Credit Saison Digital Transformation (CSDX) Vision: A Digital Transformation toward the Future

A journey to in-house development that started with small steps

In 2019, we started the Technology Center as an in-house development organization from scratch.We started with small steps, beginning with the development of some smartphone app functions, but we gradually noticed the need for comprehensive in-house.And as we went ahead with in-house smartphone app development, it became clear that the same approach would needed for backend systems.In this way, we repeated a process of noticing the need for in-house development of a system while doing that for another system, and as of 2023, we have expanded in-house development to our internal API infrastructure system, which is part of our core systems.

CSDX evolving through three phases

The CSDX initiative can be divided into three phases.

• Phase 1 (2019-2021): Starting the Technology Center with small steps, tasks were done and the scope of in-house development expanded.We had open recruitment of general employees during this time, training personnel who can understand both business and systems development through the acquisition of digital skills.
• Phase 2 (2021-): Unifying the conventional IT Dept. and the Technology Center, the CSDX Development Dept. was created.This facilitated evolution to an organization that has two strengths: mode 1 that emphasizes stability and mode 2 that emphasizes speed and flexibility.Moreover, the CSDX Promotion Meeting was established, creating a system for executives to share information about and discuss the DX status.
• Phase 3 (2023-): Not only the CSDX Development Dept. but all employees aspire to DX.It has become an important theme to increase the productivity of all employees by utilizing generative AI and low-code/no-code tools.

2022 as the first year of generative AI

2022, as the first year of generative AI, has revolutionized the way we work.President Mizuno has also been using Saison Assist, which is our internal ChatGPT, on a daily basis and communicated a top-down message to "revise all tasks with generative AI as a premise." Utilizing generative AI will be indispensable in realizing DX for all employees, which is the theme for Phase 3.

Results in figures

Thanks to in-house development, we have cut costs by 61.8% compared to hiring IT vendors.Work automated through DX development between 2019 and 2022 was also as high as 790,000 hours.This corresponds to automation of 400 employees' work.Looking at paper, 183 tons of copy paper were used in FY2019 and then reduced to 107 tons in 2022.Likewise, the self-solving rate of customer self-service was 64% in FY2020 and increased to 72% in FY2022.