Posted by Cristina Lopez on Jan 18, 2022
By now, it’s very likely you’ve heard about the industry-shifting merger that occurred last year between two IT distribution giants: Tech Data Corp and SYNNEX. The historic union of these two corporations marked the end of both individual legacy companies and the inception of the largest global IT distributor and solutions aggregator in the world: TD SYNNEX. Serving the technology ecosystem for more than 45 years, TD SYNNEX comes armed with the best resources to transform the technology landscape, one co-worker, one community and one customer and vendor at a time.
So, how does TD SYNNEX plan to accomplish all of this? Through different business units, each designed to focus on a specific area of the technology universe. One such division focuses on services: Global Lifecycle Management (GLM). With a breadth of services and solutions spanning the entire product and customer lifecycle, GLM has set out to be a trusted outsourcing partner for companies looking to reshape their business focus. In other words, the organization partners primarily with OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) who want to simplify their services operations, thereby accelerating their business transformation. What are these services? You name it. From global supply chain management, to maintenance and deployment, to technology integration services and everything in between, GLM can help solve for any goal or objective.
As GLM focuses on expanding its global footprint, it has garnered recognition and partnerships from companies the likes of Sharp Electronics, Extreme Networks and Cohesity, to name a few. But its most recent partnership expansion comes from the technology giant Fujitsu. So without further ado, let’s get into the details of this momentous technology union.
In the consumer sector, Fujitsu America, Inc. sold retail store automation solutions for years. In laymen’s terms, they focused on providing and maintaining point-of-sale systems to major retailers in the U.S. and Canada. As a result, the company formed its Technical Maintenance Services (TMS) business, focusing on providing mission-critical, multi-vendor maintenance services to its clients, managing both Fujitsu and third-party hardware.
In 2020, the company decided to pivot its business objectives and focus exclusively on core digital offerings, thereby ceasing its sales of platform products and retail solutions. But as any good steward of business, the company couldn’t just “offload” a significant part of their business. So they set off to find a partner to outsource this area of their business. Enter Tech Data Global Lifecycle Management, and you’ve got yourself the makings of limitless potential.
Following a highly competitive RFP process, Fujitsu America, Inc. chose GLM in March 2021 as its partner to outsource its TMS business, making Tech Data its sole outsource provider of Fujitsu, America Inc. Technical Maintenance Services. For Fujitsu, it wasn’t only about facilitating its new focus on a different business direction; it was about finding a new home for some of its legacy solutions and workforce, while ensuring it was executed in the best possible way and with the best possible partner, seamlessly:
“We had two guiding objectives when entering this agreement: To find a great company to care for our employees and to secure a great partner to care for our clients,” said Yoshihiro Nishi, president and CEO, Fujitsu America, Inc. “I am delighted we met both objectives. We chose Tech Data because of the company’s exceptional capabilities, reputation and values, which are similar to ours.”
As a result of the partnership, Fujitsu America, Inc. has leveraged this new opportunity to increase its focus on its core digital offerings and accelerate its business transformation forward. By the numbers, this agreement resulted in the addition of 300 TMS service and support professionals to the GLM team, and the expansion of GLM’s geographic reach to 99% of the population in the U.S. and Canada.
What does this mean in the big picture for Fujitsu, for GLM and for the customers who depend on the hardware to operate? Larry Miller, senior vice president of GLM, says it best: “When you think about the services that are entailed in the TMS business for Fujitsu, it involves everything from integration, installation, maintenance and support, depo repair and professional services, including performing technology upgrades, as these customers upgrade to new generations of technology. And all of these are encompassed in the breadth and depth of what GLM has to offer.”
What’s more, the opportunity that started with Fujitsu America, Inc. expanded even further in September of 2021, when Tech Data (a TD SYNNEX company) became the sole outsource provider of TMS for Fujitsu Denmark, resulting in adding 17 new co-workers to the GLM organization. “With this agreement, we hold on to our customers and are still the first point of contact, just as we will continue to be responsible for strategy, quality and the predictability of deliveries. Customers will experience the same high level of service, uptime and reliability that they are accustomed to when working with Fujitsu,” said Søren Rinnov Østergaard, CEO of Fujitsu Denmark.
So, what lies in the future for this opportunity? As Larry Miller himself puts it: “We’re already seeing growth, just within the Fujitsu Americas partnership expanding. Not only are Fujitsu customers seeing the teams that have supported them for years remain intact, but we are also investing in the field services, industry, technology and tools to help advance and provide state-of-the-art services and capabilities that they need, and that’s a huge benefit for those customers.”
Sounds like a win-win-win.
To learn more about GLM, visit their website.
