Fujitsu to Increase the Efficiency of Retailers’ Remote IT and POS Device Management

This solution, based on Miradore’s technology, significantly improves the agility and efficiency of retail IT management by enabling remote access to in-store systems for installation, maintenance, software distribution and repairs.

Fujitsu Retail Systems Management, powered by Miradore provides IT support staff with a single dashboard view and remote access to multiple end-user device platforms throughout organizations, including POS terminals, PCs, notebooks, servers, printers, network equipment, smartphones and tablets. The solution independently gathers up-to-date asset and configuration data and provides device management tools for all lifecycle stages.

“We are excited about the benefits we can bring our retail customers with this solution,” said Marc Janssens, Vice President, Retail Operations, Fujitsu America. “This scalable suite optimizes the availability of computers in retail stores while at the same time lowers the TCO by streamlining administration and reducing site visits to an absolute minimum. The remote management suite can be installed within our customer’s environment and is self-managed by the retailer, providing them with immediate access to the available information and tools to act accordingly.”

“It is a true pleasure to announce the expansion of our partnership program to Fujitsu in North America, as it is a testimony to the successful cooperation in the European countries and a step towards further extensions,” said Kristian Järnefelt, CEO of Miradore. “While benefiting IT management in all kinds of organizations, our technology carries a strong promise to the retail sector with few tools currently available for comprehensive remote POS device management.”

The highly automated solution eliminates a large share of manual IT management work. Fujitsu Retail Systems Management, powered by Miradore performs zero touch bare metal installations and operating system deployments, as well as distributes new applications or packages to end devices.

Changes and updates to devices are implemented directly from the management console, and automatically recorded to the configuration management database. Software updates can be scheduled and delivered to devices without needing to have a technician visit the store. This enables the system to be brought back to operation state quicker and reduces disruption to trade.

In addition to facilitating IT management, the solution cuts electricity costs by providing tools to remotely shut down POS devices during non-trading periods such as overnight. While legacy POS devices can consume as much as 1300kWh per year, new POS devices from Fujitsu have improved their power efficiency. As an example, automated and remotely monitored shutdown and start-up of 5,000 legacy POS terminals with average power consumption of 100W for ten hours during every night brings $182,500 annual savings.

In addition to supporting retail POS terminals, notebooks, tablets and servers running Windows (XP or later) and Linux, FRSM also supports OS X for Mac-based workstations - as well as Android, iOS, Symbian 3 and Windows Phone-based mobile devices.