Fujitsu Limited

ABOUT THIS COMPANY:

Japanese tech emperor  

Part of the massive Fujitsu Group holding company, Fujitsu Limited is the face of the firm and the world's third-largest IT services provider, as well as the biggest of its kind in Japan. Its clients include over half of the Fortune Global 500, as well as many mid-sized and smaller companies. The Tokyo-based company’s offerings range from consulting and IT services (including outsourcing) to manufacturing computers, servers, point-of-sale systems, and electronic components such as memory chips and capacitors. Overall, the Fujitsu Group employs over 165,000 people worldwide (with about 26,000 in Fujitsu Limited) and derives almost 80 percent of its revenue from the Asia Pacific region, with the majority coming from its home base in Japan.

Aside from Fujitsu Limited's offerings, further consulting services are provided through a number of Fujitsu Group subsidiaries, chiefly Fujitsu Business Systems (FJB), founded in 1947. Though FJB had been separately listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, in May 2009 Fujitsu Limited subsumed FJB and made it a wholly owned subsidiary through a share exchange. FJB handles IT solutions from consulting to system architecture, operations support, maintenance, construction and education. Within its Software Services division (which makes up nearly 60 percent of FJB's revenue), the firm handles a variety of areas including consulting, outsourcing and support services. FJB's overall revenues hit JPY 152 billion for the fiscal year ending March 2009. Led by Kuniaki Suzuki, the firm's president, FJB has more than 3,400 employees in over 100 locations in Japan.

Another subsidiary, Fujitsu Broad Solution and Consulting (Fujitsu BSC), handles further tech consulting services. Founded in 1963, the firm's core is "developing mission-critical application systems"—particularly for governmental bodies and public and private-sector organizations. Industries served include telecommunications, manufacturing and distribution, and various government sectors. Tech consulting offerings include ERP systems, HR and accounting systems, operational monitoring, help desk services, IT-related temporary staffing services and business process outsourcing (BPO). The firm also provides embedded systems for electronic equipment and digital security solutions. Headquartered in Tokyo and led by Takao Kaneko, Fujitsu BSC has about 1,800 employees in Japan and China (in Beijing, Shanghai and Dalian).

All across Asia Pacific

Founded in 1935 as the Fuji Tsushinki Manufacturing Corporation, Fujitsu was originally an offshoot of Fuji Electric's communications division. After moving into telecommunications and computers, the company was renamed after an internal organization called Fujitsu Laboratories. It began offering business services, solutions and consulting (as well as high-tech electronics and multimedia products) in the 1990s. Today, Fujitsu's wide range of products and services are fairly country-specific.

Japanese research consultants work at the Fujitsu Research Institute (FRI), located near company headquarters in Tokyo. Teams of consultants at FRI have both industry and functional expertise, including in change management, multimedia marketing and new business development. FRI, which was founded in 1986, is a for-profit think tank that conducts research in the software field of industry and technology, and advises clients on strategic information and communication technology. In 1996, FRI's work expanded to include a nonprofit research center. In addition to providing consulting services to governments and industries, FRI makes its research and policy recommendations available to the general public.

Expanding in India

Fujitsu Consulting India offers a slew of business and consulting services, including the busy call center facilities brought into the fold with the 2006 purchase of IT consulting firm Rapidigm. It also provides BPO services, application services, supply chain management, content management, enterprise compliance management, resource planning and risk management.

Fujitsu also operates global delivery centers in India and Costa Rica as part of its consulting business. Fujitsu's Indian operations purchased IT consulting firm Rapidigm in April 2006, a move that added 1,200 North American consultants and 900 Indian consultants to the Fujitsu payroll. According to Fujitsu, this was just the beginning of its expansion in India—the firm announced its intentions to hire as many as 2,500 employees in the country in 2007 and 2008. As part of these expansion plans, in October 2007 the firm opened a US$10 million, 100,000 square-foot offshore development center in Noida, its fourth such operation in India.

In August 2008, Jitendra Tanna, the vice president of Fujitsu Consulting India, was quoted by India's Business Standard as saying, “We are looking at new development centers in tier-two cities in Maharashtra or eastern India. We are also investing US$12 million in setting up new buildings for expanding manpower strength of our development centre in Pune. Currently our Pune unit has over 1,000 people and we are investing in a new building there to accommodate 1,500 more employees in the first phase. The new facility is expected to be up and running by March 2009.”