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September 01, 2022

Solving business divisions’ issues with Azure AI data analysis! What is data-driven management strategy by Mitsui & Co., and its outlook?

Mitsui & Co., Ltd. possesses over 500 group companies and globally promotes businesses in seven Operating Segments and 16 Headquarters Business Units, including metal resources and energy. Mitsui & Co. started utilizing digital technologies for their businesses even before the term “digital transformation (DX)” became popular. In May 2017, the company became the first major Japanese Sogo Shosha (usually translated as “general trading company”) to create the post of CDO (Chief Digital Officer). In April 2020, this post was integrated with the post of CIO (Chief Information Officer) which was renamed as “CDIO.” They further established the Integrated Digital Strategy Div. in the same month. They act to promote DX at a companywide scale and utilizes a special support program “Data Hack” by Microsoft both part of their DX Comprehensive Strategy. Mitsui’s Integrated Digital Strategy Div./Business Div. and Microsoft have been collaborating to solve business issues through data analysis.

MITSUI and CO., LTD.

Utilizing Microsoft’s Data Hack in preparation to insource data analysis/utilization

There are various Digital Transformation (DX) initiatives within general trading companies which have expanded their business in various fields, thus, the systematization of DX across the entire organization and sharing of knowledge becomes essential. Mitsui & Co. has established the DX promotion system led by the front department teams, which provide DX support to the 16 Headquarters Business Units and COE (Center of Excellence) teams promoting solutions with the focus on digital technologies. With their DX Comprehensive Strategy framed around their DX Business Strategy and Data-Driven (DD) Management Strategy, they aim to create new values by combining the “OT (Operational Technology),” which is the core of a general trading company’s operations, and “Digital Power,” such as AI/IoT/robotics/big data. Mr. Ryota Suzumura, General Manager of the Data-Driven Strategy Dept. which is part of the Integrated Digital Strategy Divs’ COE and manages the data analysis project “Data Hack”. He shares the vision by Mitsui’s DX Comprehensive Strategy as follows.

“Business innovation created through digital technology is the vision of our DX Business Strategy and DD Management Strategy, which are the two pillars of the DX Comprehensive Strategy promoted by Mitsui & Co. We strive to “foster next-generation management talent with DX as a basic standard” and “establish constant innovation through DX as Mitsui’s corporate culture,” and this Data Hack project is also part of the efforts, aiming to insource of data analysis and development of DX digital talents who are highly knowledgeable about both business and digital domains.” (Mr. Suzumura)

Under the slogan of “Mitsui is People and Data,” Mitsui & Co. has been establishing the company-wide data utilization structure. They have established Mitsui DX Academy and have been promoting to bring awareness to the reformation of the entire organization through efforts such as e-learning training which is made mandatory for all employees. They tell us that increasing number of those in charge of the Business Div. have undergone the training are expressing their desire to utilize AI/ML, and Integrated Digital Strategy Div. has been receiving more inquiries. In light of such circumstances, Mitsui & Co., who learned about the special support program “Data Hack” offered free of charge to companies wishing to promote data analysis/utilization with Microsoft Azure, to solve issues of Business Div. through data analysis. The Integrated Digital Strategy Div. and Business Div. formed a team and started the project. Mr. Toru Yanagisawa, Deputy General Manager of the User Experience Innovation Dept. and Data-Driven Strategy Dept. of Integrated Digital Strategy Div. of Mitsui & Co., manages the project, and explains the background for Data Hack.

“Mitsui & Co. has been working with Microsoft for a long time and also are fully utilizing tools, such as Microsoft 365, Power BI, and Power Platform. Integrated Digital Strategy Div. has led the promotion of full-scale utilization of Power BI since around 2020, and there are now hundreds of user reports being created/updated every month. As you can see, “data visualization” with tools such as Power BI had been making a progress, but we were just starting to promote in-house data utilization. The timing could not have been better for Microsoft to introduce Data Hack to us.” (Mr. Yanagisawa)

Mr. Yanagisawa explains “While there were already a number of projects performing data analysis/forecast, knowledge gained there was not shared throughout the organization.” Looking back, he says “We were hoping to utilize the data analysis knowledge with as many projects as possible. We had high expectations for Data Hack, which was a program to promote in-house production of data analysis.” Mitsui & Co. has also been promoting the establishment of DMP (Data Management Platform), which will be the pillar of DX Comprehensive Strategy. Its entire architecture consists of Microsoft products, and Mr. Yanagisawa says that such internal IT environment mainly consisting of Microsoft products also helped the decision to use Data Hack.

