Fujitsu fires Arrow into UK enterprise market

HP and IBM have had it all their own way for too long, says Japanese vendor

Fujitsu has appointed Arrow ECS as an enterprise distributor as it looks to throw more weight behind its undersized UK server and storage business.

Michael Keegan, managing director of Fujitsu's technology solutions division (pictured), said HP and IBM have "had it their own way for far too long" in the UK enterprise market.

"We have a 20 per cent share of the German server market and that is where we should be in the UK," he told ChannelWeb.

Arrow ECS has been enlisted to throw more muscle behind Fujitsu's enterprise kit, including its Primergy x86 servers, complementing the work of broadliners Ingram Micro and Northamber.

"We have worked with Arrow before but not in an aligned way – it was more of a transactional relationship," explained Keegan.

"There is a feeling among a number of distributors that they have a huge dependence on a small number of manufacturers. They would like to have more than just a choice between HP and IBM, which will give them back control of their business and their customers more choice."

Keegan claimed that HP's recent announcements regarding PSG have left Fujitsu as the only major manufacturer with an end-to-end hardware and services offering for the channel.

The vendor has doubled its UK channel headcount to 50 over the past year, raising channel marketing spend twofold over the same period, said Keegan. Sales of the £250m technology solutions business are up 50 per cent year on year, he added.

"The developments we are seeing in the market will only help Fujitsu to build its business here in the UK," Keegan said.

Mark Adams, managing director of reseller Galtec, argued that Fujitsu "lost its way" in the wake of its spilt from joint venture partner Siemens, but argued the vendor is now back on song.

"We have just re-engaged with them," Adams said. "They have a chance as they have a great technology and a good reseller programme. But it is down to their personnel.

"If someone is an HP or Dell house, it would be difficult to compete but I think people are not looking so much at brand now. With the buzz around cloud, people do not care so much what brand the servers in their datacentres are."

Andy Griffiths, sales and marketing director at VAR Q Associates, said the infrastructure and storage specialist had also recently begun working with Fujitsu for the first time.

"What is different about Fujitsu from the other manufacturers is the breadth of its portfolio and calibre of the professional and datacentre services it provides," said Griffiths. "The investment Fujitsu has made in its UK datacentre services is far and above what we could expect to build ourselves."