【No Announcement from Siemens?】Fujitsu and Siemens collaborate to sell Teamcenter and other products, accelerate DX by combining with their own solutions, and expand overseas.
On April 12, 2021, Fujitsu announced that it has reached an agreement with Siemens Digital Industries Software (Japan) to collaborate in order to strengthen the DX field.
Through this collaboration, Fujitsu will sell Xcelerator, Siemens’ portfolio of products including Teamcenter and Opcenter, in the Japanese market. The company will also offer the product in combination with its COLMINA solutions and services for the manufacturing industry.
The company will also develop a 3D-BOP function that seamlessly connects design and manufacturing information, with technical support from Siemens.
The company plans to start providing the 3D-BOP function to the Japanese market in July 2021, and then, based on the results in Japan, strengthen the global provision and maintenance system, and gradually expand the service provision to Europe, North America, and Asia from April 2022.
What is Fujitsu’s intention?
In a press release, Fujitsu said, “Facing increasingly fierce global competition in the manufacturing industry, many companies feel growing pressure to streamline operations, boost competitiveness, and find ways to contribute to international sustainability initiatives like the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
To that end
“Fujitsu aims to achieve this by seamlessly linking manufacturing information that is managed individually at each site and process on a global basis, using Siemens ’ globally recognized solutions for the manufacturing industry. Fujitsu will also leverage the know-how and expertise it has cultivated over its years of business development and problem-solving in the manufacturing space and its track record in implementing CPS , which represents a combination of physical and computational elements in the manufacturing area.”
Fujitsu’s Strategy, Relevance and Future Prospects
As stated in the release, manufacturing DX requires a system that can connect all processes in the manufacturing company.
However, Fujitsu does not have a strong PLM system solution, which is the core of the system, so this collaboration is considered to be an essential for them.
The company is expected to expand its business by promoting not only the value of its existing point solutions, but also its value as an integrator capable of planning and proposing company-wide integration with these solutions under the brand name “COLMINA” for its manufacturing business.
Fujitsu has a global partner agreement with SAP, which is also a partner of Siemens, for many years, and they have a capability to deploy it globally, so there is a possibility that they can provide a system that integrates these two solutions.
First, they will utilize the relationships they have already established with customers to expand their business in Japan, and then they will proceed with overseas expansion.
In the press briefing held in October last year (2020), they said the annual sales of the COLMINA business are targeted to increase from 20 billion yen (184M US$) in 2020 to 50 billion yen (460M US$) in 2023 and 100 billion yen (919M US$) in 2025.
What is the significance for Siemens and what are the prospects for the future?
On the other hand, for Siemens, Fujitsu is an attractive channel to expand sales of Siemens software products because of its close relationship with leading customers in Japan.
It is expected that Fujitsu will provide business based on its track record in the domestic field, value as an integrator, and sales capabilities.
At this point, it is still unclear what kind of cooperation will be established for future overseas development.
Fujitsu’s press release this time only states “Cooperation with Siemens Digital Industries Software Japan” and does not include any comments from Siemens.
Also, at this time (July 5, 2021), there is no article about this collaboration on the Siemens website. It may mean that this cooperation is not positioned formally as Siemens Corporate strategy yet.
Follow International standard of IT systems
The manufacturing industry is facing intensifying international competition and the need to respond to a variety of changes, and companies are required to respond quickly to overseas production and procurement, as well as to acquisitions and alliances with foreign companies.
As a result, the solutions provided by IT vendors are also required to be compliant with international standards or de facto standards, and to be able to integrate with internal systems.
In order to meet these requirements, IT vendors are forming alliances or acquiring leading overseas vendors.
