🔥 SEJ + Google Cloud = Game Changer 🔥
2019 vibes: Stepping into Seven-Eleven Japan (SEJ) like 🚶, the IT boss realized – IT was cramping their style! 🙅♂️
“We faced the urgent need to address the challenges of complex IT systems and vendor lock-in against the background of business expansion,” says Nishimura.
Nishimura’s thought bubble 🤔: “Our IT’s a mess with our business booming! We’re trapped in outdated tech and annoying vendor contracts.”
Solution: Total IT glow-up. 🌐 Google Cloud was the answer. It wasn’t just good; it was mind-blowing. Sharing key data super-fast, making store life easier, and giving sales a boost with some AI magic.
📈 Fast Data = Winning Move SEJ’s got 21,000 indie stores relying on shared data. With a crazy 1,000 customers daily per store, the old systems were drowning in data. 🌊
Upgrading? Nishimura’s crew was like, “Nah, let’s go cloud-first.” Google Cloud was the whole package: flexible, secure, budget-friendly, and scalable.
🚀 Introducing: Seven Central 2020 hit and boom! Seven Central, SEJ’s cloud platform, was live. It’s the digital pipeline connecting everything: in-store, online, you name it.
Behind the scenes: Google Cloud works its magic, making data flow smooth. Nishimura breaks it down: “Old-school systems build data around business logic. It’s cool for one thing, but switching it up? Slow and pricey.” With Seven Central? They switch data directions like flipping a switch, adapting to the ever-changing business scene.
🌐 Digital Transformation HQ Old goal: Share data in an hour. New reality: Done in 1-2 minutes.
“The phenomenally short development time compared to traditional on-premise systems is also worth noting,” Nishimura says. “In the past, it would have taken at least a year to build the data infrastructure alone, but we managed to develop it in about six months.”
Nishimura’s flex 💪: “Traditional setups? A year to make. With Google Cloud? Half that!” That speedy process brought epic upgrades: 7NOW app users get goodies from stores in just 30 mins, and store peeps save 8 hours weekly on restocking. 🛒
Bottom line: “We are still halfway through the process, but Google Cloud is a vital foundation of our digital transformation project,” says Nishimura.
Read more at: https://impact.economist.com/new-globalisation/seizing-the-technology-imperative/case-study-7-eleven-japan