Sega Entertainment has completed the rollout of Infor LN on time and on budget. It selected Infor LN in April 2019 alongside the Infor gold partner Hitachi. Hideo Kawai, Director, Business Strategy Department, Business Planning Division, Sega Entertainment Co, Ltd speaking in 2019 said: “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.
“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.”
Sega Entertainment is a division of the Sega Group. It owns and operates around 200 amusement arcades and hospitality venues in Japan. Its mission is to create smiles and emotions through “fun places”. It is working with the vision of becoming a “fun place creation company.”
This is underpinned by the SEGA Group mission of “continuing to create inspiring experiences.” Sega Entertainment locations include video arcades, collaboration cafes, three fast-food locations, a restaurant, a bowling alley, a train line and a kids play area. This is where the versatility of Infor LN and the in-depth knowledge of Hitachi of both the Sega Entertainment business and Infor LN helped.
The benefits
The project is now complete and Sega Entertainment has already identified some of the benefits. The administration workloads of Arcade managers have reduced by around 20% in some outlets. The new solution has also helped to reduce manual processes and the risks that they carried during the current pandemic. This has made locations and staff safer. With digital processes in place, the business is now able to scale faster. It has been able to introduce new business practices that make each of its locations more efficient.
Infor LN now manages all core operations including accounting, procurement, and logistics. Despite the pandemic and the restrictions on mobility Hitachi was able to deploy the solution without any delays. Manual paper-based processes are now eliminated. Sega Entertainment is now looking to leverage additional functionality in the product in further phases. This includes inventory visualization in logistics management and system support for new businesses as it looks to grow.
Kawai, now the general manager of Sega Entertainment’s IT Solutions Department commented: “We were endeavoring to transform our business across the company to address customer needs, but were unable to carry out real transformation owing to the limitations of our systems, which were designed for now-outdated business operations. We are very happy with the way Infor LN has enabled us to streamline our operations, allowing us to devote more time and energy to our corporate mission.”
During the implementation, Sega Entertainment also introduced Sega Platon. This official app provides electronic payment functions and discounts according to play history, in its outlets nationwide. It isn’t clear how this integrates to Infor LN. However, if the data is captured in the Infor data lake then Sega Entertainment would be able to analyse customer trends using Infor Birst.
Enterprise Times: What does it mean?
This is a positive announcement for Infor. It demonstrates the versatility of its product with the successful deployment at Sega Entertainment. It should also be noted that Hitachi also won an award for best go-live (Production) partner from Infor for its project at Sega Entertainment.
Ms Mitsuko Yoshimoto, General Manager, Enterprise Package Solution Division, Enterprise Solution Division, Industrial and Distribution Business Unit, Hitachi, Ltd commented: “We are very pleased to hear that you have evaluated the project from the introduction to operation of Infor LN, which has renewed the business environment of Sega Entertainment. As with this project, we will continue to support Japanese companies in business transformation and operational efficiency through industry-specific solutions, including Infor’s cloud.”
For Sega Entertainment it can now reap the benefits of having a single scalable solution. For Infor this successful implementation at such an iconic brand should help open up more opportunities in the country.
