Fujitsu opens hands-on demonstration facility

Vendor's test centre brings scanning and document management products under one roof

Fujitsu is staking its claim on the booming scanning and document management market with the launch of a dedicated demonstration centre for the channel.

The Independent Software Vendor Collaboration Centre (ICC), based at Fujitsu’s Hayes Park office near Heathrow, allows partners, ISVs, resellers and end-users to try out scanning and document management products for themselves.

Robert Young, Fujitsu’s European business development manager, said: “The document management industry is growing immensely so we wanted to draw together all the document management software packages available. Resellers can come in to compare and test the different packages in a controlled environment.”

The centre includes a demonstration room and laboratory, with access to Fujitsu’s full range of scanning and keyboard, video, mouse products, as well as its palm vein scanner and household robot. Fujitsu claimed it spends about £120m on R&D each year.

Andy Cowling, European marketing communications executive at Fujitsu Europe, said: “The ICC boasts the latest Fujitsu developments in document-related technologies and opens the door for our partners to explore collaboration opportunities between our organisations. It also provides them with the tools necessary to stay one step ahead in the document management arena.”

David Hennell, commercial manager at distributor Northamber, said: “The ICC will benefit us enormously. We are keen to support our resellers in new areas, and document management is a fast-growing area that resellers need to be looking at. The Fujitsu centre will help them to grow their business in this market.

“We have similar ISV centres in-house at Northamber, so to have one available to us through Fujitsu is an added bonus. As well as marketing it to our resellers, we will be using it ourselves for road shows, meetings and other events.”

The launch of the centre last week, coincided with the company’s 70th an niversary. From a workforce of 700 and turnover of £12,500, Fujitsu now employs over 150,000 staff worldwide and has revenue of more than £23bn.