The collaboration of Fujitsu Finland with the other parts of the global Group has intensified over the past few years. Server management is a good example of this. Fujitsu began to search for additional resources for it in 2007. The process proceeded quickly once it found a suitable partner country.

”We looked into different alternatives of which India was the first, but we wanted to retain the function within the company. Then we learnt that there is right kind of competence in South Africa and that the cost level there is reasonable for us to consider. A small advantage is also the fact that there is no time difference between Finland and South Africa for the most part of the year”, director Hemminki Sääksjärvi says.

Collaboration started off by transferring management of some in-house servers to the data centre in South Africa.

Experiences were positive and subsequently the servers of some 40 customers, around 1,200 servers in total, have also been transferred to South Africa.

According to Sääksjärvi, global networking contributes to cost management and long-span development work. Some customers also require global-scale service provision capability.

”Besides, there are only so many professionals in Finland, and as the ’old gurus’ retire we may face shortage of competent employees”, Sääksjärvi says.

Another person who emphasises the importance of ensuring competent staff is Markku Örn who is in charge of international operations and resourcing.

”Spheres of expertise are rather narrow these days. Although new employees graduate from vocational schools all the time, Finland is a small market. It is important to ensure competent staff also during down-turn”, Örn says.                  

"The bottom line in embarking upon this was quite naturally to at no point compromise the quality of service. In each case we have also discussed the issue with our customer in advance,” Örn says.

Minimised security risks

”In terms of security the transfer of server management has not caused any major changes as the servers and documentation are physically still in Finland. Data transfers are also conducted with absolute security. And as customer communications are still handled from Finland, competence never completely disappears from here,” Sääksjärvi says.

Markku Örn believes that in addition to basic maintenance, South African competence can be utilised more widely in the future. For example, it may be easier to find additional competence in database management from outside Finland.

”South Africa is a vast market. Job applications come in all the time, most of them from very qualified people,” Örn says.

”People are always prejudiced about other people’s competence. Our specialists have been happy to see that the servers are in good hands”, Örn adds.

Facts

• The data centre in South Africa handles operating system level maintenance routines on servers and does some development work.
• Maintenance tools and management systems are shared.
• Server hardware is located at Fujitsu’s and its customers’ premises as before.
• Fujitsu’s control room operates 24/7 in Helsinki.