ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter "ITOCHU") announced today that it has formed a business alliance with COMTURE CORPORATION, (headquartered in Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; Chihiro Sawada, Representative Director, President; hereinafter "COMTURE"), a systems integrator that has a track record in cloud-based system development.

Today, it is necessary for companies to use technologies, such as cloud-based platforms, to support diverse working styles and develop new business models. The demand for data analysis and utilization is expected to grow as more companies seek to migrate their internal systems to the cloud and enhance their competitiveness.
Methods of developing systems have changed over the years particularly in North America, from simply fulfilling customers' business requirements to utilizing the standardized, industry-centered SaaS (Software as a Service) model to shorten the development period and enable swift additionaldevelopment,. The number of similar cases is also increasing in Japan. The SaaS market size is expected to grow to 1.5 trillion yen in 2025, nearly twice its size in 2020.^*1

COMTURE is a leading company with strength in cloud-based systems, such as Salesforce^*2 and SAP HANA Cloud,^*3 and the provision of comprehensive services from developments of these solutions, to maintenance andoperation. It has been incorporating new technologies including big data, AI and RPA technologies to play an active role in these growth sectors and expand its business.
The business alliance allows ITOCHU to combine its networks in Japan and overseas with COMTURE's cloud-based system development capabilities. This will enable ITOCHU to strive to create higher added value by offering a full range of services from consultation for standardization of customer operations to outsourcing of business processes, which cannot be solved solely by system development,.

ITOCHU has a track record of developing DX-related businesses by working with data management company WingArc1st Inc., data utilization service provider BrainPad Inc. and SIGMAXYZ Inc., a leading consulting firm in Japan. Through this capital and business alliance with COMTURE, ITOCHU will contribute to the realization of sustainable digital society based on the market/consumer oriented approach to solve issues for the market and our customers.