Digital Transformation (DX)
Creating Next-Generation Kanematsu Group Businesses through DX
Message from the Digital Transformation Committee Chair
Masahiro Harada
Managing Executive Officer
Digital Transformation Committee Chair
Under the future 135 medium-term vision, we have made “Promote Groupwide DX” a part of the priority initiative “Response to technical innovation, ” in line with our aim to accelerate business transformation.
The Digital Transformation Committee was launched in July 2021. As COO Electronics & Devices, I chair the committee.
The DX Project Office of Kanematsu Corporation’s IT Planning Department and the DX Promotion Department of Kanematsu Electronics Ltd.(KEL) are serving as secretariat for the committee, while sectional meetings with specific themes, such as central-ized ID management, enhancing data analysis plat-forms, and integrating IT assets, are advancing Groupwide DX promotion.
One cross-divisional initiative is the digitization of food and meat product supply chain operations.
In this area, we are working to incorporate and utilize digital data, and we plan to expand these efforts to other busi-nesses in the future.
At the same time, in response to an increasing number of cyberattacks, we are focusing on enhancing cyber security and providing security educa-tion to employees.
And, to raise the level of IT literacy across the Group, we are supporting employees work-ing toward public certifications, such as the IT Passport,and otherwise seeking to develop human resources.
As for the digitization business, the Group is diversi-fying its commercial DX products.
We have also estab-lished the Business Co-Creation Center as a place to interact with SaaS startups.
We are building a data marketplace platform and advancing efforts to enter the next-generation data trading market through investment in data management companies.
As a trading company, Kanematsu is highly adapt-able to technological innovation. We will continue to work together as a Group to improve internal and exter-nal productivity, create next-generation businesses, andstrengthen governance.
DX Promotional Framework
Initiatives
One-Stop OT Security Installation Support via Co-Creation by KEL, GSX, and Terilogy HD
KEL, a Group company in the ICT business, has created Technical Knowledge Guardian for OT Security, a new service for industrial control operational technology (OT) systems, in a co-creative effort with GLOBAL SECURITY EXPERTS Inc. (GSX), with which it has an equity relation-ship, and Terilogy Holdings Corporation (Terilogy HD).
This service was launched in 2023. By pooling their past achievements, insights, and management resource strengths, the partners are offering an integrated OT secu-rity and network support service not possible through any one company alone.
Recently, security risks have been rising in step with the advance of manufacturers’ efforts to increase competitiveness through DX.
Furthermore,security-related standards and guidelines are expected to be increasingly finely segmented among and within specific industries going forward.
KEL, GSX and Terilogy HD will work to realize a safe and secure OT environment by strengthening security services for manufacturing indus-tries and accumulating related knowledge.
The Kanematsu Group’s Initiatives to Solve Logistics Industry Issues Expected in 2024
Kanematsu Group company Datatec Co., Ltd. provides the Safety Recorder® (SR) driving recorder for the logistics industry.
Driving data from the SR is fed into work hour management software to track performance by automati-cally calculating total work hours, break times, and drive times.
Furthermore, in November 2022, Datatec imple-mented a joint pilot project with NTT DATA Corporationaimed at reducing the burden placed on delivery drivers.
The service they have developed, MiseNAVI™, analyzes vehicle and driving data recorded by the SR to automati-cally generate guidance for delivery drivers, such as where and how to park at each delivery destination, which it communicates via voice prompts to help solve delivery-related issues.
In addition, Datatec is developing a driving safety diagnostic smartphone app aimed at fostering awareness of safe driving techniques.
Kanematsu and Datatec will continue to advance logistics DX to help solve logistics personnel shortages expected as a result of regu-latory changes coming into effect in Japan in 2024.
DX through Open Innovation with SaaS Startups
Kanematsu’s Business Co-Creation Center (BC3) has part-nered with startups that develop B2B SaaS to advance support for DX in store operations.
Among BC3’s offerings are a service for managing customer wait lines, a service for advance payment using smartphones, a point-of-sale(POS) register app, and an inventory management service, all of which help stores facing serious staffing shortages improve their operational efficiency.
BC3 is promoting the formation of a Kanematsu SaaS Ecosystem, encompassing multiple SaaS DX support products, as well as one-stop service.
For example, by linking services within the SaaS ecosystem, such as connecting the POS register app with the inventory management service, BC3 is creating servic-es unique to Kanematsu.
Going forward, we aim not only to market these services to stores but to broaden their range to include Kanematsu’s existing businesses and beyond while expanding the lineup of services in the Kanematsu SaaS ecosystem.
Through such efforts, we will continue to support customers in their efforts to realize operational DX.