Wärtsilä co-operates with Tieto in business-critical ICT fields

Wärtsilä requires quality, delivery reliability and a solution-minded attitude from its providers. Tieto provides server capacity for Wärtsilä’s SAP application and other critical operations, and is involved in related projects.

Esa Kivineva, Chief Information Officer, Wärtsilä Corporation, highlights the challenge of managing IT for the company. Wärtsilä operates in 70 countries and has 160 offices. The global presence of the company and its operating model must be taken into consideration in all aspects of information management – IT services, infrastructure, applications, help desk operations and related services.

“We are involved in all information management that promotes the success of Wärtsilä and its customers. In accordance with our multi-vendor strategy we have outsourced extensively, from infrastructure to application development. However, we wanted to retain strategy, business partnership and supplier management in-house,” says Kivineva.

Tieto is involved in outsourcing Wärtsilä’s SAP server and other business-critical servers, and in related projects. When Wärtsilä renewed the server outsourcing agreement, it was searching for a large company that could act within its global operating model.

“We have strict criteria for our suppliers. They must be able to help us and our customers. IT is also a matter of person-to-person service. Flexibility is very important. As our volumes increase or decrease and our needs change, our partners must be able to adapt,” Kivineva says.

Primary criteria: quality and delivery reliability

In March, Tieto assumed responsibility for managing the maintenance of Wärtsilä’s SAP servers. At the same time the management of platforms of some business-critical applications was transferred to Tieto. According to Kivineva, the transfer to Tieto took place smoothly. The transfer had to be completed within three months, which was a demanding objective, according to the chief information officer. However, the deadline was met.

“The most important factors when selecting a supplier are quality, delivery reliability, functional organization and references, because business-critical servers must operate flawlessly, 24/7. Only after that will the question of costs come up. A great plus has been the ability to acquire capacity as needed,” says Kivineva.

“We have common interests with Tieto. We are satisfied with what Tieto has to offer and is willing to do for us. They understand our needs and can provide solutions to our problems. Proactivity is of essence in business-critical IT services,” Kivineva continues.