Fujitsu Forum details vision for IT sector
TOKYO: Fujitsu, the Japanese information technology conglomerate, has announced new ideas for fostering growth in the IT industry, relying mainly on more personable and interactive relationships between users and the world of electronic commerce.
Speaking at the company’s recent annual Fujitsu Forum in the Japanese capital, company executives spoke of the present IT industry playing a relatively robotic role in shaping business, with its main goals being increased profits through greater productivity and efficiency.
But Fujitsu’s new initiative, ‘‘Reshaping ICT, Reshaping Business and Society’’, will see the individual playing a more central role.
Rapid changes in information and communications technology now allow people instant access to data through mobile devices and cloud drives, giving ICT a new and important role in reshaping and creating business and societal innovations, they said.
Japan’s leading provider of IT products and services has established its new vision under the ‘‘Human-Centric Intelligent Future’’ concept as part of its research and development plans to tackle the challenges of a booming world population.
Fujitsu president Masami Yamamoto praised the modernisation of IT infrastructure, citing the benefits of higherperformance computing and the ability to analyse large amounts of data in a short period of time.
He also affirmed that by combining the physical abilities of people with the benefits of the digital world, significant changes can be made to the manufacturing, retail and tourism industries.
The current big trends in IT technology — cloud computing, big data and mobility software — are expected to advance agriculture and improve transportation systems and resource and disaster management, as well as develop more sophisticated forms of health care such as genome analysis.
Mr Yamamoto also cited the example of using the augmented reality (AR) service in the retail sector.
Shoppers can point their tablet at the goods they are looking to purchase, and AR provides them with real-time information on the object including price promotions and product details.
Additionally, Mr Yamamoto explained the company has developed a patent- pending prototype, a device that works by finger-recognition and turns paper documents into interactive content that also displays multimedia content.
Rod Vawdrey, the president for international business, said Fujitsu intends to customise its Japan-based technologies to match the local needs in each country where a subsidiary is based.
He also revealed aggressive growth plans to increase the company’s revenue outside Japan to 40% within three years.
In the previous fiscal year, 32% of the company’s US$44-billion revenue came from abroad, with the combined contribution of Southeast Asia and South Korea at 4%.
Masayuki Kunimaru, the president of Fujitsu Thailand, said the subsidiary will propose a hazard-tracking truck to the Expressway Authority of Thailand.
The truck would make use of the company’s Spatiowl location data service to enhance safety for road users.
The company is also looking to tap into the country’s farm sector with a cloud service to analyse production and management systems for sugar-cane farmers.
More accurate harvest forecasts would mean farmers could plan their product pricing in advance.