Systemwalker is a suite of products that span systems monitoring, software distribution, inventory scanning, service level monitoring and reporting, and various business process automation processes. There is also a desktop management line that handles patching and antivirus rollouts, manages the lock down of USB and other portable devices, and takes care of data encryption.
Declan Jones, senior European director of services with Fujistu, said the suite holds a market share in Japan of anywhere between 25% and 35%. In Europe we want it to be seen is a new alternative from a major player with a strong technical proposition, he said, accepting that the company faces stiff competition in a mature market that is dominated by Computer Associates’ Unicenter, BMC Patrol, IBM Tivoli, and HP Openview.
The product, which has been available in Japan since 1995, is now at release 11, and the version to be released in Europe benefits from have had its operation management functions strengthened and integrated to support the vendor’s Triole systems management strategy.
With Triole, Fujitsu promises its customers some quick-start ready-built infrastructure and application templates that are tested in a number of configurations at its own factories before being made available for implementation at customer sites. Each Systemwalker template is said to be compatible with an ITIL-complaint framework developed by Fujitsu.
The key to Triole is something Fujitsu has developed in Japan called Platform Integration templates, which allow it to pre-integrate various components on the servers it sells and thus ship a pre-configured and manageable system to customers. The system is simple to use, and we think it has more functionality than others in the sector, Jones said. Fujitsu also thinks the reliability of the product will be a market differentiator. For instance, Systemwalker uses a system of self-check message confirmation so that if an event message from an agent does not arrive, it will resend it.
At present, the Systemwalker product is not at all well-known outside the domestic Fujitsu markets. Existing Systemwalker customers in Japan include NTT Docomo, Toyota, Nissan, and Daiichi Pharmaceutical.
Sales are to be made both direct and through partners, and Fujitsu has existing UK partnerships with INCIT Technology and RDB. The US markets will also be targeted eventually, the company said.
It is not the first time that Fujitsu has said it is to make a concerted effort to sell its products outside of its domestic Japanese market. In June 2004 the company said it would be targeting $100m revenue from its Interstage application integration middleware business in Europe and the US by 2006. It has not revealed how successful it has been with that effort.
