OREANDA-NEWS. ITOCHU Corporation  announced today that, under the policy of “Engaging all Employees to Lead a New Era for the Sogo Shosha” put forward in its mid-term management plan, it has decided to implement the total renewal of its mission-critical systems, which have been operating since 2001, with the aim of thoroughly implementing the “earn, cut, prevent” approach which is the basis of day-to-day business, expanding functions consistent with the further deepening of consolidated management in the future, and underpinning further reform of the work style with a view to fully engaging all employees. A gradual transition to the new system is planned from FY 2018, with full-scale operation commencing in FY 2020.

The introduction of the new mission-critical system will make it possible to obtain various kinds of business management information in real time and provide the latest information to the sales frontline, with the aim of improving business efficiency resulting in a reduction of working hours (cut). The use of IT will improve the efficiency of administrative paperwork, further increasing the time available for direct customer contact, and strengthening our capabilities in the field (earn). At the same time, it will enhance the function of early identification of business risks in day-to-day business dealings, preventing (prevent) inadvertent losses. Further, it will offer expanded functions that will be required by consolidated management in the future, such as the efficient gathering of management information from Group companies, sharing client company information within the Group, and supporting the effective use of capital within the Group.

The new mission-critical system will employ CUVICmc2, the cloud service specialized in mission-critical systems offered by ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Satoshi Kikuchi, President & CEO); hereinafter “CTC”). The service was chosen for two reasons: it implements the latest technology to support the high-speed search of a wide variety of business management information; and it is expected to cut costs, from the system development process to operation after deployment, using usage volume rate structure in accordance with actual operational volume. In terms of applications, ITOCHU will be the first sogo shosha in Japan to introduce the next-generation ERP*1 SAP® S/4 HANA from SAP Japan Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Yuzuru Fukuda, President & CEO), which we will utilize as a platform to process large volumes of business information in real time, and as a database to accumulate a variety of business management information. In addition, we will utilize the mobile solutions function to create a varied system application environment that will fully engage all employees in accordance with their work style.

ITOCHU has not only clinched the No. 1 spot among sogo shosha in terms of consolidated net income, but as a pioneer in the new sogo shosha era using next-generation information systems, aims to be the No. 1 trading company pursuing effectiveness and efficiency in information application.