Fujitsu Thailand, the local arm of the Japanese tech firm, is transforming itself from a systems integrator to a global premium services integrator to capitalise on demand for digital innovation from businesses.
The company sees Thailand as its fourth-largest market in Asia outside Japan, after Singapore, China and South Korea.
Thailand ranks in the top three markets for profitability, due to the US-China trade war forcing Japanese-run factories to move to Thailand and Southeast Asia.
"We continue to focus on Thailand despite the economic downturn because the business remains an investment to survive digital disruption," said Toshiro Miura, the newly appointed managing director of Fujitsu Thailand Co.
Moreover, Japanese firms, particularly those in manufacturing, are continuing to invest in Thailand by relocating their factories from China to avoid the impact of the trade war.
"This creates an opportunity for smart factories that use the Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics for predictive maintenance, similar to the implementation of smart, connected factories for Siam City Cement," Mr Miura said.
Apart from manufacturing, other sectors like retail, automotive and government continue to invest in technology.
In order to serve customer needs in fiscal 2019 starting in April, Fujitsu Thailand is transforming into a global premium service integrator that offers more service capabilities, rather than product hardware and software licences as a systems integrator.
It targets four core solutions: enterprise resource planning, managed service cloud and data centres, security services and digital innovation such as the use of IoT and robotic automation.
Kaival Boonsaith, head of digital solutions at Fujitsu Thailand, said less than 5% of IT project investment has been postponed in Thailand because of the market forces of globalisation, regulatory risks from the Personal Data Protection Act and Cybersecurity Act including digital ID, cybersecurity risks and changing customer expectations.
Moreover, enterprises face new business models like the sharing economy, which creates new digital competition. Shortages of skilled workers and rapid technological changes are manifest with the explosion of data, cloud storage and interconnectivity.
The company aims to offer more services in new markets such as electric vehicles, with Fujitsu offering cloud-based consumption data to help EV drivers monitor their battery usage. The company already partners with First One Mile Mobility (FOMM).
By 2022, Fujitsu aims to see revenue from the four core solutions accounting for 50%, up from 27% in 2018, Mr Miura said.
Service-based revenue will increase its share to 73% of total revenue in 2022, with 27% coming from traditional revenue. Hardware and software sales will decline compared with levels in 2018, when service business accounted for 61%.
Moreover, Fujitsu expects increased revenue from non-Japan-based customers, expecting 39% of customers to be outside Japan. In fiscal 2018, non-Japanese customer revenue accounted for 34%, up from 28% in 2017.
Mr Miura said the company aims to increase revenue by 7% to 3.5 billion baht from 3.2 billion baht in fiscal 2018.