Fujitsu spearheads drive into schools and colleges

Merchant is regarded as one of the leading experts on ICT in education in the UK. Over the past 25 years has built a wealth of knowledge that has made him one of the most respected figures in the field. He has been closely involved in the development and successful execution of numerous government initiatives, both to drive uptake of technology and excellence in the use of ICT in schools.

Having started his career at Fujitsu in Manchester in 1990 as a Group Product Manager focused on the public sector, he went on to spend almost 20 years working in senior positions at XMA. Merchant was responsible for overseeing an unprecedented period of success and growth for the company as it became established as one of the UK’s leading specialist resellers of ICT solutions for education.

In 2011, Merchant was part of the team from XMA and assistive technology and disability services supplier, iansyst, that received a Tech4Good award (www.tech4goodawards.com/) in recognition of a collaborative project that provided bespoke ICT packages to enable over 9,000 children with disabilities and special needs get online.
Merchant left XMA later that year to pursue his own business interests. He later spent six months as Commercial Director for another public sector specialist reseller, European Electronique, and in January 2014, set up www.youteachme.co.uk, an online resource for the sharing of quality teaching videos.

He continues to be actively involved in various education-focused businesses and organisations and is a trustee of the National Autistic Society.

Commenting on his appointment, Simon Worsfold, Sales Director Channels and Enterprise Technology Products Group, Fujitsu said: “Ash is a fantastic appointment for Fujitsu and its ambitions in the education market. He has chosen to join Fujitsu ahead of a number of other companies because he understands, supports and believes in what we are doing. He will play a key role in helping us to make further inroads into what we see as a vitally important market to our business – and one in which we want to make a real difference.”

Merchant says: “Fujitsu has shown itself to be more than capable of understanding the needs of education and delivering solutions that provide the stability and investment protection that are so important to school and colleges. The company’s strong ethos with regards to global citizenship and corporate and social responsibility is important to me personally and really matters to educational establishments. We all have a responsibility to do our best to ensure that education delivers better outcomes for all pupils and students, and for society as a whole. Fujitsu takes that responsibility very seriously, that’s why I wanted to join this company – to become part of something that I believe can be very special indeed.

“There is an enormous opportunity to enable real changes in the way we teach with technology. Fujitsu has the culture and experience to understand and deliver solutions that will underpin and enable those changes to take place.”

Fujitsu already has a number of partners with a specific education market focus, such as Softcat, Kelway, Stone Computers and Misco. Merchant has started visiting partners that have a focus on education and is working with the company’s channel team on extending the programme of specialist support for education-focused resellers. The company is looking to recruit additional partners with specialisation in the sector.

Fujitsu recently became accredited to offer solutions under Microsoft’s Technology Access Program (TAP), which offers a significant discount to educational customers on systems shipped with Microsoft Windows pre-installed.