Microsoft Services
Customer Solution Case Study
Partner Strategy Consultant Helps IT Services
Firm Sharpen Competitive Position
Overview
Country or Region: United Kingdom
Industry: Telecommunications
Customer Profile
Fujitsu Services is the London-based Europeancentered IT services arm of the Fujitsu Group. It
designs, builds, and operates IT services and
systems for large-scale customers. It has a turnover
of €2.58 billion (U.S.$3 billion), employs 15,000
people, and operates in 20 countries.
Business Situation
Fujitsu Services, a Microsoft® Gold Certified
Partner, wanted to strengthen its strategic
partnership with Microsoft to sharpen its
competitive position through the innovative
application of Microsoft products and technologies.
Solution
Fujitsu Services decided to take full advantage of
Microsoft Partner Strategy Consultant (PSC)
services, a strategic support programme giving
Fujitsu Services the benefit of Microsoft Partner
Technical Strategy Services (PTSS).
Benefits
 PSC acts as long-term strategic adviser.
 Assists in development of new service offerings.
 Helps drive revenue and improve profitability.
 Engages with stakeholders and customers.
 Fujitsu capitalises on existing and emerging
technologies.
 Support across whole solution lifecycle.
“Having a Microsoft Partner Strategy Consultant (PSC)
means we can develop our Microsoft expertise. It also
helps us produce evidence-based support for the
cost-effectiveness of our end-to-end services.”
Andrew Auty, Director of Architecture and Design Group, Fujitsu Services
Fujitsu Services, the European-centred IT services arm of the
Fujitsu Group, wanted to sharpen its competitive position through
the more innovative application of Microsoft® products and
technologies. The IT services vendor decided to join the Microsoft
Partner Strategy Consultant (PSC) programme, where dedicated
senior Microsoft consultants ensure partners are technically ready
to deploy emerging Microsoft solutions. Using Microsoft Partner
Technology Strategy Service (PTSS), PSCs promote real deliverables
around solution development and revenue growth. The PSC has
deepened Fujitsu Services’ relationship with Microsoft and helped
the organisation build a reputation for enterprise-class, valueadded IT services in the public and private sectors. The PSC also
provides support for new business opportunities, including Fujitsu
Services’ successful bid for a £170 million (U.S.$294 million) threeyear contract with Lloyds TSB Bank for the deployment of a
Microsoft desktop solution across 70,000 users in 2,800 branches.
Situation
Fujitsu Services is the London-based IT
services arm of the Fujitsu Group. It designs,
builds, and operates IT services and systems
for large-scale customers in the public and
private sector in Europe. It has a turnover of
€2.58 billion (U.S.$3 billion), employs 15,000
people, and operates in 20 countries.
The company offers consultancy and project
services for the design and deployment of the
latest IT infrastructures, many of which are
based on Microsoft® enterprise and desktop
technologies.
In this highly competitive marketplace, there
is increasing pressure on vendors to
maximise the value of their offerings and
demonstrate a clear roadmap for the delivery
of services that offer evidence-based
business advantage to the customer.
To achieve this goal, Fujitsu Services has built
an increasingly embedded relationship with
Microsoft. Fujitsu is a Microsoft Gold Certified
Partner for enterprise systems, support, and
security, and for several years Fujitsu has
taken advantage of the Microsoft Partner
Strategy Consultant (PSC) programme. It
provides partners with a senior Microsoft
consultant, who has a detailed understanding
of the competitive pressures and servicedelivery models in the IT services
marketplace. They combine this with a
thorough knowledge of existing and emerging
Microsoft technologies and work towards
exploiting vertical and horizontal market
opportunities. PSCs also spend substantial
time researching and understanding the
business, its vertical and horizontal markets,
and the technical readiness of partners’
personnel.
Andrew Auty, Director of Architecture and
Design Group, Fujitsu Services, says: “Having
a PSC means we can develop our Microsoft
expertise. It also helps us produce evidence-
based support for the cost-effectiveness of
our end-to-end services.”
Solution
Using Microsoft Partner Technical Strategy
Services (PTSS), the PSC promotes three
principal deliverables, which include
accelerating competitive advantage,
innovative solutions and services, and
ensuring revenue growth.
■ Accelerating competitive advantage: The
Microsoft PSC’s role is to serve as a long-term
strategic adviser to Fujitsu Services by
understanding its business goals, developing
an engagement and communication plan,
and acting as an advocate within Microsoft
Services.
■ Innovative solutions and services: The PSC
ensures that the development of new service
offerings runs in parallel with the Microsoft
Services product development roadmap.
■ Revenue growth: The PSC exists to help
Fujitsu Services capitalise on existing and
emerging Microsoft technologies and
resources to drive revenue and improve
profitability.
Fujitsu Services is benefiting greatly from its
PSC, currently Nick Britton, and the annual
contract has been twice renewed. His role as
a dedicated Microsoft technical, marketing,
and business development resource has
helped Fujitsu Services to derive substantial
additional value from existing Microsoft
products. Britton brings the right Microsoft
Services technical resources to bear, with the
right skills at the right time.
Britton has been in his current post for two
years. He is totally integrated into both
companies. He says: “My job is to provide
Fujitsu Services with a single source of
contact with Microsoft as a facilitator of
services as well as a provider. My role is to
provide technical, industry, and market
expertise to identify key challenges and
opportunities for joint investment.”
The PSC’s function also involves accelerating
solution development by providing value-added
services and support for architecture and
design, joint account teaming, and marketing. It
is a broad remit, and includes providing
technical proposal reviews to increase the
likelihood of winning strategic opportunities. It
helps both organisations, for example, to work
on opportunity mapping for key accounts.
