Fujitsu and ServiceNow have formalized a global strategic partnership designed to accelerate how enterprises adopt and integrate artificial intelligence, aiming to solve complex business challenges through co-innovation. The collaboration, which builds on years of previous work between the two technology giants, is already producing significant results, with joint customers reportedly realizing an average return on investment of 791% over the last year.
The partnership seeks to merge ServiceNow’s powerful AI-driven platform capabilities with Fujitsu’s extensive expertise in solving organizational problems, creating a framework for rapid and effective digital transformation. This approach moves beyond traditional vendor-client relationships by establishing a deeply integrated, collaborative model. The core of the strategy involves working directly with customers to prototype and implement solutions quickly, ensuring that the technology delivers measurable value tailored to specific business needs.
A Partnership Built on Three Pillars
The collaboration, which was officially signed in 2024, is founded on three distinct components that provide a comprehensive structure for innovation and customer success. These pillars ensure that the partnership is not merely a reseller agreement but a deeply integrated effort to maximize the value of ServiceNow’s platform for enterprises globally. Each element is designed to address different aspects of the customer journey, from initial implementation to ongoing innovation and support.
Fujitsu as a ‘Customer Zero’ Exemplar
A key aspect of the strategy is Fujitsu’s role as a “Customer Zero” for the ServiceNow platform. By implementing and utilizing ServiceNow’s technology extensively within its own global operations, Fujitsu serves as a real-world case study and a testament to the platform’s capabilities. This firsthand experience allows Fujitsu’s teams to gain deep, practical knowledge of the technology’s potential and its challenges. This user-centric perspective is invaluable when advising clients, as it enables Fujitsu to offer proven strategies and demonstrate the platform’s effectiveness in a complex, large-scale enterprise environment. This model builds credibility and provides customers with a clear blueprint for their own transformation journeys.
The Kawasaki Co-Innovation Hub
Central to the partnership’s hands-on approach is a new co-innovation center located at Fujitsu’s headquarters in Kawasaki, Japan. This facility is not just a demonstration space but an active hub for collaboration between Fujitsu, ServiceNow, and their clients. The center is jointly staffed by specialists from both companies who work side-by-side with customer teams to tackle specific business problems. This environment facilitates the rapid development and testing of new ideas and use cases. By bringing all stakeholders together, the center compresses innovation timelines and fosters a creative, problem-solving atmosphere that moves from concept to prototype with remarkable speed.
Integrated Customer Support and Advisory
The third pillar involves the deep integration of Fujitsu’s Customer Advisory and Support Excellence (CASE) practice with ServiceNow’s own Customer Excellence Group (CEG). This alignment creates a unified support and advisory system with a single, shared objective: maximizing the value a customer derives from the ServiceNow platform. According to Ian White, Global Head of CASE & Managed Services at Fujitsu, this unified team works as a true partnership with the customer. This structure ensures that clients receive consistent, expert guidance throughout their engagement, from strategic planning to implementation and ongoing optimization, fostering long-term success and continuous improvement.
Redefining the Innovation Cycle
A primary goal of the Fujitsu-ServiceNow partnership is to fundamentally change the way enterprise innovation is pursued. The collaborative model represents a significant departure from traditional, often lengthy procurement and development cycles. Instead of relying on rigid, predefined project scopes, the partnership emphasizes an agile and adaptive methodology. The teams work to innovate with customers “where they are,” addressing immediate needs and identifying high-value opportunities within their existing operations.
This dynamic approach allows for the quick identification and validation of impactful use cases, often developed in direct response to a client’s evolving challenges. The hands-on workshops and prototyping sessions held at the Kawasaki innovation center exemplify this new model. By fostering direct collaboration, Fujitsu and ServiceNow can bypass bureaucratic hurdles and demonstrate tangible value in weeks or months, rather than the years that traditional enterprise projects can take. This focus on speed and agility ensures that solutions are relevant and effective, delivering business outcomes more efficiently.
Demonstrable Financial and Productivity Gains
The partnership’s success is not just theoretical; it is backed by quantifiable business outcomes. The reported average ROI of 791% across the CASE client portfolio, a figure verified by client sponsors, underscores the financial impact of this collaborative approach. These returns are achieved by leveraging the ServiceNow platform to streamline workflows, automate processes, and unlock new efficiencies within an organization.
One notable success story involves a customer in Australia that initially engaged Fujitsu to help decommission its ServiceNow implementation. Through a collaborative reassessment of the company’s needs, the team demonstrated how the platform could become the core of its digital transformation strategy. Three years later, the client has embraced ServiceNow as a central element of its operations. The project ultimately unlocked more than 100,000 hours of productivity for the company and delivered an additional US$5.1 million in ROI. This case highlights how the partnership can shift a client’s perspective and deliver transformative results that far exceed initial expectations.
The Next Frontier: Agentic and Responsible AI
Looking ahead, the partnership is focused on pioneering the next wave of enterprise automation through the integration of advanced artificial intelligence. White compares the current moment to the invention of the internet, driven by the rise of generative AI and, more importantly, agentic AI. This next-generation AI involves creating autonomous systems, or “agents,” that can independently solve problems and manage complex tasks across an organization.
The goal is to embed these autonomous problem-solvers responsibly and sustainably within enterprise environments. This includes developing industry-specific solutions that are tailored to the unique challenges of different sectors. The combination of ServiceNow’s robust platform for building and deploying these solutions with Fujitsu’s deep industry knowledge positions the partnership to lead in this emerging field. The focus remains on delivering outcome-based innovation that drives meaningful and lasting transformation for businesses worldwide.