An era of major changes due to digitalization!

An era of major changes due to digitalization!

Now that we are in an era of major changes due to the evolution of semiconductors, companies are trying to provide services that pursue technological innovation and convenience in all fields. If we can create convenient tools, we will pursue more convenient ones. History is made like that.

Supporting customers' business value creation with "two IT transformations" -NTT DATA
As the business environment changes rapidly, many companies are practicing strategic IT utilization that looks outside rather than the traditional way of thinking about improving operational efficiency. NTT DATA will support such customers with "two IT transformations."

Under the severe economic environment where the bottom is whispered, the IT department of a company is required to reduce IT costs and at the same time to "transform by IT" that can directly contribute to management. Mr. Toru Yamashita, President and CEO of NTT DATA, took the stage at the lecture by the organizer of "NTT DATA Innovation Conference 2010" (sponsored by NTT DATA) held in Tokyo on January 29th. He embodies the company's vision of supporting IT transformation of client companies by providing two IT transformations, "Innovation by IT" and "Innovation of IT", with technologies, products and services. Introduced with.

Recent environmental changes with large "width" and fast "speed"

"Innovation by IT" that provides transformation to customers by using IT and "Innovation of IT" that provides added value to customers by transforming IT itself-NTT DATA, a major SIer, is currently "two IT" As a background to the focus on "transformation," Mr. Yamashita explained three characteristics of the changes in the environment surrounding companies today.

The first is that the range of environmental changes is large and the speed is fast. According to Mr. Yamashita, the range and speed of negative growth is large and fast, as evidenced by changes in GDP (gross domestic product), and there is also a tendency to shorten the product life cycle.

The second is the change in the global economy. It is well known that Japan's leading electronics and automobile manufacturers have already exceeded domestic sales in overseas sales, but the overseas markets in which they are deployed are expanding significantly, and the head office and manufacturing bases , The relationship between sales bases is also becoming complicated.

"The situation has become quite complicated, even if it is called globalization. Many Japanese global companies are not only in the traditional major markets such as the United States and Europe, but also in Asia and South America including China. It has begun to expand its business in a wide range of markets such as Russia. Moreover, rather than simply exporting from Japan, it is now n-n-n that Japanese companies sell products produced in Asian bases in Europe. Relationships are becoming more common "(Mr. Yamashita)

Mr. Yamashita pointed out that the third change is that the paradigm shift of business models in various industries is accelerating. He says: "Convenience stores have overtaken department stores in terms of sales, which is a prime example of a paradigm shift in the retail industry, but as you can see from the rapid growth of online shopping in the last few years, competition between real stores is no longer enough. No. The ongoing digital revolution has created technological innovation since the paradigm 250 years ago. "

Innovation by IT
In addition to the changes in the economic environment described above, the IT needs of user companies have also changed significantly. According to Mr. Yamashita, the main purpose of IT utilization in companies has been "inward-looking" such as operational efficiency and internal control, but in recent years, IT utilization of user companies has been the main purpose. It is said that the way of thinking about IT has matured and expectations for "outward" IT are increasing.

"For example, how to quickly launch new products ahead of other companies, or how to respond to the industry paradigm shift and develop new businesses in-house. Such outward and strategic IT investment Is finally taking root in Japan as well. "(Mr. Yamashita)

However, now that we are in an era of global competition, Japanese companies need to move on to a higher level of strategic IT.

"Kaizen, which Japanese companies are good at, remains important, but now, in addition to Kaizen, we need to transform by utilizing IT, that is, Innovation by IT. We are providing solutions for Innovation by IT. We would like to support client companies to utilize IT to create business value. "(Mr. Yamashita)

Mr. Yamashita said that NTT DATA will focus on "improving the ability to respond to rapid changes," "realizing global optimization," and "realizing a paradigm shift" in supporting innovation by IT of client companies. Each was explained.

Regarding improving the ability to respond to sudden changes, it is necessary to anticipate changes in the midst of sudden changes in the environment and to make changes on their own, rather than responding to catching up with changes. ..