Britton has also assisted Fujitsu Services with its
new work stream in application development
consulting.
Part of the PSC’s job is to evaluate joint solution
quality, plan for implementation, and help
assess return on investment (ROI). This often
results in a recommendation for joint
investments in shared solution development
opportunities. The PSC will ensure support
across the whole solution lifecycle to reduce
deployment risks for the partner.
Says Auty: “Britton’s expert knowledge of our
markets and his access to Microsoft resources
has helped Fujitsu Services penetrate new
areas of business. This saves us a lot of time
and effort. He has direct access to Microsoft
resources and information, and can help us
create successful project proposals more
efficiently.”
Benefits
Fast Track to New Business Through
Collaboration
Among the most tangible results of this
collaboration is a £170 million (U.S.$294
million) three-year contract with Lloyds TSB
Bank for the deployment of a Microsoft desktop
solution across 70,000 users in 2,800
branches.
Britton says: “Lloyds TSB Bank was a good
example of how Fujitsu Services used the PSC
to help win an important piece of new business
in the financial services sector. We were able to
assist with the development of the partner
solution and key service differentiators based
on Microsoft technologies.”
Focused PSC with Broad Remit Sharpens
Competitive Edge
Fujitsu Services is benefiting most from a
focused, single channel of contact with
Microsoft across a broad range of activities. As a
geographically-dispersed business, Fujitsu
Services believes it is getting a good return on
investment (ROI) for the annual fee it invests in
the Microsoft PSC.
Auty says: “The PSC adds enormously to our
competitive edge. It is like having a virtual
Microsoft Services presence with a single
channel of communication to the parent
company. The world is moving on with large and
complicated outsourcing deals and an
embedded relationship with Microsoft is helping
us to take advantage of these new
opportunities.”
Strong Proactive Advocate Within Microsoft
Builds Reputation
Britton is also a strong advocate for Fujitsu
Services within Microsoft. This means that he
can clearly communicate Fujitsu’s reputation for
outsourcing large-scale, highly reliable
computing and communications projects.
Among Fujitsu’s leading U.K. public sector
customers are the Inland Revenue ASPIRE
project and, more recently, the Ministry of
Defence Information Infrastructure scheme.
Auty says: “The PSC is essential to us by
increasing the probability of winning strategic
opportunities. We grew as a company 18 per
cent last year and we’ve doubled in size. We
now have far more projects, new technology,
and more feet on the ground.”
PSC Helps Customer Join Up with Different
Microsoft Business Units
With the PSC’s help, Fujitsu Services has
improved its relationship with different
business units within Microsoft. Britton adds:
“This is tremendously important given the
huge expansion Fujitsu Services is
undergoing in the U.K. This role also helps it
join up parts of its own business and improve
its partnership skills.”
Paul Taylor, Senior Project Manager, Lloyds
TSB, has commented favourably on the
Fujitsu Services’ partnership with Microsoft.
He says: “We selected Fujitsu Services,
because it demonstrated total commitment
to our project from a people perspective. We
feel we had a real say in everything that was
being done, and that Fujitsu Services was
able to respond and adapt to our
requirements based on an in-depth
understanding of the technology being
deployed.”
Objective Adviser Ensures Support
Throughout Solution Lifecycle
As a trusted adviser to Fujitsu Services, the
PSC has no incentives to sell additional
services or software licences. The primary
goal is to ensure that Fujitsu Services grows a
strong and profitable services business
around the capabilities of the Microsoft
environment.
Britton also helps the flow of Microsoft
technical support across the lifecycle of
Fujitsu Services’ projects. This means that he
is also ideally placed to deliver strategic
advice from the bidding stage through to
implementation.
Auty says: “The PSC coordinates a great deal
of information sharing during a project. This
establishes a coordinated approach and
ultimately results in better decisions as we
move through the lifecycle of the project.
“He is very good at finding Microsoft staff who
can review our technical proposals. In fact, he
has been invaluable in creating and
maintaining connections between the two
organisations and ensuring that our technical
proposals are as tightly drafted as possible.”
Trust Develops Between Microsoft and
Leading Partner
Trust has developed so strongly between
Fujitsu Services and Microsoft Services that
the PSC regularly joins in with Fujitsu
Services’ customer calls and takes part in the
U.K. subsidiary’s engagements with its
colleagues at head office in Japan.
Auty says: “We’re hoping to extend the PSC
arrangement from the U.K. into Europe, to
help us obtain more business value from the
relationship. It will grow as we grow as a
company.”
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft
products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at (800) 4269400. In Canada, call the Microsoft
Canada Information Centre at (877) 5682495. Customers who are deaf or hard-ofhearing can reach Microsoft text telephone
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in
the United States or (905) 568-9641 in
Canada. Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local
Microsoft subsidiary. To access information
using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com
For more information about Microsoft
Services products and services, visit the
Web site at:
www.microsoft.com/microsoftservices
Microsoft Partner Technology Strategy
Service
Microsoft Partner Technology Strategy
Service (PTSS) helps partners accelerate the
planning and delivery of services and sharpen
their competitive position through the
innovative application of Microsoft products
and technologies. It achieves this by
planning, engaging with stakeholders and
customers, enabling sales and delivery
teams, developing the relationship between
Microsoft and the partner, and sustaining this
value.
For more information about Microsoft
Services, go to:
www.microsoft.com/microsoftservices
For more information about Fujitsu
Services products and services, visit the
Web site at:
www.fujitsu.com
Partners

© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case
study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO
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Document published March 2006
Microsoft Services