Fujitsu to invest over ¥100 billion in company-wide digital transformation project

Japanese tech giant Fujitsu has announced it will spend over ¥100 billion as part of a company-wide digital transformation project that will involve a complete re-evaluation of its business processes, organisations, corporate culture, products, services, and business models.

Dubbed Fujitra for short, the transformation project, according to the company, will help the tech giant achieve its so-called "raison d'etre" of making the "world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation".

"In recent years, industry frameworks and business models are changing at an unprecedented speed, as revealed by the emergence of disruptive innovators using digital technology to upend existing paradigms in all industries," the company said.

"In the spirit of transformative innovation, and to demonstrate its commitment to its purpose … Fujitsu will invest more than ¥100 billion in this project to promote its own transformation.

"Fujitsu will also leverage the results and know-how gained through this project in its solutions and services, contributing to the resolution of social issues by utilising digital technology as a partner for its customers."

See also: The top technologies that enabled digital transformation this decade (TechRepublic)

As part of the Fujitra agenda, the tech giant said it plans to standardise global and group-wide management, business processes, data, and IT onto a single system. It has touted the move would allow the company to make real-time decisions and forecast future conditions, and create a Fujitsu digital twin, while leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud, and 5G. The first initiative off the rank will be overhauling the company's ERP system.

The company also plans to introduce new frameworks such as design-thinking and agile methodology to help address its "rigid corporate cultures", such as existing vertical division between different units and "overplanning".

Additionally, Fujitsu plans to introduce a common digital service throughout the company that will collect and analyse quantitative and qualitative data based on customer and employee feedback. The data will then be used to manage company actions.

"This will enable decision-makers in the organisation to analyse and understand issues and signs of change in the future on a rolling basis, taking into account diverse perspectives and opinions, and to speed up the improvement cycle," Fujitsu said.

The Fujitra project will be owned by Fujitsu Limited CEO and chief digital transformation officer (CDXO) Takahito Tokita, while CIO and deputy CDXO Yuzuru Fukuda will act as the project leader. They will be supported by digital transformation officers from each of the 15 corporate and business units and five overseas regions, as well as a range other professionals including designers, agile coaches, sales, systems engineers, internal IT, finance, and accounting, whose role will be responsible for promoting reforms across divisions and regions.

Fujitsu has also established a CDXO division, which will sit directly under the CEO, to also help promote the digital transformation project. 

The digital transformation announcement coincides with Fujitsu Japan Ltd commencing operation this month. It was announced in July that the new business will help the company expand in the Japanese services market.

Fujitsu Japan Ltd is initially an integration of Fujitsu Marketing and Fujitsu FIP Corporation. Fujitsu said, by April 2021, it plans to also integrate the sales function of Fujitsu FSAS and Fujitsu Network Solutions.

In addition, the new company will integrate Fujitsu's business divisions that are responsible for local governments, and medical and educational institutions. The integration was initially organised for July 2020 but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the company decided to postpone it to April 2021.   

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