OREANDA-NEWS. Today Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) and Box (NYSE: BOX) announced they have entered into a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with regard to a strategic partnership in the content management space. Under the proposed partnership, Fujitsu would deploy Box to the approximately 160,000 employees across its internal communication platform. In addition to improved content management, Box will help control storage expansion costs that grow in line with increased volumes of data storage.

Fujitsu will use Box internally and, leveraging the knowledge gained through this experience, intends to integrate Box into global communication solutions. Under the proposed partnership, the two companies would jointly roll out solutions tailored to specific industries, and also plan to make Box available to Japanese customers as part of the FUJITSU Digital Business Platform MetaArc (MetaArc).

In light of their initial experience in the Japanese market, Fujitsu and Box also aim to expand the collaboration into the global market, including joint investment in Asia.

Fujitsu has been building its global group-wide communications platform since January 2012. Leveraging the knowledge gained from this internal implementation, Fujitsu seeks to provide communication platforms as solutions capable of supporting customers in various industries and business categories, and going forward, to develop solutions with an even greater level of convenience to meet customer needs. Fujitsu also aims to provide solutions that integrate the cutting-edge ICT of MetaArc with Box for a content management platform with even higher quality.

Deploy Box to Fujitsu's Global Communication Platform

Fujitsu will explore deploying Box to its globally integrated communication platform, and expects to begin making it available to the approximately 160,000 Fujitsu employees worldwide, starting in the latter half of Fujitsu's fiscal 2016 (ending March 2017). This will empower simple and secure information sharing as well as consolidated content management, further accelerating collaboration in the enterprise environment. It will also enable control of storage expansion expenses incurred with growing volumes of data.

Offer Box from Fujitsu's data centers in Japan

Fujitsu plans to offer Box as one part of its MetaArc service beginning in 2017. This will allow Box content to be stored in Fujitsu data centers located in Japan, meeting the needs of those customers who require data storage at data centers inside the country.

Develop solutions that integrate Box, and conduct joint sales and marketing

Leveraging its own experience using Box, and based on its track record of supporting so many customers transform their workstyles, Fujitsu intends to launch new solutions that combine its global communication platform with Box. Fujitsu is targeting this for the second half of its fiscal 2016.

Box and Fujitsu intend to jointly develop solutions for CRM, ECM, and industry-specific solutions such as for manufacturing, retail, and public sectors. This will be done by integrating Box with Fujitsu's solutions, specialized for various industries and with advanced features such as security, mobile devices, network capability, and palm vein authentication. To promote these, Fujitsu and Box intend to jointly conduct marketing activities.

Global rollout

Following successful collaborative efforts in Japan, Fujitsu and Box intend to explore ways to target a wider global market. In Asia, a particularly promising region for growth, the companies will consider expanding their collaboration with an eye toward joint investments in sales and marketing activities so as to better address the requirements of local customers.