METRO Expands Relationship with Fujitsu

Fujitsu Transaction Solutions Inc. today announced a three-year agreement with Canadian grocer METRO INC. to provide Fujitsu’s Help Desk services for METRO’s A&P Canada chain. The companies also signed a one-year extension to the existing service agreement under which Fujitsu will provide maintenance for A&P Canada’s in-store technology for the next three years.

“We have been very impressed with the quality of maintenance services that Fujitsu has been delivering to the A&P stores,” said Jacques Couture, vice-president, information systems at METRO. “Fujitsu’s previous relationship with A&P, combined with its one-stop shop approach to maintenance services made it an easy decision to expand our relationship.”

“Outsourcing our help desk services will enable us to focus more of our attention on our core competency – retailing,” said Lyne Noël, director of retail information systems at METRO. “Fujitsu’s extensive knowledge of our equipment and their high-caliber call center team will help streamline our entire IT maintenance process and reduce costs.”

Fujitsu’s Help Desk is a 24-hour call center service that provides retailers with professional IT assistance to resolve a wide variety of in-store technology issues, ranging from basic troubleshooting to resolving more complex technical issues. All calls received through the Help Desk are assigned a service level and either promptly settled or tagged for follow-up by Fujitsu, an internal department at the retailer or a third-party vendor. Fujitsu acts as a liaison between store management and third-party vendors on issues that require support from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

“We’ve provided IT maintenance for A&P Canada for more than five years, and we look forward to our expanded relationship with both A&P and METRO,” said Peter Sciberras, general manager and vice president of sales, Canada, Fujitsu Transaction Solutions. “By adding Fujitsu’s Help Desk services, METRO and A&P Canada will experience faster response times to IT problems; a knowledgeable support staff to solve issues; and more efficient, cost-cutting maintenance operations overall.”