Auto maker, Toyota Australia, is in the closing
stages of a major IT modernisation initiative which will see the company
replace data centre hardware, migrate to Windows 7 and iPad/iPhone
trials.
The projects, according to Toyota
Australia information systems division service delivery corporate
manager, Ellis Brover, are designed to reduce costs and update the
company’s ageing infrastructure.
He told Computerworld Australia that the data centre refresh included replacement of firewalls, load balancing and router hardware.
An upgrade from the XP operating system (OS) to Windows 7, which began in September 2010 following the signing of a services contract
with supplier Fujitsu, will be completed in May 2012.
“It was a particularly complex project for us, largely because we were
going from an 11-year-old operating system and a relatively uncontrolled
operating environment to a controlled one,” he said. “As a result we
had to discover the thousands of applications our users had installed
and test all of them for Windows 7.”
The
company is also conducting a trial of 30 iPads and iPhones as part of a
strategy to replace 100 BlackBerry smartphones currently issued to
executives. The tablets and smartphones are due to be rolled out by
mid-2012 to both sales staff and executives.
“Feedback
has been very positive, especially from staff members who haven’t had
access to this technology before,” Brover said. “They’re telling us the
devices allow them to be more efficient while on the road and keep up to
date with business changes as they happen.”
A
bring your own device (BYOD) trial is also underway. This will allow
staff to synchronise their personal iPad or iPhone with the company’s
network to access emails and documents.
“We’re
still satisfying ourselves that we can guarantee the right level of
security with BYOD but the flip side of not having a policy is that it
sometimes leads people to circumnavigate networks in a way that is less
secure,” he said.
In addition, Toyota Australia
has renewed an existing managed voice and data network services
contract with NEC for the next three years.
As
part of this contract, NEC provides data carriage, customer premises
equipment, service monitoring and support to more than 180 Toyota dealer
sites across Australia. The service is supported by NEC’s Nextep
network, providing the manufacturer with a private Cloud offering.
The
contract extension also provides a network reliability upgrade to the
Dealers IP network, a dealer management system which runs every aspect
of a dealership, and is hosted in a private Cloud by Fujitsu.
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