Amdahl Folded Into Fujitsu Technology Solutions

Fujitsu Ltd. revealed Monday that it has retired the longstanding Amdahl Corp. name and folded the subsidiary's personnel, products, and customer base into Fujitsu Technology Solutions Inc., Fujitsu's North American IT services and support subsidiary.

By consolidating Amdahl under the Fujitsu Technology Solutions name, Fujitsu is looking to improve its IT services brand recognition in the North American market. IT services are the fastest-growing segment of Fujitsu's business, accounting for more than one-third of sales worldwide, says Larry Fillmer, president and CEO of Fujitsu Technology Solutions.

Last March, Amdahl launched its InfraCare suite of consulting, implementation, and ongoing managed services. InfraCare will be offered through Fujitsu Technology Solutions. Through the service, Amdahl becomes its clients' central provider for a variety of services, from managing IT equipment warranties to redesigning IT architectures for increased storage capacity and faster performance. Amdahl says a client with multinational operations can expect to pay $10 million to $50 million over the life of an InfraCare contract, with payments spread out on a monthly basis.

Although Fujitsu's services aren't as well-developed as the global services divisions of Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, or IBM, the $43.4 billion maker of everything from consumer electronics to PCs, servers, peripherals, and software has enough experience and worldwide resources for the services market to take notice, says Bill Martorelli, VP of enterprise services for Hurwitz Group. "If you're going to become a global services leader, you don't want a bunch of different subsidiaries operating under their own names," he says. "You want a unified global brand."