Fujitsu

Fujitsu Australia had been considering a range of service delivery center locations across the wider Fujitsu network in the Asia-Pacific region in a bid to reduce the cost of servicing its Australian customers.

During that time, Fujitsu Australia won a major, five-year contract with Qantas to provide end user IT service support to the airline's worldwide network. General Manager of Managed Services in New Zealand, Paul Bourke, says while New Zealand was not as low cost as some other Fujitsu locations, it was clear that it offered a better cultural fit when the Qantas deal came together.

"English is New Zealand's first language and for many of our customers that's quite important. By the same token there's also a diverse group of cultures in New Zealand, and if we needed to access people with different languages that wouldn't be a problem for us out of this region," says Bourke.

Smooth relocation to New Zealand

The Auckland based Global Delivery Center opened in November 2009 and is part of Fujitsu New Zealand's ambitious growth strategy to establish itself as a service delivery hub to Fujitsu's customers - firstly those in New Zealand and Australia, and then further afield. It expects this growth to create between 100 and 200 new jobs by the end of 2011, including the 75 new jobs already created.

"We certainly see this as the start of something, rather than something we're going to leave at this size," says Bourke.

Through the Global Delivery Center, Fujitsu Australia is able to tap into New Zealand's pool of well educated, IT services professionals at more competitive salary costs. Combined with other lower operating expenditure and a favorable exchange rate, the center makes significant savings when compared with Australia.

Add to this the similar Western style business culture between the two countries and the transition to New Zealand has been relatively smooth.

"In terms of the integration of our business, it's quite easy to operate very closely as a business between Australia and New Zealand rather than, for example, Australia and an Asian country," says Bourke.

There were set-up costs to overcome: Fujitsu New Zealand had operated a smaller service delivery desk out of Wellington for other New Zealand customers but a scaled up operation was needed to cater for the expanded customer base.

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise was able to assist Fujitsu New Zealand with those set-up costs through an initial $250,000 grant.

"It strengthened our business case, enabling us to drive the rapid recruitment of the sort of people we needed and get them ready to deliver service very quickly, as well as purchase the necessary hardware and software licenses and refit our building for the new Global Delivery Centre," says Bourke.

Bourke says the Global Delivery Centre has received "fantastic" customer feedback, and he believes the ability for Fujitsu New Zealand to meet and exceed customer expectations reaffirms the clear advantages New Zealand offers.

"Some customers will be out there for what they can get at the lowest price, but there are a lot of other customers who are genuinely interested in high quality services at competitive costs and that's where we can compete successfully from New Zealand."