Outsourcing IT hardware maintenance

January 2010 - As one of Australia’s leading financiers, Toyota Financial Services relies heavily on effective IT systems. We asked the company to explain how it handles its IT hardware maintenance.
Recently, Toyota Financial Services decided to source a hardware maintenance provider to maintain the robustness of its IT systems, guaranteeing parts availability and a quick service response. The company chose IT specialist firm Interactive.
By consolidating its hardware maintenance services with the Australian systems availability specialist, Toyota Financial Services is now enjoying an increase in its IT systems’ availability, leading to a reduction in both business downtime and operating costs.
“We had found dealing with different vendors for each of our various operating systems was not
only increasing our operating costs, but when the vendors were unable to source parts for some of
older systems, we were experiencing significant delays which was impacting the efficiency of our
business,” explains Mark Gosling, information services manager of Toyota Financial Services.
With its offices located in Sydney, Melbourne, Woolaware Bay, Townsville, Brisbane, Adelaide,
and Perth, Toyota Financial Services needed a national service provider that could offer the support
required to maintain business continuity.
“The fact that Interactive could guarantee parts availability and service resolution in our regional areas within 24 hours was attractive to us,” Gosling says.
Toyota Financial Services initially started its relationship with Interactive to provide critical server equipment maintenance. Interactive now provides Toyota Financial Services support for all HP server and Cisco equipment.
When Toyota Financial Services experienced equipment failure in its regional office in Townsville, affecting the local branch’s phone system, the business was expected to be affected for many days.
“Townsville’s very difficult to access, with only a couple of flights into the city each day. So when Interactive was able to get the required part to the office and have an agent on-site to repair the system the next day we were pleasantly surprised!
“Without Interactive’s quick response, we would have had to rely on mobile phones, which was not only an expensive alternative, but also looked unprofessional. Instead, we were able to rectify the issue quickly to minimise impact,” he says.
Interactive director, Simon Durkin, claims that Interactive has a more robust service model than its competitors.
“We guarantee parts delivery and service within 24 hours in regional areas, made possible by dedicated staff and dedicated warehouses, which stock every part for every system we maintain, including parts for older systems. We also enable customers to deal with one service contact rather than multiple vendor support staff over multiple suppliers.”
Durkin says that businesses with a large number of geographically dispersed sites are increasingly moving towards consolidation of their maintenance contracts to look after all hardware maintenance issues.
“CIOs and IT departments don’t want to spend their precious resources managing multiple vendors. Consolidation of services allows the IT staff to maintain continuity, with any maintenance issues resolved quickly and with minimum disruption to the business. We have the geographical spread that enables us to deliver parts quickly.
“In addition, clients are attracted to the financial savings provided by consolidating their hardware maintenance support with a single provider. They want a support solution that matches what they need, not what a vendor wants to sell them,” Durkin says.

More information
Interactive www.interactive.com.au