Common Issues

1. What can we do for digital transformation?

2. No one in the office is familiar with DX

3. Even when plans are made, we do not know how to implement them

With the general shortage of IT specialists in Japan, enterprises and local governments are experiencing increased difficulty in securing the human resources. The outsourcing side also needs a certain level of IT literacy in order to contract out development to another company and to facilitate the project.

NTT e-Asia’s DX Consulting

Even if you are in charge of a newly established DX task force and do not where to start, do not worry. Changing society and life by harnessing the power of digitization. We understand DX as one approach toward making people’s lives better, and we help you side by side along your journey of implementing it in line with the society's needs.

DX Strategy Building & Promotion Support

We formulate strategies that solve current issues with DX and support you up to specific promotional initiatives. We guide you through the path to reaching your envisioned future.

Formulating local government DX promotion plans

Local government operations are often intertwined with various administrative services, which makes DX of such operations quite difficult and requires a broad range of expertise. We help you plan your digital transformation with a focus on the direction and goals of DX implementation.

Educating and training DX specialists

Labor shortage due to a shrinking population is an inevitable future. Technologies keep evolving, and the presence of DX specialists is becoming a critical requirement for every project at a company or local government. There is no one who knows everything, including both internal operations and digital working. Let us support you with promoting skill development at the same time for continuous evolution toward the future.

Examples of DX consulting

• 

  An experienced partner

  We support you in collaboration with NTT DX Partner, an NTT East Group company. NTT DX Partner supports the digital transformation of regional enterprises and local governments hand-in-hand from starting line to finish line.

• DX personnel support

Common Issues

1. Need to promote DX, but do not have staff

2. No developers

3. Need specialists only for a certain period

Securing development personnel, including engineers, is always a challenge for any project. The technologies used depend on the requirements, so in some cases it may be difficult to cover everything even when you had a couple of development members within the organization.

NTT e-Asia’s DX Personnel Support

After you start seeing how to approach the issue, the next step is to secure the personnel needed to actualize the DX plan. We support matching you up with optimal DX specialists based on a range of technical requirements.

Flexible form of support

There are various job roles involved in DX, such as members familiar with internal DX-related operations and those who support the team across all members. We support the missing positions in a team in the best way possible, including the duration and approach.

Covering a wide range of technical areas

We connect you with specialists from a broad range of fields, from the infrastructure domain, which deals with building the development environment and network, to software development with a focus on both full-scratch and low-code application development.

Area-free support

We support customers anywhere in Japan based on our connections established through NTT East. Inquire with us about the type of support you need, be it remote or on-site support, along with what style of support may best suit your team.

Examples of DX personnel support

• 

  Providing specialists for the development process

  There are many roles in application development, including PM/PMO members who facilitate the individual development phases, business system engineers who see the operational flow from the upstream process up to testing, and infrastructure architects who are responsible for building and designing the infrastructure part. Our experienced staff from NTT e-Asia and its partners offers support for your specific needs, such as needing more PMOs to assist the PMs or needing more business system engineers to cover the large volume of development work.

• 

  Providing human resources for specific roles and techniques

  Among application development approaches, not only are there scratch development projects using Java, Vue, and/or Swift, there are also projects that use low-code tools such as PowerApps, OutSystems, or Kintone for development. A customer has consulted us with the need for resources for migrating to a Vue environment due to the end of life of an existing language and creating tools using PowerApps, to which we dispatched engineers.

• 

  Dispatching specialists across Japan

  We flexibly deliver seasoned experts and committed young engineers from our abundant pool of human resources to any area in Japan over any length of period. For example, we can assign specialists to regional projects that require engineers to be resident at the site for the first month at the start of the project as well as to remote projects that do not have a locational requirement for working.

• DX consulting
• Software production

Common Issues

1. Uncertain about the process up to the completion of system

2. Uncertain about the entire picture of offshore development and the communication costs

3. Lacking the image of how development takes place

Collaboration becomes essential as the size of the project increases, but some members may not see or understand details outside of their domain. Each and every member needs to understand the overall flow and steps of development in order for the project to roll out successfully.

NTT e-Asia’s system development training

It is important for people engaging in system development for the first time or being in charge of offshore development to know the site and have a grip on the general picture. Training participants can bring in their own issues to the sessions and even incorporate reviews for specific actions to implement development schemes to solve those issues.

From entry-level training to practical training

We plan out optimal training programs for skill development of the entire team, including development training for new employees. We provide optimized training according to your preferred period and location.

