and enhanced operation of lots of equipment in a wide area or even the whole country using a one-stop solution approach through the nationwide network and maintenance infrastructure systems of Fujitsu FSAS and its partners. The Center CE not only maintains the customer's host computer, but also controls local-site computer systems in close cooperation with CEs at those local sites. This paper introduces Center CE Services. It also describes daily Center CE maintenance activities performed in close contact with customers and Center CE activities related to our many kinds of IT infrastructure services.

• Network System as Social Infrastructure System

Customers' demands and expectations for maintenance services have increased because information technology (IT) systems have become complex. Fujitsu FSAS matches its service to a customer's circumstances to achieve stable operation of a variety of customer systems through a flexible maintenance service. Such systems include information systems consisting of servers and storage devices, telecommunication carriers' systems, which are the backbone of IT, telephony systems, which have changed rapidly from public branch exchange (PBX) to Internet protocol (IP) technology, and public lifeline systems. Fujitsu FSAS customer engineers (CEs) make the best use of maintenance knowhow cultivated through supporting Fujitsu products to maintain products from multiple vendors in order to meet the strong demands from customers for multivendor hardware environments. This paper introduces an example of Fujitsu FSAS's CE services and mentions its future activities related to maintenance services.

• Strengthening Maintenance Support for Multivendor Systems

With open systems making progress, information technology (IT) systems these days are being built with products from various different vendors, which makes them complicated, and customers' requests and expectations for maintenance services that can handle multivendor environments are growing. In response, Fujitsu FSAS is providing a multivendor hardware maintenance service by leveraging the know-how it has cultivated while maintaining Fujitsu products. This paper explains activities related to multivendor systems and gives concrete examples. It also introduces future activities to expand this support to multivendor systems in the Fujitsu Group.

• Service Provision Based on Maintenance Support from Customer's Viewpoint

Fujitsu's support section fosters the relationship of mutual trust cultivated between customers and Fujitsu by carrying out comprehensive high-quality maintenance support, and its primary mission is to ensure stable operation of customers' systems. To do this, after the initial introduction of hardware, periodic checks are conducted to enable rapid restoration in the event of any trouble. Since it is necessary to offer various services from the customer's viewpoint. Fujitsu carries out activities based on a customer's contingency plan, which is a form of preparation for achieving stable system operation. Out of these activities, this paper introduces some practical valued-added services that are suitable for solving customers' problems and meeting their needs.

• Fujitsu Attains BS25999 Certification for Its Business Continuity Management System

These days, more and more companies are developing a business continuity plan (BCP) in addition to a short-term disaster recovery plan. BCP is a serious management concept for recovering and continuing critical business operations as quickly as possible after an unexpected event. The Fujitsu Group, especially the IT Infrastructure Service Business Unit, whose mission is to help customers restore damaged information technology (IT) systems after a disaster, has been trying to secure and enhance its business continuity capability. This requires establishing a business continuity management system (BCMS) that continually repeats the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle of the BCP. Fujitsu, in cooperation with Fujitsu FSAS, established a BCMS for its IT Infrastructure services and became the first company in Japan to acquire BS25999 certification from the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). This paper describes how Fujitsu is enhancing its BCMS and also introduces BS25999, the practical global standard for BCMS.

• Practical Approach to Business Continuity Management System Enhancement

These days, organizations are facing increasing threats from natural and man-made disasters like earthquakes and influenza pandemics that could disrupt business operations. Now that businesses operate in a closely interconnected environment, any organization could be affected by an interruption in the operations of its suppliers. As preparation for such worst possible cases, the business continuity plan (BCP) has emerged as crucial factor, and business continuity management systems (BCMSs) have become universally introduced to manage BCPs and allow organizations to maintain their critical functions under diverse conditions. Fujitsu FSAS, which has long offered highly reliable maintenance and operations services for the information technology infrastructure, has expanded its services to BCMSs by leveraging its track record with its own BCMS and its know-how in recovering customers' systems from incidents and disasters. This paper explains how Fujitsu FSAS helps to improve customers' BCMS and raise their corporate value, focusing on specific examples of the BCP creation process developed by Fujitsu FSAS.

• Approaches to Human Resource Development for Service Engineers

In order to provide the most suitable life cycle management (LCM) service for customers, Fujitsu FSAS is enhancing the training of the service engineers who handle all the stages of the LCM service from planning and design to operation and maintenance. For human resources development, it uses a company-wide system from drawing up a policy to policy implementation, assessment, and practical use in business. This policy- and plan-based system corresponds to the hierarchical training and technical certification system that authorizes qualifications in the company. This paper explains Fujitsu FSAS's way of thinking and the human resources development system, focusing on the technical certification system. It also introduces human resources development for newly hired employees, interpersonal skills training for smooth communication with customers, and management skills.