Fujitsu Frontech Accelerates Retail Solutions Development with Integration of Manufacturing and Sales

Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu Frontech Limited today announced that, beginning October 1, the Fujitsu Group will transfer the business operations and maintenance services units of its retail solutions business in Japan to Fujitsu Frontech, as part of an effort to strengthen the company's front-end technology business⁽¹⁾.

This transfer will enable Fujitsu Frontech to develop a sales team dedicated to point-of-sale (POS) systems and handheld terminals, while fully integrating the manufacturing and sales of its retail solutions. By enhancing the company's product competitiveness and expertise on the retailing technology market, this move will further strengthen Fujitsu Frontech's capacity to improve its expert proposals to customers and provide them with a superior level of support.

At the forefront of the retail and service industries, there is a pressing need to improve service quality and reduce costs in order to attract customers and increase sales. Given the rapid rate of technical innovation and changes in market trends, it is vital for solutions vendors to have a fine-tuned grasp of these changes and be able to react quickly to them.

Within the Fujitsu Group, up until now Fujitsu Limited has assumed responsibility for the sales of its retail solutions products, such as POS systems and handheld terminals, while Fujitsu Frontech has been responsible for product development and manufacturing. Starting October 1, 2009, sales activities for this segment, as well as other related business operations including maintenance services, will be transferred to Fujitsu Frontech, resulting in the creation of an organizational structure that combines both manufacturing and sales operations. This measure will enhance the competitiveness and value of Fujitsu's global products and services, while simultaneously helping to provide customers with timely, fine-tuned support and highly specialized proposals.

Fujitsu Frontech also aims to work with its customers, who expect a high level of innovation, to create new market opportunities with a variety of new retail solutions, such as its RFID tag reader and writers, palm vein biometric authentication equipment, and other products using advanced technologies.

Fujitsu Limited will continue as usual to develop central and mission critical systems for use in the retail industry.

The transfer of Fujitsu's retail solutions will lead to the strengthening of the Fujitsu Group's presence in the retail and service industries. Through this initiative, the group as a whole is striving to strengthen its role as a true business partner for its customers.

Products and Services Affected

• Sales of POS systems, self-check out systems, portable handheld terminals, cash deposit machines, and procurement of related third-party products, as well as sales of related software products.
• Sales of universal platform products such as servers, PCs, and communications devices.
• System development, maintenance and operations services, as well as related retail solutions.

New Retail Solutions - Creating Market Opportunities for Fujitsu's Customers

Following the transfer, Fujitsu Frontech will offer a comprehensive set of retail solutions. In order to contribute to its customers' business operations, Fujitsu Frontech will propose solutions that enable a new management approach to retailing, as well as enhance the following services:

1. Providing high quality products and services in a timely manner
   The integration of the manufacturing and sales units of Fujitsu's retail solutions will enable customer specific requirements to be incorporated with standard features and reflected in new products, while reducing customization costs. Furthermore, the integration of Fujitsu's development and maintenance units will greatly enhance the quality of the company's solutions.
2. Reduction of total cost of ownership through new business operations
   Fujitsu will provide a number of services to reduce its customer's total cost of ownership, ranging from its longstanding operational supervision services to a more integrated supervision services, encompassing software. Fujitsu will also provide Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services that can accommodate changes in sales prices, thereby reducing the customer's operational expenses.
3. New solutions employing unique advanced technology
   Fujitsu Frontech will provide a variety of new solutions that utilize its proprietary advanced technologies, such as RFID-enabled product management and efficient logistics systems, security and time clock equipment using palm vein authentication, as well as digital signage and paperless solutions that utilize electronic paper.