Fujitsu acquires SAP integrator for $48 million

The merger will see Supply Chain Consulting split in two - its core SAP-business in Australia, Thailand and The Philippines being acquired by Fujitsu and its carbon emission tracking software business, Viewlocity, spun off into a new entity.

Fujitsu will take on 400 SAP specialists as part of the $48 million acquisition. Some 160 of these are employed in Australia, the other 260 in offshore facilities in The Philippines and Thailand providing support and SAP development.

Fujitsu Australia CEO Rod Vawdrey told iTnews that the two recent acquisitions tell a "powerful story for Fujitsu to take to market."

"We bought KAZ for its presence in Canberra, its capabilities around Microsoft," he said. "But we also got a bunch of customers that use SAP. The acquisition of the SAP business from Supply Chain Consulting will allow us to cross-sell into those [Kaz] clients."

Supply Chain Consulting's offshore support and development facilities in The Philippines and Thailand will compliment Fujitsu's existing SAP development centre in India, Vawdrey said.

He stressed, however, that Fujitsu will keep Australian SAP experts employed at local level.

"We are very, very big on having a local on-the-ground capability," he said. "Basic support you can offshore, you can do that anywhere, but locally you always require that basic domain business knowledge and consulting."

Vawdrey also confirmed the $200m acquisition of KAZ was approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board last week and is "bedding down well."

Viewlocity spun off

The directors of Supply Chain Consulting, meanwhile, will focus their energies on the Viewlocity business the Sydney-based company acquired in late 2006.

Viewlocity will be spun off as a separate Pty Ltd company, maintaining its four directors - Supply Chain Consulting CEO Tony Carr, Allen and Buckeridge principle Roger Allen, former Deloitte partner Bob Merrett and Macquarie Technology Investment Banking founder Dan Phillips.

It will continue to be run by its president Fadi Geha and employ 70 staff across Australia, the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Executive director Tony Carr said Supply Chain Consulting's major investors see carbon accounting as the growth market of the future. 

"We see the carbon accounting market as a particularly exciting new area," Carr told iTnews. "Today CEO's might be more concerned with the ups and downs of the financial markets, but once that has settled companies will be looking at their responsibilities around the environment."

Carr said Viewlocity predominantly employs software developers and runs an indirect channel sales model, with some twenty consulting companies reselling the software including IBM and Accenture.

As executive director Carr said he will seek out new acquisitions and partnerships to build the Viewlocity business.

The spin-off will be relatively uncomplicated, Carr said, as the Viewlocity business was from day one kept separate from Supply Chain Consulting's SAP practice in terms of its management team and accounting structure.

Vawdrey, meanwhile, said Fujitsu was not interested in acquiring the Viewlocity business as its intellectual property was "better suited to a standalone business."