Fujitsu puts ecosystem platform at heart of channel approach

Fujitsu has received a positive response from the channel to its roll-out of an ecosystem platform to encourage more collaboration across its partner base.

The vendor introduced the platform late last month with the aim of getting more of its partners to work together to deliver complete solutions to customers.

Graham Bromham, head of cloud and managed service provider sales at Fujitsu, said the company had put the platform together with the support of partners and was keen to make sure customer needs could be met through combined expertise.

“The ecosystem platform is an integral part of our data-driven transformation strategy,” he added. “The product business across Europe continues to evolve to being a much more consultative business, outcome-led engagement. For Fujitsu and our partners, it’s about helping customers with their real transformation needs.”

Bromham said customers wanted to work with fewer providers but also with partners that could be trusted to take more responsibility.

Fujitsu’s ecosystem platform gives partners the chance to promote their expertise and location and promote their skills to others looking to cover specific areas to meet customer needs.

“The key thing is, it’s trusted and is collaborative,” he said. “The value to all of us is that it enables us to address requirements, it enables us to be end to end. It adds value to our partners and to Fujitsu just through the ability to completely address customer needs.

“It’s around bringing partners together, enabling them to be able to get into a new marketplace to to promote their services. So, clearly, that’s good for the health and the channel in general.”

It is early days for the platform and Fujitsu is encouraging partners to get involved and add their credentials so that others can see what they offer.

“We launched last month, so we are encouraging our partners in each of the countries to put forward their expertise,” said Bromham, adding that it was not designed to be a beauty pageant but a genuine chance for partners to promote their expertise in areas such as security and infrastructure.

“It offers the opportunity of expanding their sales reach across geographies to a new set of customers, both internally to Fujitsu and across the channel community,” he said. They could also become an integral part of an ecosystem partner that is also available to Fujitsu as a key component of our digital transformation strategy.”

Bromham said the reaction had been “strong” and Fujitsu was working through profiling partners across different geographies and adding them to the platform.

He added that obviously the coronavirus pandemic had accelerated an increase in communications between Fujitsu and its partners, but added that the ecosystem was part of a bigger picture. 

“This isn’t a reaction to where we see ourselves today in terms of Covid-19,” he said. “This is a continuing evolution and development of how we see the channel and how we see that partner piece evolving from linear relationships to ecosystem relationships. It is not now just a case of selling to and through. It’s about having alliances and almost having a matrix of the ability to be able to deliver.”