With industrial structural change and inter-industry fusion accelerating in the digital society due to technical innovations such as AI, IoT and big data, interest in DX has been growing in a range of industries, also driven by the digitization of administrative procedures.
However, DX focused on business transformation cannot be realized simply because products and services are introduced by system vendors. It is essential to understand issues correctly by gathering and analyzing a huge amount of data generated at a point of contact with customers and continue to use this data after creating new customer experience based on a market-oriented way of thinking.

The Information & Communication Technology division of the ICT & Financial Business Company is expanding its business domains to support the creation of customer experiences in the digital age and digital transformation among enterprises, and the data utilization business is a key business area. In April 2017, ITOCHU entered into a capital and business alliance with Grid Corporation, a provider of optimization AI solutions. In December 2019, we made WingArc1st Inc., who provides software and services for the utilization of big data, into an equity-method affiliate. In March 2020, we formed a business alliance with AKQA Corp, a leading company in the digital consulting business. We entered into a capital and business tie-up with BrainPad, a leader in data utilization, in November 2020, and then with Sigmaxyz Holdings Inc., a major Japanese consulting firm, in April 2021.

Through collaboration with each company, ITOCHU will continue actively encouraging enterprises to embrace digitalization and utilize data, and working to develop new business.