Improving the precision of offshore development

Some of our offshore development training programs take place on the site. It is also possible to incorporate an introduction to that country's customs and cities as part of the program to learn about the foreign country. Spending the same time together can promote mutual understanding as well as communication with local staff.

Prototyping for your specific issue

Participants who incorporated their own issues into the training program can work on defining requirements and implementing development plans as per the flow of system development. Fostering mutual understanding and agreement among members on what steps remain up to system launch helps facilitate communication after returning to Japan.

Examples of System development training

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  On-site training in Vietnam

  We held a training program in Vietnam that offers an environment that undermines existing values. Through software development and group discussions with Vietnamese developers, the participants experienced global training.
  We put in the entire series of operations from the upstream process (requirements definition) to the downstream process (development), centering on software development training using the low-code development platform OutSystems. We can also flexibly combine periods and options according to your needs.

• 

  Entry-level training for beginners

  Targeting new employees to be software personnel, we hold introductory training to help them learn basic terminology and development methods and processes as prerequisites for working on software development (requirements definition and basic design). We also provide services that cover planning, management, and provision of training programs, as well as training environment preparation for the programs (delivery of training textbooks, arrangement and setup of online environment, etc.).
  Examples of training programs include information system development startup training, DX training for on-site operators, design thinking training, and Agile version project management training.

• DX personnel support
• Software production

Common Issues

1. Difficulties in reflecting the needs into specifications

2. No where to turn to for production with detailed requirements

3. Shortage of development staff for certain functions

After the requirements are identified for promoting digitization of operations, next you will enter the manufacturing phase, which is the highlight of development. While knowing that the success of the project depends on which partner you encounter, in reality, you may end up being influenced by previous business relationships.

NTT e-Asia’s Software Production

Software production is NTT e-Asia’s main line of business. We have a variety of experience in experience in supporting requirements definition for Web apps and business operation apps, basic design, detailed design, manufacturing, and testing―leave it all to us.

Upstream process to system launch and operation

UI/The flow of manufacturing consists of many different phases, from the formulation of system specifications to user interface and experience, testing, and launch, as well as operation following the official release of the system. NTT e-Asia can handle part of the process or everything as one-stop service on contract.

We support all systems

We flexibly handle different development approaches, including full-scratch and low-code development. Let’s start with identifying what functions you need in your software. We build a manufacturing team to make that possible.

We develop smartphone apps

You can also trust us with the development of smartphone apps that can be run on both iPhone and Android. We can develop a diverse set of smartphone apps, having experience developing financial apps that need security considerations and diverse functions.

Examples of software production

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  Development of a Web reception system for a local government

  To enable the local government to concentrate on problems in the community, we transformed the paper-based analog reception operation into a Web-based system. In the upstream process, we formulated the specifications, identified and solved the technical issues, and improved user interface and experience to clarify the needs. In the manufacturing process, we handled all phases from detailed design for meeting the requirements to implementation, testing, and operation following production release, taking responsibility for the operation of the entire system.

• 

  Development of inventory control system and Reservation Management System

  Adopting low-code development using OutSystems, we cut down the development costs for the inventory control system. By using the prototyping development method, we responded to detailed requirements at an early stage while eliminating any factors on the way that may later lead to a problem. We also developed a reservation management system fully from scratch, using the waterfall development method and finalizing the specifications beforehand. The conventional reservation management using phone calls and paper could not deal with nighttime calls and sudden reservation requests, so we solved these problems by making it into a Web-based system. We materialized the customer’s requirements using optimal techniques.

• 

  Development of smartphone app

  As an app for finance, we implemented functions that allow for biometric authentication login and real-time check of account balance and transaction statements. For convenience store delivery services, we have experience developing apps that support a variety of cashless payment methods, among a range of smartphone apps.

• System development training
• Offshore development support

Common Issues

1. Shortage of development resources

2. Highly costs for communication with offshore development offices

3. Increasing development costs

Projects may encounter unexpected problems and changes in requirements, and things may not go as planned, which is particularly the case with larger projects. You may become short on development resources when the initial schedule changes.

NTT e-Asia’s Offshore Utilization Support

During the 2010s, the primary advantage of offshore development was at its low cost, but the benefit of offshore development nowadays is the abundance of young skilled creators. Use offshore development to your advantage and make your dream systems real.

