Kokusai Kogyo Holdings Upgrades Mission-Critical Business System

Tokyo, July 25, 2011

Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu System Solutions Limited today announced that they collaborated in performing a full-scale upgrade of the mission-critical business system of Kokusai Kogyo Holdings Co., Ltd, which offers public-infrastructure solutions through its core aerial survey technologies. The new mission-critical business system, which features project management, credit/debt management, budget management, financial accounting, and other functionalities, has been deployed at nine of the group's companies and recently began full operation. The system also employs Fujitsu System Solutions' WebSERVE smart integrated ERP solution.

By deploying the solution, the Kokusai Kogyo Group was able to build a flexible system that integrates and unifies the company's mission-critical business systems group-wide, while also being able to accommodate workflow changes and changes to internal controls and other regulations, as necessary. In addition, by selecting an easy-to-use interface for project management and order processing, these tasks, which were complex in the company's previous systems, can now be handled by the front-line divisions directly.

As a result, the system has enabled the Kokusai Kogyo Group to share real-time information and quickly make decisions, thereby improving operational efficiency. By such overall system optimization, the group expects to reduce its power consumption by half, in addition to cutting its total cost of operations by 20% within the next ten years.

Background

Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd., the core company within the Kokusai Kogyo Group, was established in 1947 as an aerial survey company. Currently, the group leverages the technology and know-how it has cultivated through aerial surveys to deliver a wide range of public-infrastructure solutions — mainly in the areas of spatial information, disaster prevention, and environmental solutions — to governmental institutions and companies involved in urban planning.

Recently, as a result of reorganization and enhancement of internal controls associated with its conversion to a holding company, and in response to the need for governance controls due to the group's expansion, the Kokusai Kogyo Group had to completely revise its ERP package-based mission-critical business system that it had been employing for over ten years. At the same time, the company was also looking to unify its workflow processes.

To address these needs, the Kokusai Kogyo Group worked together with Fujitsu and Fujitsu System Solutions to perform a full-scale upgrade of its mission-critical system. In this upgrade, nine group companies deployed Fujitsu's WebSERVE smart integrated ERP solution, which leverages the latest SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) technology from Fujitsu System Solutions to connect the system's various solutions to each other.

At the core of the solution is Fujitsu's WebSERVE smart Construction, which enables job cost management through its available functionalities for project management, credit/debt management, budget management, and financial accounting. The solution also incorporates GLOVIA smart Accounting, GLOVIA smart Human Resources/Payroll SE, and GLOVIA smart Workflow. This, in turn, has enabled the Kokusai Kogyo Group to manage its group-wide mission-critical systems using a single unified solution. In the future, the group plans to expand the solution's deployment to four other group companies.

Unlike typical packaged products, WebSERVE smart offers a wide variety of features that can be purchased as templates and then customized to meet customer needs. As such, the solution can be tailored to accommodate desired changes, including workflow changes and changes to internal controls and other regulations. With respect to project management and ordering processes, which until now required special skills and knowledge and were therefore the responsibility of administrative sections, Fujitsu has improved the operability of these functions, making them easy to use, in addition to adapting them to Japanese business practices. Accordingly, some of these tasks can now be managed directly by sections on the front-lines, thereby enabling information to be accessed in real-time and accelerating decision-making and implementation. System optimization has resulted in improved operational efficiency, and the Kokusai Kogyo Group expects to reduce its power consumption by half, in addition to cutting its total cost of operations by 20% within the next ten years.

In response to the recent Great East Japan Earthquake, the Kokusai Kogyo Group has begun to implement initiatives to further enhance its business continuity in the event of a disaster. In July, the group will be migrating its servers that are currently located in Tokyo to a datacenter in Akashi City in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. During the current fiscal year, it also plans to develop a mirror site at a datacenter in Tatebayashi City, Gunma Prefecture.

Going forward, Fujitsu and Fujitsu System Solutions will continue to support the operations of the Kokusai Kogyo Group's mission-critical systems, while at the same time actively pursuing the expanded usage of its WebSERVE smart integrated ERP solution in a wide range of industries and fields.