GRANVALLEY
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Japan, a country known for its finesse in engineering the best of breed technology and automobiles, is fretting over a significant decline in workforce together with a shrinking population base. With approximately a quarter of its population expected to be 75 years old or more by 2025, the world’s fastest-aging population is undoubtedly a huge setback for the country’s businesses. As a result, many Japanese enterprises today are facing a significant dearth of employable individuals.

Looking ahead to 2025, Japan has another concern: Legacy systems, such as traditional ERP, have become shackles for many enterprises wishing to achieve the digital transformation that aims to create new business models utilizing cutting-edge digital technologies. A recent report by the Japanese government stated that the inability to accomplish digital transformation might result in economic losses of up to ¥12 trillion per year after 2025, leaving legacy organizations perturbed. Thus, public and private sectors across the country are striving to embrace digitization by enterprise-specific adoption of technology and accomplishment of critical tasks such as migration of legacy systems to better Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions designed to more easily utilize Analytics and AI.

“For a company to achieve digital transformation, it must first shift to data-driven management. To do this, it is necessary to perform data analysis, build a framework that enables effective utilization of analyzed data, and foster human resources. By sharing a wealth of expertise and know-how accumulated over years of experience implementing SAP ERP and SAP BW-based business analysis systems, we construct management information analysis platforms that can be used easily by anyone. We also provide extensive training for human resource development, to help clients strive towards data-driven management reforms and effectively resolve their issues,” asserts Yasuhiro Otani, President, GRANVALLEY. Founded in 2005, the organization has garnered a reputation for resolving critical customer issues by employing advanced data-driven techniques, effective adoption of technology disciplines such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, and consulting services for effective use of data with a client-focused, vendor-neutral approach.

GRANVALLEY, which has been recognized as a reliable SAP BI consultant over the years, has also garnered a reputation in the ERP realm. Since its inception, GRANVALLEY has carved a niche for constructing a management information analysis platform that combines data warehouse and analysis tools with the theme of utilizing SAP BW, which is reputed to be a next-generation data warehouse.

Otani continues, “Since the 1990s, many Japanese organizations have adopted SAP for organizational needs. However, in recent years, business environments have changed. Systems are expanding in application, and there is increased demand for effective use of data, which is indispensable for digital transformation. These changes spurred the development of new ERP solutions that facilitate the effective use of data, with potential to become digital cores such as SAP HANA and S/4 HANA.”

In Japan, which will host a number of major global sports events such as the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, IT for sports analytics remains a white space. GRANVALLEY started focusing attention on this area three years ago and it has been researching methods to utilize big data analysis and artificial intelligence in areas other than business. The organization paints a clearer picture of its capabilities by sharing its experience of collaborating with one of its esteemed clients—Japanese motor racing team, Audi Team Hitotsuyama. GRANVALLEY works on motorsports analytics for Audi Team Hitotsuyama, where it provides data analysis including position predictions with lap-time data visualization and vehicle driving data to help the team compete for tenths of a second in the GT300 class of the ‘SUPER GT’ championship in Japan.

The organization has always been aligned with the customer's point of view and provides customer-centered consulting services that resolve critical business issues and deliver optimum solutions with value. This is why GRANVALLEY has a proven track record in a wide range of industries, including listed companies in areas such as manufacturing, distribution and retail, as well as fast-growing venture companies.

Unlike many of its industry peers, GRANVALLEY intends to focus on empowering the technical capabilities and traditional challenges of its country’s enterprises. “In Japan, the market for digital transformation platforms is likely to continue to grow, centered on SAP S/4 HANA employing cloud computing, big data, and AI technologies. However, in order to create a new business model using these platforms and technologies, reliable data becomes essential. GRANVALLEY will continue to strive for reliable data of higher quality,” concludes Otani.