Solving your issues earnestly

Vietnam, where NTT e-Asia’s offshore base is situated, hosts many highly motivated engineers who work on development of complicated specifications with enthusiasm. Together, we tackle the challenge of creating the tools for solving your issues.

Mobilizing a team from a rich pool of specialists

Individual engineers have their own strengths. NTT e-Asia is connected to a wealth of engineers based in Vietnam, which makes it possible to propose the best team for your project. By flexibly changing the members, we can also optimize the team for each phase of a large project.

Achieving cost reduction

While it depends on the contracted environment and the requirements of the software to be produced, offshore development can likely reduce costs. However, making decisions based solely on lower short-time costs involves risks of overlooking hidden costs related to communication and skills. NTT e-Asia bridges together customers and local staff to establish a good working team.

Examples of Offshore development support

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  Offshore development center services

  In response to our customers’ shortage of development personnel, we offer offshore development center services that involve long-term personnel procurement. We organize development teams at the offshore office for software development. We also cover agile development and the need for manpower for tests that require a certain staff size. We also support large projects and parallel implementation of multiple projects, and quickly respond to sudden problems that may occur after release.

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  Smooth offshore development

  We received a request for offshore development to save costs in system upgrade. However, due to the customer’s concern about smooth communication with local staff, we assigned a communicator who is proficient in Japanese to the team and provided an offshore development environment where smooth communication is ensured. According to the scale of the project, we build a team of optimal specialists, including PMs, communicators, system engineers, programmers, and testers.

• 

  Offshore development in the shortest route

  In order to prevent do-overs arising from differences in understanding during offshore development, Japanese engineers bridged together the customer and the local staff to ensure good communication. They gave advice on team management, follow-ups after meetings with the customer, and insights on promoting the project.

• Software production
• System operation and maintenance

Common Issues

1. Lack of resource for maintenance

2. No full need of dedicated personnel

3. Necessity to organized regular operation knowledge

While system operation tasks are essential for stable operation of the system, those tasks may expand with digitization. The tasks cover a broad range, including operation planning, security measures, and troubleshooting, all of which can cut short the time spent on the customer's main line of business.

NTT e-Asia’s system operation

Since a system operates on an integration of various technologies, in order to achieve and maintain stable operation, operators need to catch up to new technologies. It requires a significant amount of time and personnel costs for the customer to cover the entire range of complicated technical tasks on their own.

Flexible system operation and maintenance

Systems created by NTT e-Asia support flexible operation and maintenance. Edit the source code for revision according to your system operation needs. You can also rely on us for system updates.

Supporting the parts that you need help with

As the system integrates more functions, its operation and management becomes increasingly important, and the number of tasks also increases. You can split a large operation into multiple functional tasks, and outsource part of the operation flow, such as monitoring or maintenance only, to NTT e-Asia.

Stable operation 24/7 year-round

We operate your IT infrastructure 24/7 all year round non-stop with quality and reliable service. We support both on-premise and cloud IT infrastructure environments.

Examples of system operation and maintenance

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  Operation and maintenance of systems developed by another company

  We provide a year-round 24-hour service of monitoring and failure (primary) response for core systems that were developed by another company and are running on the public cloud, contributing to reliable system operation.

• 

  Operation and maintenance of GPU server system

  NTT e-Asia has a track record of operating a diverse range of systems. With experience in both public cloud and on-premise environments, we contribute to our customers by operating and maintaining various systems, including core systems with high security requirements and advanced GPU platforms.

• Offshore development support
• BPO（Business Process Outsourcing）

Common Issues

1. Release of meticulous daily tasks

2. Tasks being dependent on people instead of being standardized as manuals

3. Countless time for conducting clerical work without job manuals

Back-office and service center operations, and other essential operations for managing a company, need to be put together in a routine and require power, people, and time to ensure proper functioning. The adjustment of workload on employees can be difficult even when improvement of operations is needed or preferred.

NTT e-Asia’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)

By organizing and outsourcing tasks to external services that have know-how, employees can establish an environment that allows them to concentrate their resources on core operations that generate profit. Since the costs will be variable instead of fixed, we can flexibly respond to any fluctuations in work load.

Improved operational quality thanks to specialists

As we have many experts in different domains, we can build a team best suited for your BPO needs. We also offer one-stop solutions that cover all phases from building operation processes to actual operation.

Promoting operational optimization

To introduce BPO, first you need to visualize your current issues in operation. Then, let’s envision your goals―what kind of operation flow do you want? Organize your operational tasks. Review your current operational tasks and optimize them at the same time.

