Fujitsu Relies On BTO

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based vendor has about 140 resellers in North America and may roll out a corporate agent model for some channel partners in the coming months, executives said.

Toshio Morohoshi, Fujitsu Computer's president and CEO, said the vendor would maintain as little inventory as possible moving forward and continue to rely on the build-to-order model it had before the reorganization. He said the channel would continue to play a key role in Fujitsu Computer's plans, even as it remains selective about which solution providers it brings on board.

"We can't do everything," he said. "We need partners. But I do not need a partner who can't bring added value. I need partners who add value,not for me, but for our customers."

Morohoshi, who took the helm of the company at its launch Oct. 1, said Fujitsu Computer would maintain a focus on notebooks and higher-end servers.

Fujitsu Computer's parent company also owns an affiliate that manufactures SPARC processors in an agreement with Sun Microsystems. Morohoshi indicated his company would have a future both in SPARC Solaris-based systems, as well as Intel Itanium 2-based and possibly AMD Opteron-based servers. He said he did not believe the desktop PC space would be viable for Fujitsu Computer in North America, citing low margins.

Luis Rodriguez, president of American CompuSystems, a Clearwater, Fla.-based solution provider and Fujitsu reseller, said the vendor's non-distribution, reseller-selective approach has been in force since before the reorganization and has worked.

"I have been told they are doing a lot of restructuring, [but it's] almost as a sidebar when I'm talking to them," said Rodriguez.