How FMS, with the help of parson, created an IT operations manual
Fr. Meyer's Sohn (FMS) wanted to create a central IT operations manual to efficiently document processes and responsibilities in IT administration.
As an experienced service provider for software documentation and operating instructions, parson supports FMS in developing a central source of information that structures IT processes, provides system information, and meets security and compliance requirements.
The IT operations manual is actively used and continuously expanded to strengthen and future-proof the IT infrastructure of FMS.
Goal: Central IT operations manual as a source of information about the IT infrastructure
A high-performance IT infrastructure is essential for the smooth and efficient operation of FMS. To provide optimal support for IT operations, FMS set the goal of documenting all relevant processes and responsibilities in a central IT operations manual and making it available to all employees.
The IT operations manual should be published in the FMS wiki and continuously updated by FMS experts and technical communicators at parson.
Collaboration with parson
As a long-standing service provider of FMS, parson was commissioned to create the IT operating manual. parson has been supporting FMS since 2011 with numerous services in the area of technical documentation, including the documentation of various FMS-internal software products, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and the development of the FMS-internal semantic wiki.
The successful implementation of the IT operations manual is the result of the excellent cooperation with our long-term partner parson.
Right from the start, parson understood our requirements and reacted reliably and flexibly in every phase of the project. The close coordination and in-depth expertise of parson contributed a solution that was precisely tailored to our needs. Thanks to this cooperation, we were able to create a central, future-proof source of information that will support our IT management in the long term. We look forward to continuing to optimize our IT documentation together with parson in the future.
The challenge: Identifying and integrating information
The information that needed to be included in the IT operations manual was scattered across multiple sources and departments. A major challenge for the parson team was to identify and leverage these sources of information to transfer all relevant information into the IT operations manual.
In addition, we had to ensure from the beginning that the IT operations manual would meet a variety of requirements, such as providing general information about (IT) processes like employee onboarding and offboarding, and providing specific information about the IT systems for the IT administrators at FMS.
Procedure: Step by step to the IT operations manual
1) Requirements analysis and concept development
Together with the FMS stakeholders, including management, data protection officers and IT administrators, the parson team collected the company-specific requirements for the IT operations manual.
Specifications from the IT baseline protection compendium of the BSI (German Federal Office for Security and Information Technology) were also incorporated into the planning.
2) Create the structure for the IT operations manual
parson visualized the draft chapter structure using MindManager to provide a clear overview. The team then created the basic structure in the FMS wiki, where the IT operations manual was developed.
parson designed pages and sub-pages to clearly present thematic content. In close collaboration with FMS stakeholders, the parson team regularly optimized, expanded, and consolidated the structure to meet specific requirements.
3) Automatic transfer of information into a template
I developed a template for the IT operations manual specifically to collect information from the FMS branches. The template allows this data to be automatically transferred to the FMS internal wiki.
4) Filling the structure with content
After migrating the existing content, we gathered additional information through interviews with business and technical experts, revised the content, and integrated it into the internal FMS wiki.
The content was reviewed by experts from various departments, including IT administrators, the IT security officer, and process managers.
Result: Actively used IT operations manual
The IT operations manual now serves as a central source of information for all IT operations processes at FMS. It provides both an overview of the most important processes and detailed instructions on how to implement them in daily work.
The IT Operations Manual is actively used and continuously expanded. In the future, it will also provide all the necessary information for ISO certification, thus making a further important contribution to quality assurance.
With parson's support, we were able to ensure that the IT operations manual met our security and compliance requirements. In particular, the consideration of the BSI's IT baseline protection compendium was a key component that parson implemented in a professional way. This manual is not only a tool for day-to-day operations, but also an important part of the ongoing development of our security standards.
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About Fr. Meyer's Sohn GmbH & Co. KG
Fr. Meyer’s Sohn (FMS) is a family-owned global forwarding company. It is one of the 10 largest sea freight forwarding companies worldwide. Tailored customer solutions across all modes of transport are also part of its product portfolio, as is the optimization of supply chains. FMS employs 850 transportation and logistics professionals located in over 20 countries to serve customers.