OREANDA-NEWS. September 20, 2012. Today Fujitsu announces a cloud contract with Asciano, Australia’s largest port and rail operator, as part of a major program to upgrade its ICT capabilities.

The 18 month program will transform Asciano’s end-of-life infrastructure into business aligned, highly available IT systems - effectively improving the way the Company works, its service delivery and the way it interfaces with its customers.

The program will deliver an upgrade of Asciano’s entire IT infrastructure and applications utilising enterprise grade cloud services. Asciano is also taking the opportunity to rationalise and update its key enterprise resource planning (ERP), maintenance and terminal operating systems to the latest versions with key enhancements to improve optimisation and efficiency.

Asciano IT will retain the responsibility for the delivery of ICT services across its businesses while leveraging the capabilities of key partners to create a leading technology environment. As part of the upgrade, Asciano has partnered with Fujitsu Australia to acquire a suite of cloud services including desktop infrastructure, messaging, collaboration, unified communications and database services.

As part of the five year contract, Fujitsu will provide consulting services and on demand services on a usage basis. The rollout of services will commence with:
Virtual desktop implementation and replacement of all existing hardware including phones, desktop computers and other end user devices;
A single email and messaging system across Asciano and its Divisions using the latest Microsoft Exchange and Office products;
Collaboration, document management and search capabilities across all of Asciano’s information assets; and
Improved communications platforms across the geographically diverse organisation, integrating desktop, voice video and messaging.

According to Mr Kelvin McGrath, Chief Information Officer for Asciano, “The guiding principle for the new service is to deliver faster and more flexible systems and services which are not only better tailored to suit the ways in which our people work but create an ecosystem to enhance Asciano innovation”.

Mike Foster, Chief Executive Officer of Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand said, “We are pleased be working closely with Asciano on this transformational project, which will see the implementation of the complete suite of Fujitsu’s cloud services. Asciano will be able to leverage the investments we have made in building Cloud infrastructure in our Australian data centres to provide a platform for the growth of its business moving forward.”

A major database implementation is also planned in early 2013, providing a platform from which Asciano can upgrade the applications specific to its ports and rail operations, including: The Transport Management System (TMS) - used within the rail division to plan and control the use of our rail assets; and The Operating Management System (OMS) - used within the ports division to manage the complex logistics for container handling.

“The ICT upgrade program will lay the foundation for the next phase of the application development and enhancements, delivering greater functionality and optimisation capability to be leveraged across all of our businesses,” Mr McGrath added.

Asciano has also consolidated its WAN and LAN services with Telstra ensuring cost effective increases in bandwidth and reliability to match the growing needs of its 7,500 employees. “Our IT Service Desk and our state based regional service delivery managers will continue to supply service and support in-house while we work with our Divisions to ensure the transition runs smoothly,” Mr McGrath concluded.

Asciano’s investment in its ICT capabilities is the next major step in rolling out its ICT strategy, having appointed Kelvin McGrath to the role of CIO in September 2010.