Sega Entertainment Co., Ltd. has selected Infor LN, an ERP solution for manufacturing companies, to enable it to meet new business demands and promote business efficiencies. Infor partner Hitachi, Ltd. will also assist in the implementation of the project.
With its mission of "Creating happy, moving experiences and contributing to society through places of enjoyment," Sega Entertainment's business revolves around the operation of entertainment and amusement facilities. In recent years, the company has continually implemented new initiatives to create enjoyable experiences and amusement space using the latest technologies. One such example is the trial launch of its official Sega Platon app that supports electronic payments.
To enable its employees to focus on new initiatives, Sega Entertainment is transforming work styles and promoting business efficiencies in both offices and game arcades. One area that has proved challenging is its mission-critical systems that have been highly-customized and developed completely from scratch for its past amusement business. Tied to aging systems that scaled poorly, Sega Entertainment has been unable to advance its agenda of reforming workflows to improve efficiencies and meeting the demands of new businesses.
Having established the need to modernise its systems, Sega Entertainment chooses Infor LN ERP solution for manufacturing companies because it offers a highly-versatile package of functionalities that are able to support the unique commercial practices of the trade, as well as the flexibility required for improving and adding new business operations. Another reason for selecting Infor is the partnership with Hitachi, a company that has been partnering with Infor since the solution was launched in the Japanese market. With considerable knowledge of Infor LN and a deep understanding of Sega Entertainment's business, Hitachi will assist with the deployment.
Sega Entertainment plans to leverage Infor LN to build a new mission-critical platform for the management of accounts, sales and logistics, including warehouse management. The system is expected to be fully operational by the summer of 2020.
Using this new platform, Sega Entertainment will streamline its legacy business processes and information flows, and promote business efficiencies. For example, by developing systems for managing its warehouse inventories of prizes and other considerations needed for the rapidly-changing needs of arcade games, it plans to reduce excess inventories and cut down on the workload of its arcade employees. With the extra time gained by a more efficient business, it hopes to develop new businesses that can create enjoyable experiences and spaces. It also expects the new platform to support the new business operations generated by this change.
"As the lives of our customers become more digitalized, our core business of amusement facility management also needs to move from analogue to digital processes," says Hideo Kawai, Director, Business Strategy Department, Business Planning Division, Sega Entertainment Co., Ltd. "Because of the limitations posed by legacy systems that we had built from scratch, we looked into ERP packages that would support us through this change. We chose to adopt Infor LN because of its great versatility, and because of Hitachi's knowledge and experience of the solution, its support capabilities and its practical skills. Infor LN will enable us to modernise our operating environment and provide new places of enjoyment that meet the needs of our customers."