Governance/Accountability - CSR Report 2007

Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

For NEC Fielding, which considers IT a lifeline for a new era and whose core business is the maintenance of IT equipment, we think that ensuring the stable operation of this lifeline is one of our important social responsibilities. In June 2006, we launched a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) creation project so that we could continue to provide important services to quickly relaunch business and ensure stable operation of this lifeline even if a major natural disaster were to hit. We started creating a BCP, reviewed various measures and systems, which had previously only been considered from a disaster prevention perspective, and worked out the various issues. In FY2007, we started to implement the measures to handle these issues.

BCP creation basic policy	1．	Give highest priority to checking the safety of employees and family, providing aid and support, and prevent secondary disasters
	2．	Create a system so that operations can be relaunched (*1) two days after a disaster hits.
	3．	Create a system so that business can be relaunched (*2) three days after a disaster hits.

(1) relaunch operations = relaunch minimal in-house operations, including receiving damage reports (2) relaunch business = actively call on customers and fully relaunch business through recovery of customer system

Reviewing and creating a system to respond to major natural disasters

In order to respond to major natural disasters, we have taken various steps including the following: established both an east and west call center, which are the first point of contact for customers, and these call centers form a mutual backup system; established both an east and west computer center; and operate mutual information systems. In FY2006, we examined and reviewed, from a BCP perspective, these measures and the distribution of parts in the Logistics Division, which is the division that supplies spare parts, and started a recheck of the backup information system. In addition, from a BCP perspective, we renamed the headquarters that had been established as a headquarters to handle natural disasters the BC headquarters, strengthened the headquarters, and further improved the system and distribution of emergency general and communication equipment.

Safety Confirmation System for Personnel

In October 2002, a Safety Confirmation System for Personnel was constructed, and this allows employees to record the safety of themselves and families from either a PC or mobile phone over the Internet, making it possible to quickly confirm the safety of employees when a natural disaster hits. For the October 2004 Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake and March 2007 Noto Hanto Earthquake, it was possible to confirm the safety of all employees who were in the area hit by the earthquake on that day, and on the following day, operations were relaunched, and work was started on restoring customer systems.

Response to the Noto Hanto Earthquake

For the Noto Hanto Earthquake of 2007, we immediately established a disaster response headquarters, and while checking the safety of employees, we strived to restore customers’ systems that had been damaged by the earthquake. As a result of the emergency delivery of spare parts and dispatch of response personnel from areas that were not hit by the earthquake, we restored most systems' damage by the earthquake on the day of the earthquake and completed 29 emergency responses within three days.

Sales of BCP goods

Among the products that we handle, products that are useful for environmental protection and risk reduction are referred to as CSR supplies, and we aggressively sell them. Some of these disaster response products, such as seismic isolation sheets, are useful for customers in terms of BCP.

Approach to information security

As we do business in maintenance of customers’ information systems and network, we are entrusted with a lot of customers’ information assets, we consider risks related to information security and personal information protection important CSR risks that need to be managed, and we continually work to improve our management of these risks. In order to prevent information security problems, we established an information security management system, and in addition to measures that had previously been implemented, in 2006, we thoroughly implemented the protection of important documents using IRM and increased employee awareness using digital covenants as a company-wide information security measures.

Diagram of the system for information security

Safety box, Tools to prevent the HDD retrieval

IRM-based document protection

We have launched measures to prevent the leak of information using IRM. By introducing IRM to documents, even if information is leaked, it will be impossible for people who are not officially designated users to open the document. We are working to protect information by thoroughly introducing IRM to personal and customer information that we possess and other information that we should be protected.

Increasing employee awareness based on digital covenants

All employees at NEC Fielding, who do a lot of work at the offices of customers, are well aware of rules, which they must abide by, in order to protect customer information in working procedures, and this includes the rules on daily information security. In July 2007, with the aim of increasing employee awareness, employees covenanted that they fully understood items that they had to adhere to.

Approach to protection of personal information

In 2001, we established a personal information protection policy, and we are working to protect personal information by establishing a personal information protection management system. The in-house personal information protection system runs throughout the company and is headed by the president and the responsible corporate officers. In each department, there is a person in charge of personal information protection and a person in charge of promoting personal information protection, and we work to make all employees aware of personal information protection activities.