DX team, Business Div., and Microsoft collaborate to analyze/forecast realistic data

With the background above, the Data Hack project for Mitsui & Co. was established. It started as a four-person team, consisting of two from the front department of Integrated Digital Strategy Div. and two people from the Business Div., in charge of the actual data analysis/forecast tasks. Mr. Hayato Irimura of Digital Transformation 2nd Dept. and DX Human Resource Development Dept. of the Integrated Digital Strategy Div. of Mitsui & Co., who was appointed as a project member, started participating in this project with anticipations for AI project possibilities. Mr. Irimura has promoted the project in collaboration with the Business Div. from the position of Digital Transformation 2nd Dept. (one of the front department teams).

“My previous work was not related to Azure or AI/ML, but it did share some common grounds with utilization of Microsoft tools, such as Power BI and Power Apps. This was the main reason why I requested to participate in the project. I anticipated great possibilities in data utilization by AI/ML, so I was extremely content when I was appointed as a project member.” (Mr. Irimura)

Mr. Yanagisawa, who was the project manager, also perused his career mainly in the Business Div. and states that there was almost no common ground with Azure or AI/ML. The two members appointed from Business Divs.’ were not familiar with specific data analysis/utilization techniques, although their desire to utilize AI had been heightening through Mitsui DX Academy. Mr. Yanagisawa states this was the main reason to kick off organizing the background and objectives in the selection process of the project theme and unifying the intentions of Integrated Digital Strategy Div. and Business Div.

“Before the first meeting with Microsoft’s Data Hack team, we organized business-related issues, which was the theme for this project, and considered how we could utilize forecasts using AI along with Business Div. We then identified data that contributed to this theme and simultaneously talked to relevant departments within the company to investigate data that would be necessary. We spent about one month to prepare ideas for the project and had our first meeting with Microsoft.” (Mr. Yanagisawa)

Three people, including Ms. Mochizuki, Mr. Nagata, and Mr. Iwabuchi from Microsoft’s Customer Success Group, participated in the project. Mr. Takeda, joined later to support the full-scale operation and specific management. This four-person team supports the data analysis project for Mitsui & Co. This is how the Data Hack efforts through collaboration of Integrated Digital Strategy Div. and Business Unit of Mitsui & Co. and Microsoft began.

“We started with organizing the necessary data, defining a theme, and analysis approach by also involving the members in charge of the project at Microsoft. Throughout this process, Microsoft provided us with support, such as data utilization which we did not anticipate.” (Mr. Yanagisawa)

Then the collection of necessary data was promoted, followed by the establishment of data analysis environment and base tabulation. This project uses an original data analysis platform established on Azure instead of DMP operated by Mitsui & Co. They stated that Microsoft supporting the establishment of the environment, was aware of architectures, thus, did not require major changes when anticipating the full-scale operation in DMP.

Mr. Yanagisawa explains that they were able to obtain a number of insights by using Power BI in the base tabulation phase. He explains how the Business Div. reacted, saying “The Business Div. members were also surprised that the knowledge cultivated through their work was surpassed by the data scientists just by looking at the data.” They were happy with the achievements obtained in the base tabulation phase. Microsoft also considers base tabulation to be an extremely important process in order to determine the following data analysis approach. Mr. Yanagisawa shares that they repeatedly realized the process offered by-products (new insights) that were beyond the ultimate forecast model for Business Div. members.

