By supporting data migration, we restructured the project structure and successfully completed the system integration. We created an environment that allowed for more flexible challenges in new business ventures.

Saison Fundex Co., Ltd., a member of the Credit Saison Group, operates a lending business. In addition to its existing card loans and lifestyle support loans, the company has diversified its business into real estate-backed loans and credit guarantees. However, the systems it had implemented up until then had difficulty improving operational efficiency and responding quickly and flexibly to new business ventures, so it decided to integrate its business systems in order to achieve further growth. However, there were problems with the initial project structure, particularly the inability to ensure the quality of the migrated data, which led to a delay in the release. As a result, the company quickly requested support for the data migration from Saison Information Systems (now Saison Technology), which has extensive experience with large-scale systems. This enabled the company to strengthen progress management for the entire project and successfully integrated the systems.

solution

With the support of Saison Information Systems (now Saison Technology), the progress of the data migration work improved. In addition to developing an efficient migration program using DataSpider, standardized progress management and smooth communication enabled the system integration project to be successfully completed.

Benefits of implementation

Background: As new businesses are developed, the partially optimized system reaches its limits.

Aiming to be the No. 1 company in customer satisfaction, Saison Fundex has developed the comprehensive brand "Saison Fundex Loan Hyakusen" and offers card loans and other financial products tailored to customer needs. As the company has actively expanded into new business areas such as real estate collateral and credit guarantees, system-related issues have become apparent.

With the aim of improving competitiveness, the decision was made to integrate the system into OBIC7 in March 2018, and the project began, with the aim of releasing it in May 2019.

To handle the switch to the new system, including API modifications and data migration, the company outsourced the work to a development company that had previously been in charge of maintaining and operating their own systems. However, the company lacked the know-how to develop large-scale projects and was short on resources, making development difficult. "I joined the project in March 2019, but data migration was already significantly behind schedule, and with only two months left, acceptance testing could not even begin, so it was far from ready for release. There were also discrepancies in understanding between the areas of responsibility of each member involved in the project, and it seemed that the overall management of the project was not functioning well," said Katsuragawa. So they revised the schedule, postponed the release to September, and decided to restructure the project.

Support for data migration provides peace of mind from quality to schedule

In this project, apart from the development of OBIC7 itself by OBIC, Saison Fundex's tasks were (1) developing the OBIC7 form to be migrated, (2) modifying the API of the linked system, and (3) migrating the data. As of March 2019, all of steps (1) to (3) were concentrated in the development company to which the company had outsourced the maintenance and operation of its own system, so in order to diversify risk, the company asked the Financial IT Services Business Unit of Saison Information Systems (now Saison Technology) to carry out the data migration of the two systems, which had not yet begun. "Saison Information Systems (now Saison Technology), which was also involved in Credit Saison's next system migration, had previously provided us with advice based on their experience. We also asked them to do the work because they had extensive know-how in data migration using data integration tool 'DataSpider' and the use of RPA," says Katsuragawa.

However, before the final acceptance test before the September release, the quality of the migrated data could not be guaranteed, resulting in failure at a pre-established checkpoint. As a result, the development company that had originally been responsible for maintenance and operations focused its resources on API and report development, and the data migration was entrusted entirely to Saison Information Systems (now Saison Technology). The release was postponed again to August 2020. "Until then, estimates had been poorly based, resulting in repeated delays. However, Saison Information Systems (now Saison Technology) provided estimates based on detailed work plans, and they had also considered catch-up plans in advance in case of an emergency. Being able to forecast such a highly feasible schedule was extremely important when redrawing the overall schedule again," said Katsuragawa. Furthermore, the data migration relied on the use of DataSpider, and Katsuragawa was informed in advance that program modifications, which usually take about a month, could be completed in about a week. "They were familiar with how to use the tool and could repeatedly make modifications and tests in a short period of time, which gave us a sense of security," said Katsuragawa.

Saison Information Systems (now Saison Technology) support range

Aiming for further growth with the new system. Expectations are high for proposals to address new challenges.

By sharing information about project progress and issues at weekly meetings, misunderstandings and communication gaps can be dramatically reduced.

In addition to data migration, Saison Information Systems (now Saison Technology) also provided support for alternative solutions to freeze development of the old system in preparation for system integration, and for adding temporary functions. DataSpider and RPA were utilized to reduce the workload on users. "There was a period when the old and new systems were running in parallel, and DataSpider handled data integration during that time. Even after the full migration, we are currently automating our work with DataSpider and RPA to further improve efficiency, and they are advising us on how to combine the two to maximize efficiency. They have made suggestions that we would never have thought of ourselves, and we are impressed by the suggestions that only Saison Information Systems (now Saison Technology) can make, as they are familiar with both tools," says Hashimoto.

There are high expectations for future proposals as well. "While we are keeping a close eye on changes in the environment, we are discussing with our management team what we need to do and what we should prioritize, so as not to be swayed solely by terms like digital transformation and the new normal. With this system integration, we have created a system environment that can handle things like improving business efficiency and developing new products, but as we aim for further growth, we are asking for IT solution proposals from an expert's perspective," said Katsuragawa.

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