Introduced Biz∫® for J. Front Retailing's common accounting system

WingArc1st Inc. and the following four companies upgraded J.Front Retailing Co., Ltd (JFR)'s common accounting system and began full-scale operation of the new common accounting system on 1 March, 2024 for nine group companies including JFR and Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores Co Ltd.. 

• NTT DATA Japan Corporation
• NTT DATA Biz Integral Corporation
• Board Japan K.K.
• First Accounting Co.,Ltd.

This system was implemented by NTT Data with Biz∫® ERP package software from NTT Data Biz Integral at its core. The system also visualizes and analyzes business management information using Board Japan's Board, and incorporates First Accounting's Robota and WingArc 1st's invoiceAgent to streamline and digitize on-site operations.

These 5 companies will deploy this system to a total of 22 JFR Group companies by March 2026(*1). They will also promote development and proposal activities for solutions that strengthen business management and standardize and streamline on-site operations, with Biz∫®. By 2029, they aim to introduce the system to 15 corporate groups that conduct group management.

Background
JFR, the holding company created by the business integration of Daimaru and Matsuzakaya in 2007, operates 15 stores, including Daimaru Matsuzakaya, 16 PARCO stores, and GINZA SIX in major cities nationwide, and is involved in the retail business, developer business, settlement and finance business, and wholesale business. In addition, JFR is working to develop new businesses and is in the process of transforming its business portfolio. Under these circumstances, JFR needed to resolve issues such as an aging accounting system, a black box system, inefficient and idiosyncratic business processes that remained, and to shift to a system that could contribute to business management and control from a group-wide perspective. In considering the construction of the next accounting system, JFR compared multiple ERP products and selected Biz∫ because of its extensive standard functions as well as its scalability and flexibility as a common system infrastructure. In addition, NTT Data was selected as the implementation vendor because of its sufficient expertise in both management and on-site operations.

Summary
NTT DATA, NTT DATA Biz Integral, Board Japan, First Accounting, and WingArc 1st have jointly upgraded JFR's common accounting system and begin full-scale operation of the new common accounting system on March 1, 2024 for a total of 9 group companies including JFR and Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores Co. Ltd. from March 1, 2024.

This system was implemented by NTT DATA with NTT DATA Biz Integral's ERP package software Biz∫ and Group Integrated Data Platform as its core components.

By utilizing the standard functions of Biz∫, which centrally manages clients' back-office operations, the system standardizes and reviews the JFR Group's operations, thereby resolving the black box nature of the system and inefficient and idiosyncratic business processes that had been an issue. In addition, for the purpose of visualization and analysis of business management information such as funds, business performance, and budgets, JFR has introduced Board Japan's EPM/BI solution Board to realize intuitive and quick business analysis. In addition, First Accounting's AI-OCRRobota is used to streamline the process of capturing invoices, and WingArc 1st's invoiceAgent document management system is incorporated to comply with the Electronic Bookkeeping Law, thereby streamlining and digitizing on-site operations. This will contribute to improving the quality of business management while meeting the requirements of both finance and administration. By adopting the intra-mart^® infrastructure, which is also highly scalable in the future, as the system foundation, we are building a system that can flexibly respond to business expansion and changes in the environment. (Figure 1)

Figure 1: New Common Accounting System Configuration

Introduction Effectiveness

Centralization of financial information for advanced group business management	Aggregating financial and non-financial data in a data platform to forecast and analyze using both types of data to support sophisticated and rapid decision making
Standardization and streamlining of operations from a holistic optimization perspective	Through the establishment and operation of a common accounting system, standardization and streamlining of operations have become widespread at the group level, and further business improvement activities are being promoted.
Promote work style reform and strengthen financial structure through the use of digital technology	Streamlining the process from invoice capture to voucher creation through the use of AI-OCR and promoting a paperless workflow through electronic workflow to adapt to the diversification of work styles and build a system that allows the company to focus on high-value-added operations.

Role of each company
・NTT Data : ERP package software Introduction and deployment of Biz∫
・NTT Data Biz Integral: Sales and maintenance of Biz∫ ERP package software
・Board: Sales and maintenance of business management SaaS solution Board
・First Accounting: Sales and maintenance of AI-OCRRobota
・WingArc1st: Sales and maintenance of invoiceAgent, a solution for complying with the Electronic Book Preservation Act 

Future Prospects
The five companies will deploy this system to a total of 22 JFR Group companies by March 2026. They will also promote marketing and proposal activities for solutions that use Biz∫ as a core to achieve sophistication in business management and standardization and efficiency in field operations, aiming to introduce the system to 15 corporate groups that conduct group management by 2029. In addition to supporting the digitization, sophistication of business management, and improvement of operations of many business companies, we will expand and utilize the ecosystem based on Biz∫ to expand our business as quickly as possible.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

 (*1) As of October 2023, the common accounting system covers JFR and all 22 Group companies. It may be added or changed in the future.

Biz∫ is a registered trademark of NTT DATA Japan Corporation and NTT DATA Biz Integral Corporation.

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