The following “data import/processing” and “forecast model establishment” phases required the most time in the project. Mr. Irimura explains the reason as follows:

“AI utilization does not end when the model is created. It requires a repeated process of adding or subtracting data by going back to the previous process, depending on the performance. The data set we created for this project was major, requiring that approximately 100 variables to be inputted to forecast a single value. This was a quite stretch for me, as I only had experience working mainly on EUC (End User Computing), which is relatively light among the whole system development to streamline user tasks. I think the main reason I was able to follow through with this project was because of Microsoft’s support. They provided me with thorough lectures from how to create data sets and models to how to use tools. Furthermore, they provided us with the support with the awareness of talent development in anticipation for insourcing through means, such as gradually omitting some explanations by recognizing that our understanding level had improved.” (Mr. Irimura)

Microsoft’s Data Hack team was also aware that the data processing and model establishment phases in this project were more difficult than other Data Hack projects. They state that they were most surprised by the learning curve of the Mitsui & Co. Data Hack team, who immediately incorporated newly-learned functions and constructed them as their own logics.

Mr. Yanagisawa explains the reaction, saying “I was able to prosper so much that it was impossible for me to anticipate who I would become when I started the project.” Mr. Irimura also says “I learned that necessary outputs can be obtained by operating the GUI even without programming skills which is usually required to operate general machine learning. This changed my perspective towards data analysis.” He expresses enthusiasm, saying that he has built the confidence to utilize the know-how he gained in this project on other themes as well.

Forming an internal Data Hack team to disseminate data analysis knowledge at a companywide scale

They repeatedly promoted improvement toward model precision enhancement and were able to obtain forecast results that were also satisfactory for Business Div. members, and the PoC for this project concluded. The impact was so great that it attracted the focus of the management team. They are currently preparing for their full-scale operation.

“We were able to obtain greater results than we had anticipated through this project. We are now promoting the environmental transition to DMP in preparation for full-scale operation.” (Mr. Yanagisawa)

While Mr. Suzumura, manager of the Data Hack project, appraises the sense of speed and agility of this project, he perceives the difference between PoC and full-scale operation as an issue that needs to be addressed especially in major corporates.

“The environmental establishment went speedily in this Data Hack project also with the support of Microsoft which was closely available. However, establishing the full-scale environment within Mitsui’s system is a completely different story. If we take the example of establishment of one environment on Azure, each user cannot create it on their own. Our infrastructure team needs to establish them according to the internal governance rules. Since this project was the first one with Data Hack, we have spent a great amount of time establishing resource naming rules and operation rules by considering full-scale operation, so that this can be a sample for Data Hack cases to follow. We have been making efforts so that we can pass down our knowledge to the future projects. Although these are accumulation of small steps, we believe that we can realize insourcing of AI/ML by overcoming this challenge.” (Mr. Suzumura)

Mr. Suzumura states that this project offered great insights also in terms of “talent development,” which is important when promoting insourcing of data analysis. He praises Microsoft’s support, “Greatly appreciate Microsoft’s support as we were able to establish the environment in which we can develop talents who can utilize data while promoting a real project. This was a great achievement.” Mr. Irimura also expresses his gratitude for the support, saying “With temporary staffing or consultation services, we sometimes cannot receive the support when we want to ask questions that are necessary, due to the scope/man-hours of the contract. However, Microsoft’s Data Hack provided thorough answers to our questions in anticipation of insourcing, which was to follow the project.”

With the knowledge they gained in the project, Mitsui & Co. formed a Data Hack team in February of 2022. They started Data Hack 2 with a new business theme in collaboration with the data analysis support consultant introduced by Microsoft. Mr. Suzumura expresses his positive expectations for the efforts in and following Data Hack 2, saying “From the aspect of Data Driven (DD) Management Strategy, establishment of silo data by system is an urgent issue. Part of this is the establishment of DMP and is the establishment of a data utilization structure based on this project.” Mr. Yanagisawa, who manages the Data Hack team, expresses his enthusiasm, saying “We didn’t want this Data Hack to be a one-time project. There are still many business cases that could use this data forecast, thus, we hope to utilize the know-how that we gained through this project.”

Mitsui’s DX Comprehensive Strategy strives to develop data science talents who are highly knowledgeable about both business and digital and cultivate corporate culture in which constant innovations through DX naturally occur by promoting insourcing of data analysis/utilization, by using Microsoft’s Data Hack as the starting point. We cannot take our eyes off of their commitments following Data Hack 2.

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