[31.03.2008 first posted on silicon republic]
Fujitsu Siemens, which manufactures hardware from laptop PCs to servers, will this week merge with a former Siemens IT services company to enable the company to battle head on with players like IBM, Dell and HP.

Two years ago, Fujitsu Siemens bought a former Siemens engineering division called Siemens IT Products Services.
Until now, the division has been trading as a separate company from Fujitsu Siemens but from 1 April the two entities will merge.
“We will no longer be just a products business but will provide professional IT services and we will be able to compete aggressively against players like HP,” explained Fujitsu Services Ireland country manager, Liam Halpin .
“It will also allow the channel to tap into a service capability we have. The new division will be headed by Tony Keenan,” Halpin added.
Halpin explained that Fujitsu Siemens’ Irish customers will benefit from a countrywide network of 100 engineers spread across the 32 counties.
“They will have skillsets to handle machines right up to data centres. This approach will allow us to target the largest businesses in the country.
“Across the business space, consolidation and business automation are becoming very important. Virtualisation is also the issue of the day, enabling companies to reduce cost and complexity in IT. Another area we will be fast to address is energy consumption in data centres.”
Halpin said until now, when bidding for large government or corporate IT contracts, the company would have to work with partners. However, with the new merged services division this will no longer be necessary.
“All the capabilities will now be in the one company. We will operate in the same way as IBM or HP’s global services organisations and we are intent on bringing the fight to those companies,” Halpin said.
By John Kennedy