Transpower IT outsourcing contract to Fujitsu NZ

Transpower awards IT outsourcing contract to Fujitsu NZ
01 Aug 2006

Transpower New Zealand has awarded Fujitsu New Zealand a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract to provide IT infrastructure services for the next three years with the potential to extend it by up to a further five years.

It concludes a year long process that began with 11 companies registering their interest in providing IT infrastructure services to the owner and operator of the national electricity grid. In December 2005 four companies were asked to respond to a Request for Proposal (RFP) and Fujitsu emerged from that process as the preferred provider.

Transpower Chief Executive Dr Ralph Craven said the signing of this new outsourcing agreement is a major achievement and marks a significant change in Transpower's IT infrastructure support services.

"It provides a foundation for a strong partnership between Transpower and Fujitsu that is designed to deliver value to the stakeholders of IT services, while ensuring that it is adaptive to changing business needs and allows Transpower to maintain control of its architectural direction. The agreement was developed with assistance from Gartner and represents the most current thinking in the management of multi-sourced IT environments."

This new outsourcing agreement continues a long-term relationship between the two organisations with Fujitsu providing IT infrastructure services to Transpower since 1997. However, Dr Craven said it also represents a fundamental change in the relationship with the movement away from a transactional-based outsourcing contract towards an outcomes-focused agreement.

"Increased service levels are one part of this outcomes approach, as well as driving efficiency gains through the automation and integration of processes."

Significant improvements to the outsourcing agreement have been made including:

- Outcomes that have been defined in a way that is very clear and measurable
- Inclusion of a comprehensive quality plan that provides the direction for Transpower to move to a much higher level of IT process maturity
- Fully defined functional requirements for each service tower with agreed service level measures that are based on key user requirements
- Inclusion of 24/7 onsite support as well as additional resources for integrating the operational services with the very large change programme within IT
- Increased focus on business customer satisfaction rather than the traditional software and hardware service levels.

Dr Craven said that with IT infrastructure essential to Transpower's roles as System Operator and owner of the national grid, the quality of the outsourcing agreement reached with Fujitsu was a significant achievement.

ENDS

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