The largest private sector pension insurer Varma entered into a Patja agreement with Fujitsu in summer 2002. Having established their collaboration, the parties are now ready to deepen their partnership through a so-called Sense and Respond project and by deploying new services, such as Mobile Enterprise.

Varma's Patja service covers nearly 700 workstations. Thanks to Patja, Varma has been able to fully focus on its core business and leave the entire IT support to Fujitsu's responsibility.

”Up till now our collaboration has been about establishing and stabilising the service production. In autumn 2005 it was time to move on to the next level", IT Service Manager Esa Hoikkala of Varma says.
Varma's Patja agreement will now be complemented with Mobile Enterprise, which will keep Varma employees' e-mail and calendar services up-to-date whether they are sitting at their office desktop or using for instance mobile phone while out of the office.

Main Goal: Happy Customer

A Sense and Respond project was launched in autumn 2005 to deepen the partnership between Fujitsu and Varma. It aims to develop Fujitsu's processes and service culture to a more customer-driven direction.

In only a few months has Sense and Respond provided Fujitsu's Varma team with fresh and deeper outlooks on the customer's operations. Varma managers and Patja service users have been interviewed during two-week Sense and Respond workshops. The responds help Fujitsu in finding new and better ways to work and develop the customer relationship. The ultimate goal is a happier customer.

”It is definitely an asset to have a partner who invests in service development. Thanks to Sense and Respond, Fujitsu has managed to find aspects in our collaboration that are important to us and that will improve the service when given proper attention", Esa Hoikkala says.

”It is utterly important for Fujitsu as a service provider to constantly increase its knowledge of Varma's business. There is definitely no harm in taking a closer look even at our operational applications - the ones that actually make our business”, Hoikkala adds.

Tailored Support

After completing the workshops, Sense and Respond will continue by Fujitsu user support experts' visit to the working environment, conditions and premises of Varma employees.

”IT support needs some boost. For help desk experts to be able to provide proper support to our IT users, they must have knowledge of our company", IT Director Irmeli Otava-Keskinen points out. According to Hoikkala, Varma expected some kind of partnership enhancement effort, which Fujitsu is now implementing in the form of Sense and Respond.

”Up to this point we have mainly focused on stabilising the Patja service. To set up a service of this magnitude takes a year or even two. Only then it's time to examine how to deepen and develop the collaboration", Hoikkala emphasises.