IT Case Study Yokogawa Electric Corporation

Before

After

Company internalYokogawa Electric Information Systems Division

Yokogawa Electric IT Planning Team

NSSOL operation team

About 1,000 servers

NSSOL Data Center

• Migration

• Cloud service utilization

• Operations migration

• Outsourcing operations human resources

About 500 VMs

VM: Virtual machine Migration completion scheduled for March 2016

On-premises environment

NSFITOS

On-premises environment

About 400 servers

Migration completion scheduled for March 2016

NSFITOS

NSSOL disaster recovery center

On-premises environment

Disaster recovery center

About 50 servers

• Migration

On-premises environmentDisaster recovery functions

Disaster recovery functions

absonne Enterprise Cloud Service

About 150 VMs

About 20 servers

absonne Enterprise Cloud Service

■ Outline of IT outsourcing at Yokogawa Electric using “NSFITOS”

Yokogawa Electric CorporationHead Office: 2-9-32 Naka-machi, Musashino, TokyoFounded/Incorporated: 1915/1920Capital: 43,400,000,000 yen (as of March 31, 2015)Net sales: 405,800,000,000 yen consolidated (fiscal year ended March 2015)Number of employees: 2,871 single base/19,601 consolidated (as of March 31, 2015)Group companies: 84 subsidiaries, 3 affiliated companies (as of March 31, 2015)

Taku KitaharaGeneral ManagerManagement Information Systems DepartmentCorporate Administration HQYokogawa Electric Corporation

Tomoya HayashidaGroup ManagerICT Planning & Promotion GroupManagement Information Systems DepartmentCorporate Administration HQYokogawa Electric Corporation

Ryuta NoguchiICT Planning & Promotion GroupManagement Information Systems DepartmentCorporate Administration HQYokogawa Electric Corporation

■ Core technologiesIT outsourcing, system migration/relocation, standardization, cloud service

■ System outline• Migrated servers: about 1,000 • IT outsourcing service: NSFITOS• Cloud service: absonne Enterprise Cloud Service • Data center: NS Solutions Corporation data center

Considering IT outsourcing as part of business structure reformYokogawa Electric Corporation is currently pushing ahead with a business expansion program aimed at becoming the global leader in production control systems, transmitters and other control systems. Based on its medium-term management plan adopted in fi scal 2011, the functions of the headquaters have been optimized and other measures aimed at a wide-ranging business structure reform are being implemented.

As part of these efforts, the “Global IT Strategy” formulated by the IT depart-ment of the company posits a number of goals, including a rethinking of IT strat-egy, a shift of human resources towards IT strategy and planning operations, op-timization of IT infrastructure, strengthening of disaster readiness, and improved quality of IT services.

Selecting NSSOL’s NSFITOS and also utilizing the DC and cloudAmong the multiple proposals, the one from NS Solutions Corporation (NSSOL) stood out by meeting the requirements on the highest level, which resulted in the company being chosen as IT partner. To revamp the IT department frame-work, NSSOL’s outsourcing service called “NSFITOS” was to serve as the back-bone, along with full utilization of NSSOL’s data center and “absonne Enterprise Cloud Service.” The project started up in July 2013. Approximately 1,000 servers in an on-premises environment, located either on company premises or in the disaster recovery center were gradually moved to the NSSOL data center or to an integrated virtualized environment. Operational re-engineering was applied to standardize or automate operations, thereby enhancing quality and reducing costs.

New framework enables IT dept. to focus on IT strategy and planningThe new framework went into operation from April 2015. Staff who were in-volved in IT operation were taken on by NSSOL as professional operators, creat-ing a framework in which personnel at the IT department of Yokogawa Electric were able to focus on core tasks such as devising IT strategy and pursuing IT planning.

Also within the context of its new medium-term management plan called “Transformation 2017,” Yokogawa Electric will be strengthening various mea-sures in this regard. The optimization of the IT infrastructure using absonne is to continue until 2018, including the elimination of physical servers through virtual-ization and moving IT assets off the balance sheet, thereby further improving the quality of IT services and reducing IT costs.