Starting up your new business at low cost

Operations that were previously performed by employees are now conducted by BPO specialists based on an optimized, streamlined flow. As a result, employees’ operations are implemented at lower cost, creating a financial leeway for new business operations.

Examples of BPO

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  Providing a help desk

  Based on our accumulated knowledge in various clerical processes, we provide a help desk to customers having problems in making applications and going through procedures. Through question-and-answer sessions over chat, we support our customers so that their procedures are completed smoothly.

• 

  Supporting the standardization of our customers’ operations

  For customers who are troubled with their tasks related to clerical work for general affairs, such as approvals and notifications, we organized and standardized their rules. We also proposed a revision of the operation flow and achieved better efficiency and optimization.

• 

  Preparing management decision documents

  For customers who are spending too much time and people on preparing documents for internal approval, we offer services that prepare such documents in their place. By preparing documents necessary for management decisions and approval documents in place of customers, we contributed to saving their in-house manpower for a more effective use.

• System operation and maintenance
• ITO（Information Technology Outsourcing）

Common Issues

1. Interwined meticulous tasks preventing decisions on a larger perspective

2. Lack of IT staff to complete regular tasks

3. Having trouble hiring information system engineers

IT has now become an inextricable part of our lives, both at work and private. Naturally, peripheral tasks arise in parallel, causing a need to deal with tasks associated with IT in an unexpected amount both in and outside of office. If the in-house staff is not familiar with the tasks, operation becomes more difficult, making the performance of tasks dependent on individuals.

NTT e-Asia’s Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO)

The tasks that members of IT system divisions are required to handle are increasing day by day. IT positions are constantly needing competent people, which contributes to high recruitment costs. The IT operations need constant catch-up on the latest information. NTT e-Asia, with its abundance of IT specialists, can take care of a range of IT-related problems.

Inexpensive ITO services

NTT e-Asia’s ITO services are based in Vietnam. We provide services at lower unit prices compared to those for Japanese staff.

Catching up to the latest technologies

Along with the evolution of ever-changing technologies, we need to respond to new laws and changes in social situations in our office work. We recommend that you use external specialists for IT-related tasks that require a large volume of resources and those that are hard to handle with just in-house know-how.

Stronger security

Ensuring IT security is becoming a major challenge with increased importance. However, maintaining a certain security level requires both technologies and environment. NTT e-Asia puts weight on security and creates an environment that is resistant to information leaks and hacking.

Examples of ITO

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  ITO that leverages offshore services

  In pursuit of better cost-efficiency compared to system development in Japan, we deliver quality services leveraging excellent human resources in Vietnam. The local staff is equipped with advanced engineering skills and can communicate in Japanese. Additionally, due to the time difference between Vietnam and Japan being only about two hours, the local staff can attend meetings and provide troubleshooting support smoothly during customer’s office hours without the restriction of time.

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  Data extraction and processing

  We appropriately respond to various cases, including both on-premise and cloud applications, with a deep understanding of the customer’s specific working environment. Conventionally, data extraction, conversion, and storage were performed manually in work areas where automation was considered difficult. We at NTT e-Asia define our customer’s goals and implement formalization and automation based on such goals. In addition, we leverage the latest technologies, such as data analyses and artificial intelligence (AI), to improve existing processing performance and streamline customers’ business.

• 

  Ensuring a high level of security

  NTT e-Asia, including our Vietnam Office, regularly undergoes security audits and assessments to ensure our compliance with security policies and check for any vulnerabilities in the systems. Through such efforts, we promote stronger and improved security to ensure the safety of our customers’ data. We also hold security training and awareness building activities for our employees as part of our initiatives for improving security level based on individual behavior.

• BPO（Business Process Outsourcing）
• AMO（Application Management Outsourcing）

Common Issues

1. Difficulties in finding a maintenance vendor

2. Difficulties in identifying current issues for improvement

3. Lack of accumulation of knowledge for maintenance

As more internal tasks become computerized, there will be an increased need for operating, maintaining, and managing information systems and business-use software. Dealing with the ever-increasing number of application management tasks with only in-house resources requires continuous education and detailed adjustments in staffing, which can further lead to increased management costs.

NTT e-Asia’s Application Management Outsourcing (AMO)

With IT professionals working in and outside of the country, NTT e-Asia has a wealth of knowledge and know-how concerning application design, development, and operation. We efficiently operate and utilize applications and appropriately perform updates as necessary in order to ensure meaningful business operations.

