The Patja agreement between Itella and Fujitsu was beefed up with product services last year. Fujitsu’s product service supplies some 200 standardised workstations to Itella per month. The service covers end-to-end logistics including pre-installation. Itella operates in Northern and Central Europe as well as Russia and employs approximately 31,000 people.
The collaboration between Itella and Fujitsu dates back to 2004 and was renewed in 2008 to span the next three years. The Patja service incorporates around 7,500 workstations. The current contract covers all Itella countries of operation, except Russia.
”There are plenty of product service suppliers in the market, but what we were looking for is one that is able to meet our international needs, too”, says Markus Bentaieb, ICT development manager at Itella.
At the end of year 2008, the Itella Group employed 31,700 people in 11 countries. 74 per cent of the employees are based in Finland, which makes Itella the largest corporate employer in Finland. Fujitsu delivered circa 1,000 pre-installed workstations to Itella in June last year, right after launching its product services. In addition to delivering new hardware Fujitsu also takes care of replacing old devices to each user.
Besides product services Fujitsu offers Itella availability and on-site support services as well as numerous other Patja workstation and server environment services, such as AD environment with servers, and information security services.
Easy to get
Itella places product orders through a joint SAP-integrated order system. This facilitates procurement management and allows all group companies, including the international ones, to place orders to Fujitsu in an integrated manner. The system also records information important in developing the service, such as order-specific complaints and customer satisfaction reports, which Fujitsu examines carefully.
”Users have been happy with the service, which is the first priority to us.”
The entire order and invoicing process works automatically, which brings cost savings and reduces errors in order processing.
Fujitsu maintains product details in Itella order system in both Finnish and English, including product brands, descriptions and prices.
”It is particularly important to the user to see a picture of the products to make sure they are ordering the right product. This reduces the number of returns and credit notes.”
Managing the entire lifecycle
Itella considers it important that its suppliers invest in environment friendliness.
Fujitsu recycling and scrapping service that is included in the product service is an easy way to dispense IT equipment or recycle it without any information security risks. It is also one of the factors that convinced Itella to expand its agreement with Fujitsu.
”Itella is extremely aware of environmental issues, and we have launched several green IT projects with it. Fujitsu has also received recognition for its efforts in environmental issues, which we regard very highly”, Markus Bentaieb says.
"Our organisation aims primarily at reusing computers and other devices. In cases where Itella cannot find usage for removable devices we deliver them to aftermarket. Scrapping is only the final option,” Bentaieb points out.