"In conventional IT systems, it is mainly expected to manage system performance and bring information for improving operational efficiency, such as reducing distribution inventory and adjusting production volume by referring to POS sales data. On the other hand, future IT systems will also be required to play a role of feeding back information to processes before manufacturing. At that time, companies develop, manufacture, distribute, and sell products. After that, we will not make adjustments such as additional production regardless of whether it is sold out or unsold. Rather, we will take a move to anticipate changes toward the next product development. "(Yamashita) Mr)

Global optimization is a concept that is becoming established as a common issue for global companies these days. Here, it is required to break away from the individual optimum state of starting up the system every time an overseas base is established and operating it according to its own rules. Mr. Yamashita said, "In the state of individual optimization, the head office cannot obtain information related to management in a unified manner, so it is not possible to make accurate decision-making decisions. As an approach toward global optimization, standardization and visualization of operations and KPIs (important) It is necessary to standardize business processes by defining performance evaluation indicators). " As a solution to this global optimization, NTT DATA provides a "global support model" that includes support for local operations required at each site.

Regarding the realization of a paradigm shift (conversion of business model), an example of book-off online for selling used books and CDs / DVDs was introduced. The company captures the need for "adult buying" to purchase all used books in the series at once, and realizes services online that were not possible at stores alone.

The service outline of the "adult buying service" is as follows. I want to buy all 20 volumes of a used manga work at once, but only 2 and 4 volumes are out of stock. In this case, in the past, customers had to order individually, but Bookoff Online realizes automatic allocation of old book inventory and new book inventory through online cooperation with book agencies, and supplements the missing volumes with new books to fill all volumes. We are building a system to sell them at a reasonable price. When this service was launched at each store, it was very well received and led to an increase in the number of visitors. The Bookoffonline attempt is a good example of a paradigm shift / innovation that transforms opposing business models into complementary relationships.

Innovation of IT
It is often heard that customers are encouraged to change by utilizing IT, but what about the change of IT itself? Mr. Yamashita said, "We are also reflecting on the IT provider side, but we have to say that the innovation of IT initiative is lagging behind, especially in Japan," and this initiative will be a future IT initiative in Japan. Emphasize that this is an industry-wide challenge.

In promoting the Innovation of IT, NTT DATA aims to provide "IT that has both speed and flexibility" that is quick to introduce and flexible to changes in the environment. As technologies / products to realize this, Mr. Yamashita described the cloud platform "BizCloud", system construction "double speed development", SOA (service-oriented architecture) and BPM (business process management) -based application suite " Biz ∫ (Integral) ”was introduced.

BizCloud is provided as a "virtual private cloud" that incorporates the advantages of both public and private clouds. A unique feature of NTT DATA is a shared cloud system called "community cloud" that can be used only by specific groups.

Mr. Yamashita explains as follows. "Community cloud is one of the cloud options we can offer because we have been operating a joint center of banks for many years. We want our customers to use different types of clouds properly."

In addition to providing facilities and resources for the cloud, it is also considering collaboration with business infrastructure such as CAFIS for credit card payments, BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), and contact centers. Is the selling point of BizCloud.

Biz ∫ is an integrated application suite based on SOA and BPM, and is a product that appeals to NTT DATA as a "SOA-type ERP" and "user-centered ERP" that eliminates the drawbacks of conventional ERP packages.

"The BPM mechanism makes it possible to" visualize "the waste of waiting time that occurs in system processing and work, and work-to-work cooperation, and facilitate continuous review of the entire business process. Also, adoption of SOA. This makes it possible to flexibly change the system according to business needs, and also to link various third-party business applications. "(Mr. Yamashita)

Double-speed development aims to reduce the scratch development period to half of the conventional period, so that client companies can start using the system in about the same period as the time required to introduce a packaged product, NTT DATA. It is a unique system development slogan.

"Since it is a system that is our core competence, we are trying to meet the needs of client companies such as scratch development in almost the same development period as the introduction of the package," (Mr. Yamashita)

NTT DATA has seven initiatives to realize double-speed development: "development automation," "development environment cloud," "CCP (Critical Change Project) management," "W process model," "reuse of requirements model," and "24. "Time development," "upstream quality enhancement," and "development automation" are listed.

Finally, Mr. Yamashita concluded the lecture by explaining the concept "Green IT Orchestration", which is the core of environment-oriented management promoted by NTT DATA company-wide.

"In addition to responding to social demands for reducing environmental burdens, we also respond to such demands from the perspective of IT services, such as visualization of environmental load information, in the efforts of client companies, and contribute to the realization of a sustainable society. I will do it "(Mr. Yamashita)