Reliable application performance

By contracting out operations that suffer from shortage of in-house resources or dependency on individual skills, customers can achieve stable operation of applications while catching up to the latest evolution of technologies. The practical applications can be contracted out for standardized operation based on manuals, and internal members can focus on digital strategies.

Monitoring and managing applications

We monitor the operating status and performance of applications, and swiftly attend to any problems and failures that arise. We also conduct periodic maintenance and updates.

Managing changes in applications

We manage changes to applications, including addition of new functions and changes in existing functions.

Examples of AMO

• 

  Maintenance of applications

  If you are having problems maintaining in-house applications, we can do that on your behalf. We also offer proposals according to circumstances. For example, for applications created using a tool that does not ensure security, we can remake them by using a different development tool.

• 

  Monitoring and managing of applications

  Centering on cloud environments such as AWS and Azure, we offer application monitoring and management services. Upon request, we can monitor and manage a specified range of environent, limiting the monitoring for commercial- use environment or some selected servers. We also apply security patches on a regular basis, providing safety and security to customers in addition to error and alert notifications. Consult us with the scope of service that you need.

• 

  Handling security and version upgrades

  For a customer with a shortage in in-house knowledge, techniques, and human resource, we maintained and managed their systems and applications. Drawing on our know-how that we have built up through handling requests from various customers, including the NTT Group, we support application maintenance, security handling for middleware and OS, and functional additions based on version upgrades.

• ITO（Information Technology Outsourcing）
• Data analysis

Common Issues

1. Data collection without any subsequenst analysis

2. Uncertainty in how to use the data

3. Necessity of evidence for making management decisions

You may be analyzing data, but do you have a clear objective for doing so? Why are you collecting and analyzing that data? Only after your objectives are clear, you start seeing what data is necessary. Since it takes too much time to train a data scientist from scratch, it is recommended to seek the help of an external expert.

NTT e-Asia’s Data Analytics

Collecting a range of figures by using a variety of tools may become meaningless unless you utilize those figures to connect to your next step. Use your data effectively for a successful business transformation.

Visualizing the results of data analysis

Visualizing data analysis results not only makes it easier to interpret the meaning of data, but also is very important for gaining insights.

Formatting data for making management decisions

How to interpret the collected data is where a data scientist can show one's competence in using data. Data should be used as a source for making decisions. We can format your data in a way that is easier to use as a guide for determining the future course of business.

Improving the freshness of data

When determining something using data, how much time does it take to analyze the collected data? Shortening the time spent on analysis by outsourcing it to a data expert can significantly improve the freshness of data, which enables you to make decisions based on more accurate, current figures.

Examples of data analytics

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  Streamlining decision making by visualizing management indicators

  The client’s issue was that while the management indicators were managed in Excel and reported to top management, specific use of such results was limited. Therefore, NTT e-Asia migrated the data managed in Excel to a BI tool and visualized the management indicators through a range of graphs. Thanks to the visual analyses provided by the graphs, the customer became able to gain insights such as the level of indicator achievement and ranking of each organization, both of which were previously inaccessible. As a result, the customer could clearly see the achievements and issue of each organization, which further led to formulating more effective management strategies.

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  Improving decision-making support by data formatting

  The client’s issue was that while they had a massive amount of data, it was in an inefficient data structure that prevented them from using it effectively. We therefore analyzed the client’s data in detail and efficiently rebuilt it into a more universal format that makes it easier to use. This process included data cleansing and structuring. Eventually, we ended up developing a dashboard for easier analysis. As a result, the introduction of the dashboard, along with the restructured data, successfully reduced data processing time compared to the previous style. Furthermore, we provided the client with the knowledge of data management through the process of data structuring, contributing the reinforcement and improvement of the client’s data platform.

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  Improving the quality of analysis by increasing efficiency

  The client’s issue was that even by using a BI tool, too much time was being spent on creating the dashboard, which led to a lack of time to produce analyses and create reports. Therefore, we added external BI tool specialists to the team to be in charge of building the dashboard, separating the task of dashboard building from tasks related to data analysis and report creation. As a result, dashboard generation time became significantly shorter compared to the previous style, and data analysts became able to focus on interpreting data and creating strategic reports. This further led to faster acquisition of insights from data, drastically improving the quality and impact of the reports.

• AMO（Application Management Outsourcing）