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Fujitsu Siemens services woos resellers

Why can't we all just get along

Fujitsu Siemens Computers put its recently acquired service division square and centre when it gave itself an image makeover at its VISIT 2005 beano this week.

Describing itself as the "new" Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC), the PC vendor said it could now offer customers a full suite of products, services and solutions, with the product services business it took over from Siemens Business Services earlier this year.

At the same time, it insisted its own services pitch wouldn't conflict with its existing services and resell partners.

Neil Allpress, vice president for IT product services at FSC said the unit's focus was squarely on enterprise infrastructure and he had no intention of chasing the BPO or outsourcing markets.

Allpress said the company, from its inception, did not want the channel to see it as a competitor. "We very clearly said we would not compete with the channel where they're selling our product."

Any "competent" channel partner would get first refusal dealing with a customer, he insisted. Competency would amount to standard certifications. The company would support such partners where, for example, the partner's geographic spread didn't match the customer's.

Allpress added that the firm had already outsourced lower end service delivery, such as maintenance, to channel partners. Sometimes this has involved transferring staff.

Right now, the enterprise infrastructure business accounts for 20 per cent of FCS services and it intends to get this up to 25 per cent within the year. Over time it wants to get this up to half the business. The company expects the unit as a whole to grow ahead of the industry average.

Allpress said the services business turned over €450m in the first half of this year, with Germany its biggest market and the UK its second.

As part of the service relaunch, the company announced it had secured ISO certifications for IT Management, Information Security, and Quality Management, making it the first IT services provider to gain all three. ®

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