Aiming at the Global Leader of Production Control Systemby IT Outsourcing of System Operation

Realizing quality improvement and cost reduction of IT with “NSFITOS”

SolutionsBackground Result

A new IT department structure was estab-lished whereby the department is mainly engaged in developing IT strategies and performing IT planning, with NSSOL han-dling daily operations. This re-engineering of operations results in higher quality and reduced costs.

Selecting the comprehensive IT outsourc-ing service “NSFITOS” offered by NS Solu-tions Corporation allowed full utilization of the latest data center and cloud services “absonne Enterprise Cloud Service” of NSSOL. IT infrastructure operation tasks were fully outsourced.

As part of the company’s medium-term management plan, the IT department framework was to be reshaped. The targets for this move included an enhancement of human resources for IT strategy and plan-ning operations, and optimization of IT in-frastructure, etc.

Key to Success

The background for Yokogawa Elec-tric’s move to IT outsourcing is the company’s structural reform drive based on its medium-term management plan.

Mr. Taku Kitahara, General Man-ager of the Management Information Systems Department, puts it as fol-lows: “It was a pressing issue for us to reorganize so that the IT department would be able to focus on IT strategy and IT planning.”

NSSOL was selected as the partner for IT outsourcing.

Mr. Kitahara describes the reason for this decision: “About seventy per-cent of our net sales are generated by overseas operations. We operate a large number of systems on a global basis, and 24-hour/365-day operation is an absolute necessity. And in Japan, we must also be prepared for events such as earthquakes. Given these circum-stances, NSSOL has a long-term future vision including the strengthening of disaster preparedness.”

Mr. Tomoya Hayashida, Group Man-ager of the ICT Planning & Promotion Group in the Management Informa-tion Systems Department explains: “Because we wanted to strengthen operation stability of our systems, the question of whether a strong data center was available that could ensure solid and resilient IT infrastructure operation was one of the major criteria. Also, in order to advance the struc-tural reform of our IT organization, we needed to have the new structure operational by the end of March 2015, a milestone date of our medium-term management plan. Only NSSOL de-clared outright that they would be able to achieve this.”

The way NSSOL handled the project found high praise.

Mr. Hayashida recalls: “Even when encountering items that were difficult to grasp, the engineers from NSSOL were willing to discuss things with us until they knew what we wanted, and then they looked into ways to give us the intended result. For the current project, we requested that the core

business system of the group, with a large user base and a global scope should be migrated to the data center first. Of course there is a certain risk in dealing with the largest system fi rst, but on the other hand, if migration of the core business system succeeds, understanding for the migration of other systems can be more easily se-cured. The NSSOL people in charge came to understand this point through extensive discussions, and they came through with a solution.”

A proposal that covered a lot of ground with almost no complaints from usersMr. Ryuta Noguchi of the ICT Plan-ning & Promotion Group in the Man-agement Information Systems Depart-ment comments: “In the past, with practically every project there were various points which led to complaints from users, but in the current instance, thanks to NSSOL’s extensive expe-rience and track record, there were almost no complaints from users in the fi eld. I have a feeling that the migration

procedures are systematized and well thought out.”

Mr. Kitahara adds: “While the proj-ect was in progress, some major issues came up on which we had to make a decision as a company, but the NSSOL people provided us with proposals that were adequate to the situation.”

Operations under the new IT frame-work began in April 2015. Mr. Ha-yashida comments: “The project is still at a mid-way stage, but the foundation for a quality improvement of the IT in-frastructure and for reducing costs has been developed. Based on management indices established in fi scal 2014, vali-dation of the results will be performed from fi scal 2015 onwards. At the same time, we will aim for reduced IT costs centered around an expansion of the private cloud, and for further measures to strengthen operation stability of IT services.”

Mr. Kitahara concludes: “NSSOL has delivered work that exceeded our expectations, but IT is a fi eld where the technology keeps on changing drasti-cally. We hope that NSSOL will con-tinue to be a strategic IT partner for us who provides a wide range of fl exible responses.”