Recognised as the third largest IT services company in the world, it’s fair to say that prior to 2007, Fujitsu’s profile in New Zealand didn’t fully reflect the company’s status on the international stage. All that changed, however, with the acquisition of home grown IT services company Infinity Solutions literally doubling the company’s size overnight.

“The merger was all about growing the size of Fujitsu in New Zealand,” says MD Stuart Stitt, “and broadening the depth and breadth of our capabilities by combining the strengths of each organisation to better meet the needs of current customers and the wider market. We’ve moved from a $60M business to a $120M business, 240 to 500 staff and from 100 customers to around 800.”

In addition to quickly doubling Fujitsu’s size, Stitt says the merger has also delivered Fujitsu a geographical ‘leg up’ in terms of servicing both New Zealand’s often widely dispersed tier one companies, and the small to medium enterprises that make up so much of the local marketplace.

“New Zealand’s large organisations can be predominantly in the public sector,” he says, “with a few big companies like Fonterra in the private sector. And typically you find that even these large organisations are geographically spread across the country.”

Servicing the smaller locations with the same level of expertise and efficiency that their head offices receive is a fundamental requirement of Fujitsu, Stitt says, and the Infinity purchase has provided a solid foundation to deliver on that goal.

“A couple of the things Fujitsu acquired through the purchase of Infinity,” he says, “was a large SME customer base and a wide ranging geographical network through the Infinity branch office locations in places like Hamilton, Gisborne, Palmerston North, Christchurch, Timaru and Dunedin. So in all these places we maintain the ability to serve large organisations whilst at the same time looking after our SME customers. This gives us an existing and potential customer profile that spans both large tier one managed services customers right through to smaller organisations of 20 desks up.”

IT services explained
So what exactly does an ‘IT Services Partner’ like Fujitsu do? To sum it up, Fujitsu New Zealand can consult, design, build and operate the entire range of an organisation’s IT and communications solutions.

From desktops to storage, mobile apps to VoIP, CRM to ERP, Stitt says Fujitsu can provide either a ‘full service’ offering, or organisations can adopt a more ‘pay as you go’ approach with a cost-per-hour model. “In terms of our specific strengths,” Stitt says, “we’re big in the managed services space with many large customers for whom we do all their outsourcing. We provide a high level of service and value, we remove the inconsistencies in service and if there’s a scarcity of resources in New Zealand we can ensure consistency throughout our managed service offerings.”

Infrastructure services are another core offering he says. “We do all project field services, support and maintenance in the field, we do VoIP PABX and Telecommunications. We’re involved in the voice and data convergence area and we’re very involved in storage and imaging technology. We’ve been the country's Kodak representative for a number of years, for example, so we’ve done a lot of imaging work with their technology and also with the application software around that. And until recently we’ve been the sole New Zealand NetApp and Fujitsu storage provider for many years.”

Fujitsu also offers an extensive range of application services he says. “We have Microsoft and Java development teams and provide a range of Application Consulting Services. We undertake software testing work and are a LAR (Large Account Reseller) for software licensing.” Fujitsu is also marketing a range of its own software products designed specifically for specialist vertical markets, he says, including the legal, freight and courier industries.

“We also have a significant practice in designing and implementing Microsoft Dynamics NAV - especially based around primary industry which is a topical subject given how well the country is doing in the primary space. So we’ve developed specific software for Dynamics NAV that’s available for meat processing companies, vegetable & horticultural production and we are involved with the dairy industry in that space as well.”

With the high level of expertise required to ‘go it alone’ with many of today’s IT solutions, working with an IT services partner actually makes good sense for most businesses. “In most instances it’s better for them to deal with an organisation like Fujitsu,” says Stitt, “that can manage a part of their IT operation, freeing them up to focus on what’s most important to them - their customers and growing their business.” But at the same time, he observes, this does not mean a company need let go of its IT reigns entirely. “Not at all,” he says.

“Each business has its own model, its own ownership, capital and risk structures. So each business needs to assess that and then decide what and how much it should outsource, setting boundaries around how much they want to keep control over themselves. It’s a horses for courses approach.” To help organisations decide on the right course, Stitt says Fujitsu also offers consulting services, covering most key areas including strategy, enterprise architecture, business transformation & change and enterprise value management.

Picking the right partner
Rather than being an offshore ‘corporate’ CEO placement, Stitt himself is a kiwi with a long history of involvement with local IT services companies, most recently as CFO of Infinity and prior to that as managing director of Trilogy.

It is this experience that gives him a unique and ‘realistic’ understanding of both the situation ‘on the ground’ for New Zealand companies - and what they really want from their IT services provider. “If I was one of our clients,” he says, “I’d be expecting Fujitsu to make it easier for me to operate my business, easier for me to keep my staff doing what they need and want to be doing - and deliver all this cost effectively. In essence, what all businesses really want is more time to do what they really need to do which is to work with their own customers - that is certainly my philosophy.”

In addition to delivering on this vision, Stitt says Fujitsu is also enthusiastic about educating the marketplace when gamechanging technology appears.

“I think it’s definitely an obligation for IT organisations to put new developments in technology out there that we’re aware of before our customers are. Things that will give them either a competitive or early mover advantage, whether that’s in performance, price or ease of use. In the storage and security market, for example, we’ve been very proactive in bringing leading edge offerings to those customers who are pushing the boundaries of their storage capability, email or net traffic.”

For former customers of Infinity, Stitt says the merger delivers access to expertise not previously available.

“As an organisation we have access to Fujitsu capability worldwide,” he says.

“Whether that’s through the large Fujitsu organisations in Europe, or the technology and research that is driven out of Japan (Fujitsu invests over $2 billion per annum into R&D). Closer to home it’s the innovative solutions that are being developed in Australia. There’s a wealth of resource at our fingertips.”

One example of the potential of Fujitsu’s global expertise to positively impact local organisations is in the evolution of the ‘environmentally friendly’ workplace. While many view carbon trading and other government driven initiatives as of dubious merit, Stitt says conserving resources, and in so doing lowering overheads, is something any business person can support.

“Fujitsu is involved on two levels,” he says, “in Australia we have a Green Consulting practice that is addressing customer’s sustainability demand there (helping to run Toyota Australia’s green strategy, for example), and we hope to bring that practice to New Zealand. We also have a working group overseeing the implementation of our own environmental initiatives throughout our New Zealand offices including recycling programmes for paper, glass, cans, batteries and for our own as well as our customers’ used ITC equipment. We only use sustainable paper stock for all internal use and external requirements such as marketing collateral and customer documentation and are implementing energy saving initiatives which include power cut out switches on office floors and timing switches on building signage and lighting. This has a lot of support from people within our organisation who all want to make a difference by doing the little things as well.”

While he says Fujitsu can offer green advice, green solutions, and low impact products, Stitt says Fujitsu is aware that people still have a business to run. “It still has to be business effective for people,” he says. “They’re really only paying lip service to it otherwise.”

For more on how Fujitsu NZ can help you service your customer’s and grow your business, visit www.fujitsu.co.nz





> Fujitsu New Zealand
W: www.fujitsu.co.nz
P: 04 495 0700





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