What Kind of Company is DENTSU SOKEN?

It's been about a month since I transferred from DENTSU SOKEN to Mitsue-Links, and now, finally my turn has come to write a Column. This is my first contribution!

Since moving, until today, I’ve greeted as many customers and employees as possible, however, there are still a great number that I’ve not yet been able to speak with. Therefore, I’d like to use this first Column as an opportunity to introduce and provide an overview of DENTSU SOKEN. I have written this article in my own words, so it may be a little subjective.

DENTSU SOKEN was founded in 1975 as a joint venture between Dentsu and America’s General Electric Company (GE) to provide, in Japan, GE’s Time-Sharing Service (TSS). A system that, before the internet era, resembled cloud computing services.

That's why the company was previously named Information Services International-Dentsu, Ltd. (ISID).

Generally speaking, the IT subsidiaries of major companies were often established internally as departments to develop and operate the parent company's internal systems. However, DENTSU SOUKEN was created as an IT-related subsidiary company to conduct new, external business, and which later became responsible for the parent company's information systems business as well.

We believe this is why we are still able to, as a publicly listed company, develop and advance our own business areas while being part of the larger group.

TSS ended its role with the spread of the Internet. At that time, many TSS customers were financial institutions and manufacturing companies. Therefore, ISID developed systems to support the overseas offices of financial institutions and, to aid computer-related design operations for the manufacturing industry, commenced operations selling overseas CAD, CAM, and CAE software in Japan. ISID underwent a major corporate transformation to become a system integrator (a so-called SIer), basically a company that has a core business centered on system development.

DENTSU SOKEN, which will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary, currently has 3,500 employees and consolidated sales of more than 140 billion yen. Since the days of ISID, we have had a divisional structure, where each business unit is nearly independent of the others. Furthermore, we have promoted business expansion by creating business plans (strategy, investment, recruitment, profitability, etc.) for a multitude of specialist areas, and, as a result, we’ve expanded our service offerings beyond finance and manufacturing. Furthermore, as Dentsu transforms itself from a so-called advertising agency to a company that provides comprehensive support for corporate business transformation, additional business areas have flourished including those related to providing packaged business support for HR and accounting as well as DX, and for public authorities. Presently, we feel that we have become a SIer with a relatively balanced portfolio.

ISID continued to move with the times, and, in January of this year, the company name was changed to DENTSU SOKEN. So, going forward, what’s on the horizon?

DENTSU SOKEN has a long-term management plan termed " Vision 2030 ", which affirms the company's aspiration to continue being "an entity that meets the expectations of society, companies, and consumers”. We believe doing so is our foremost objective - and the purpose of our capital alliance.

Like many SIers, ISID's core business had been to provide IT solutions for corporate business transformation. In the future, as a newly formed "research institute," we aim to go beyond the scope of a mere SIer to become a company that creates a better society by combining our consulting and thinktank functions with our IT capabilities. To achieve this, it’s necessary to build systems and services that facilitate social interactions, that provide interfaces between companies and their consumers. Such BtoC services, until now, have not been the direct recipients of our support, and it’s here that Mitsue-Links' strengths in accessibility, UI/UX, and front-end web development come into play. This is a core reason for the capital alliance.

By 2030, DENTSU SOKEN aims to become a corporate entity with sales of 300 billion yen (approximately double our current level). As we move forward together, Mitsue-Links will also take on new challenges, acquire new capabilities, thereby transforming itself to provide enhanced services to our existing customers. To do so, as a starting point, I would like the two organizations to familiarize themselves, and through various discussions and idea generation, start to deliberating future growth initiatives.

In my next Column, I hope to provide more specific details about the current state of our collaboration and the outlook for future developments. We look forward to, and are grateful for, your continued support of Mitsue-Links as it strives to take on new challenges.