Fujitsu flys high with multi-million dollar Qantas end user deal

Stan Beer
Thursday, 30 April 2009 02:45

Business IT - Technology

IT services provider Fujitsu has scored a seven year multi-million dollar contract to supply end user computing services to Australia's flagship airline Qantas. Under the deal, Fujitsu will provide all user facing services for Qantas’ domestic and international operations.

The end user computing services support contract, which will run for the next five years, with a further option to extend the contract another two years, comes hot on the heels of a reported $48 million acquisition last week by Fujitsu of SAP services provider Supply Chain Consulting.

The agreement sees Fujitsu take on Qantas’ entire desktop and peripherals infrastructure, email, storage and collaboration requirements, service desk, on-site and remote support, both in Australia and overseas.

According to Jens Butler, Principal Analyst at research group Ovum, the Request for Proposal came out in July 2008. Fujitsu beat Telstra, Unisys, HP, TCS and IBM to what Ovum described as substantial blue-chip account.

"Qantas needed a far more flexible and demand-based pricing relationship that was more reflective of their current business needs (budget cuts, business segmentation and multi-sourcing driving greater transparency and flexibility).

"With this deal, Fujitsu gains a blue-chip account with an extended term deal and moves even more into the big leagues in the services area. In addition, it is an opportunity for them to bring the full breadth of their newly extended capabilities to the table," Butler stated in a research note.

"With this being the first major step in Qantas' multi-sourcing strategy, there will be substantial focus on the success of this deal."

“We are delighted to win this prestigious business from an iconic Australian organisation and look forward to a close working relationship with Qantas over the coming years,” said Mr. Rod Vawdrey, Chief Executive Officer, Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand.

“In addition to our unique offerings to support the Qantas business, I believe our cultural fit, flexibility, global capability and the strength of our references played a crucial role in winning the account.”

According to both companies, Fujitsu won the contract after an intensive bidding process against other major global information systems suppliers.

“Fujitsu has a strong culture oriented towards achieving our customers’ desired outcomes,” said Mr. Vawdrey.

“It’s very pleasing to see Qantas choose Fujitsu to help it achieve its business objectives.”

“Qantas was very impressed by the service outlined by Fujitsu in their bid process,” said Mr. David Hall, Qantas Executive Manager Corporate Services and Technology.

“The team at Fujitsu represented a high value service with a competitive cost base and we are confident that we will build a strong relationship with them as a key supplier to our information technology business.”