Fujitsu Siemens launches innovative 'Smart Hands' service concept in Mid East

According to the North America-based Infonetics Research, the premiere international market research and consulting firm specializing in data networking and telecoms, companies experience on average 501 hours of network downtime a year resulting in a 4% total revenue loss.

Smart Hands, which focuses on strategic hardware and operating maintenance, utilizes a central bank of highly trained service engineers supported by on-the-ground support through local partners.

The new concept is being demonstrated daily to GITEX visitors in the Fujitsu Siemens Computers' VIP lounge

"Smart Hands is an impressive new service delivery method from Fujitsu Siemens Computers that will become industry standard to the business critical environment," said Toni Junghaenel, Service Manager, Middle East, Fujitsu Siemens Computers.

"This new concept is the optimum combination between central services, local service with our partners, spares logistics and service tools."

Developed for all PRIMEPOWER server systems, Smart Hands mixes automation, manual support and recognition methods to continually identify and diagnose problems.

As a starting point, a company's servers are programmed to run predefined system checks to determine potential problems and, if found, the server automatically places a call at the Central Service Factory detailing the problem.

Based in Germany and consisting of a core of leading Fujitsu Siemens Computers trained experts, the Central Service Factory then diagnoses the problems. Depending on the nature of the threat, the Central Service Factory technicians either fix the problem on-line, or send the local on-ground support team to repair part failures and initiate hardware exchange.

"Smart Hands is a paradigm shift from old reactive methods of service support to proactive monitoring for tomorrow's business critical environment," said Junghaenel. "By using regular monitoring and remote service, coupled with reliable early warning systems that enable efficient and immediate preventive actions, downtime on servers is drastically reduced with many problems being fixed before they become critical for the customer."

To ensure quality, Fujitsu Siemens Computers has trained its Middle East partners' field engineers to deal with any hands-on repair. In addition, all local field engineers are guided by a Central Support Engineer in Germany who, if necessary, makes the required administrative system encroachments via remote control.

To further increase hands-on efficiency, a spare parts logistics operation also ensures that an agreed spare part kit, tailored to the customer's system environment, is always available.

"By continually maintaining and making available a custom-made spare part kit with the local partner for each customer, we ensure repair time is kept to an absolute minimum," added Junghaenel.

While acting as a repair service, 'Smart Hands' also allows Fujitsu Siemens Computers' Central Service Factory technicians to regularly update and maintain customer software through its on-line Back Level Support program.

Fujitsu Siemens Computers' innovative Smart Hands concept enhances the high availability of customers' business critical environments and reduces downtime costs through highly experienced central experts and an optimal combination of service elements tailored to individual customer needs.