Information contained in this news release is current as of the date of the press announcement, but may be subject to change without prior notice.
April 27, 2012
Tokyo, Japan and Hanoi, Vietnam, April 27, 2012 --- Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501, "Hitachi") and FPT Software Co., Ltd. (FPT Software), a major Vietnamese IT company today announced that they have signed a strategic partnership agreement for providing core systems to universities in Vietnam using cloud computing.
The two companies will jointly localize UNIPROVE/AS, a Hitachi's academic affairs information system for universities, into Vietnamese. A trial will be conducted using the SaaS model at FPT University, which was established by FPT Corporation, the parent company of FPT Software. Thereafter, plans call for the launch of sales in earnest to local universities from fiscal 2013, ending March 2014.
Hitachi's UNIPROVE/AS is widely used in Japan as a solution for comprehensively supporting student information management from entrance examination to graduation, for faculty administration, and for university management. Under the alliance, Hitachi will provide technical support, while FPT Software will be responsible for service provision and sales activities. Hitachi and FPT Software will also look at extending services to universities in ASEAN nations from fiscal 2014, ending March 2015 based on service and sales knowledge built up in Vietnam. Vietnam has seen an increase in the ratio of secondary students going on to tertiary education in recent years and thus a large increase in the number of university students, the result of a government national education policy designed to develop human resources equipped with the skills needed in a modernizing society. Furthermore, the country is expected to see an increase in student numbers based on demographic trends. New universities are being established and existing ones extended in order to cope with this increase in students. At the same time, establishing information systems for ensuring efficient operations has become a pressing issue. At present, only a limited number of universities in Vietnam have introduced information systems. And there are almost no universities with information systems for comprehensively supporting university administration as a whole. Against this backdrop, demand for information systems like UNIPROVE/AS is expected to rise going forward.
Hitachi has up until now provided IT Solution for Campus, an information system solution for universities for comprehensively supporting the adoption of information technology (IT) to many Japanese universities. UNIPROVE/AS, which will be provided to Vietnamese universities using the SaaS model, is a core product of IT Solution for Campus. It boasts a host of platform functions for managing university operations such as management of entrance examination and student information, and accounting support for universities as a whole.
Commenting on today's announcement, Mr. Nobuyuki Toda, President of Government & Public Corporation Information Systems Division at Hitach, said, "We are honored to be able to team up with FPT Software, one of Vietnam's leading IT companies, to provide core systems for universities in Vietnam using the SaaS model. I believe UNIPROVE/AS, which has a proven track record in Japan, can help make university management more efficient in Vietnam from an IT perspective."
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam, CEO of FPT Software, commented, "This project represents a strategic partnership in cloud services for universities between FPT Software and Hitachi. In the future, we aim to extend services to universities in ASEAN countries with Hitachi."
Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 360,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2010 (ended March 31, 2011) consolidated revenues totaled 9,315 billion yen ($112.2 billion). Hitachi will focus more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes information and telecommunication systems, power systems, environmental, industrial and transportation systems, and social and urban systems, as well as the sophisticated materials and key devices that support them. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.
| Company name | FPT Software Co., Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Location | Hanoi, Vietnam |
| Establishment | 1999 |
| CEO | Nguyen Thanh Lam |
| Number of employees | Approx. 3,500 |
| Business overview | One of Vietnam's largest software companies, FPT Software offers application software development and maintenance, ERP implementation, quality assurance testing, migration services, embedded system development, business process outsourcing and other services to overseas markets. |
| Offices | Vietnam: Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City |
| Global | Japan (Tokyo, Osaka), Malaysia, U.S., Europe, Australia, etc. |
