DMR consulting will abandon its 29-year-old brand name as it becomes part of parent company Fujitsu Ltd.’s plans to develop a worldwide IT services practice.
As Fujitsu Consulting,
DMR will be absorbed into a division that includes the application units of another Fujitsu subsidiary, Europe-based ICL, Fujitsu Systems Business of America and Fujitsu Systems Europe. The operation will continue to run out of DMR’s headquarters in Edison, N.J., and will employ about 9,000 people. The branding change will take affect April 1, except in Quebec, where DMR began as a Montreal-based consultant. Fujitsu acquired DMR as part of the purchase of Amdahl in 1997.
Executives said that while Fujitsu enjoys the top IT services market share position in Japan, the company now seeks greater recognition among Canadian and United States corporate enterprises.
“This is all about providing a consistent go-to-market experience for the customer,” said Scott Garvey, president of DMR Consulting Canada. “DMR will be used as the base DNA of Fujitsu Consulting.”
Garvey said Canada would represent approximately 17 per cent of Fujitsu Consulting’s approximately US$1 billion business. In Canada, DMR has specialized in public-sector work, energy and transportation. The company hopes that some of the strengths of the Canadian business can be exported to grow Fujitsu’s presence in verticals like financial services, energy and telecommunications, Garvey said.
In the short term, DMR’s challenge will be to make sure that it does not lose any customer recognition through its rebranding campaign, said Lars Goransson, vice-president of services programs for IDC Canada.
“I think they have a good opportunity to do that,” he said. “Accenture (formerly part of Arthur Andersen) did that very well last year.”
Irene Sacharuk, DMR’s vice-president of Canadian operations, said customers would receive a letter outlining the changes underway. Afterwards a flyer will be distributed that explains the range of Fujitsu Consulting’s integration and managed services. “It’s kind of the rolling thunder approach,” she said.
Garvey said that management of the individual components of Fujitsu Consulting will be relatively unchanged, but part of the restructuring will include a complete overhaul of DMR’s own IT infrastructure to allow better knowledge management of the larger organization. The company is a little more than halfway through an Oracle ERP implementation that will include Peoplesoft for human resources functions.
Goransson said the changes represent an opportunity to revitalize DMR. “The infusion of capital and resources from a global perspective will be good for both employees of DMR and their customers,” he said. “It will allow DMR over time to bring more resources on any one project.”
Garvey said Fujitsu would continue to concentrate on medium and large-sized enterprises, and the Canadian operation will act as a test-bed for global initiatives. Already, the company has an Atlantic Canada Development Centre based in Halifax that provides application support to clients outside the country, and this will be expanded into Saint John, Moncton and Fredericton. “Usually if something is going to be done, they try it out in Canada first,” Garvey said.
Fujitsu Consulting will be complemented by another division, Fujitsu Services, which will principally handle customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.