Japan from an Indian technology company's perspective

Macnica Otaki: Can you tell us about Japan's digital transformation from the perspective of an Indian technology company?

Celebal Inoue: Japan's IT infrastructure is conservative, and it is slow to utilize the cloud and introduce new technologies. While Indian companies are quick to adopt new technologies, Japan seems to take a long time to make decisions. Also, while Japan's IT engineers have high technical skills, there is a serious shortage of talent, especially in areas such as AI and data scientists. This is partly due to the fact that India's engineering education is excellent in both quality and quantity. In India, programming education is mandatory from an early age, and a large number of highly skilled engineers are being produced.

Celebal Kawagoe: That's right. For example, in India, programming education is compulsory from an early age, and the level of engineers is very high due to the high competitiveness, and excellent talent is being produced one after another. In addition, Indian IT companies respond quickly to technological advances and maintain an advantage in global competition by actively adopting the latest technologies. Against this background, Japan's delay in DX is a major issue, and a flexible and fast approach like India's is required. Furthermore, Indian companies have a culture that promotes innovation and tend to actively adopt new technologies and processes. This allows them to maintain a very high competitiveness.

Celebal Inoue: A specific problem facing Japanese companies is that they are spending a lot of resources on maintaining legacy systems. They rely on existing IT infrastructure and are reluctant to introduce new technologies such as cloud and AI. In this situation, there is a risk that many business opportunities will be missed. For Japanese companies to succeed in DX, it is essential that they adopt advanced approaches like those in India. For example, it is important to quickly introduce cloud infrastructure and build a data platform to support data-driven decision-making.

Global case studies

Macnica Otaki: So, please tell us about some successful examples of DX that have been implemented globally.

Celebal Kawagoe: The first case study is from a major Indian consumer goods manufacturer. The company was not doing a good job of forecasting demand and managing inventory, resulting in wasted inventory and expenses. So we introduced a demand forecasting system that uses machine learning. This system performs detailed analysis of historical data, market trends, and customer preferences to enable more accurate demand forecasting. After the implementation, the accuracy of demand forecasting improved by 70%, and inventory management also improved significantly. As a result, the efficiency of the supply chain improved, leading to reduced operational costs.
In concrete terms, the accuracy of demand forecasts increased by 70%, and the optimization of resource allocation improved by 35%. In addition, the efficiency of the entire supply chain improved by 60%. This case study shows how effective a data-driven approach can be. In addition, the project also focused on employee training, and succeeded in improving the skills required to operate the system and interpret the analysis results. This has led to data-driven decision-making taking root throughout the company, leading to sustainable improvements.

Celebal Inoue: As another example, I would like to introduce the efforts of a client in the energy industry. This company was facing the challenge of streamlining document management, and was spending a lot of time searching for information and documents. Therefore, they introduced a knowledge mining BOT that utilizes GPT technology. This BOT quickly searches for the necessary information from a huge amount of documents, supporting employees to carry out their work more efficiently. After the introduction, the speed and accuracy of decision-making improved, and the productivity of the entire business increased significantly.
This project was also implemented over a year ago and is a highly successful example of an advanced solution that leverages GPT-3.5 Turbo. The system has automated many tasks that were previously performed manually, allowing employees to focus on strategic tasks. The success of this project has also had a ripple effect on other departments, significantly contributing to improved efficiency and cost reduction across the company.

The benefits and value of offshore development by Indian IT companies

Macnica Otaki: Please tell us about the effectiveness and value of offshore development by Indian IT companies.

Celebal Inoue: The biggest benefit of offshore development is the availability of human resources. India has a large number of highly skilled engineers, many of whom are fluent in English and Japanese. In addition, Indian engineers are quick to learn new technologies and languages, making them extremely valuable to Japanese companies. In addition, India's IT education is excellent in both quality and quantity, and programming education is taught from an early age, so there are many highly skilled personnel. This means that we can quickly secure personnel with specialized skills in areas such as AI, data science, and cloud computing, which are in short supply in Japan.

Celebal Kawagoe: Furthermore, Indian culture is very suitable for learning new languages. Indian engineers communicate mainly through conversation, so they improve their Japanese quickly, which is very helpful for Japanese projects. They are also flexible in technological innovation and proactively adopt the latest technology, so they are able to respond to the rapidly changing needs of the market. In particular, since English is the official language for Indian engineers, they can communicate smoothly with global teams.

Celebal Inoue: Another value of offshore development is the cost benefit. Indian engineering resources have the advantage of being of high quality yet relatively low cost. This allows Japanese companies to keep costs down while maintaining high quality. For example, more resources can be allocated with the same budget compared to development in Japan, which contributes to speeding up projects and improving quality. In addition, 24-hour project management is possible by taking advantage of the time difference, realizing efficient project progress.
In addition, offshore development teams in India implement advanced security and compliance measures, and take appropriate measures against information leaks and security risks that Japanese companies are concerned about. This allows projects to proceed with peace of mind while ensuring the safety of data. It is expected that maximizing the benefits of such offshore development will accelerate the promotion of digital transformation for Japanese companies.

Secrets to successful IT projects (offshore development)

Macnica Otaki: What is the secret to making IT projects successful through offshore development?

Celebal Inoue: First of all, clear communication is important. Detailed regular meetings and progress checks ensure project transparency and enable rapid response. For example, holding weekly progress report meetings and daily stand-up meetings to share the current status and challenges of the project allows all team members to work in the same direction. It is also important to understand cultural differences and differences in communication styles and devise ways to communicate information accordingly.

Celebal Kawagoe: Furthermore, technology and infrastructure development, especially security measures, are important. It is essential to check security risks and take appropriate measures before starting a project. For example, it is necessary to ensure the safety of data by using VPN and data encryption technology, and to thoroughly manage access rights and logs even in a remote work environment. It is also effective to use time differences to efficiently advance projects. By taking advantage of the 3.5-hour time difference between Japan and India, we can maximize working hours and make projects proceed smoothly. Through such time zone management, projects can be operated 24 hours a day, which increases efficiency.

Celebal Inoue: Success in offshore development requires not only technical skills but also project management skills. Using the right project management tools and setting up effective communication channels are key. For example, by using project management tools such as JIRA or Trello to clearly manage task progress, assignees, deadlines, etc., all members can share information in real time. In addition, by setting up regular deliverables review and feedback sessions, you can progress the project while maintaining quality.
Furthermore, it is very important to build trust by building teams while understanding cultural differences. This includes creating an environment where people respect each other's cultures and values through offline interactions and team-building activities. This will allow us to create an environment where we can work together to achieve the project's goals while making the most of each other's strengths.