Reduce development time by up to 80% with no-code development using iPaaS. Develop a highly scalable data integration platform including EDI.

Unisol Holdings Co., Ltd., which handles machinery, tools, and construction materials, is proceeding with the renewal of mission-critical system, core system and the introduction of external services, including SaaS, in order to transform and optimize operations across the entire group. To create an environment that seamlessly links each system and contributes to data utilization and business automation, they are using HULFT Square, a cloud-based data integration platform (iPaaS).

Customer Issues

We want to integrate SaaS and business systems to achieve data utilization and business process automation.

Benefits of implementation

With the shift to cloud computing and the use of SaaS, data integration platform centered on APIs is becoming necessary.

Unisol Holdings Co., Ltd. was established in October 2021 through the business integration of the Furusato Group, which had been developing a wide range of businesses from construction materials to machinery and tools and security, and the Maruka Group, which had been developing a global presence mainly in industrial machinery. Since the integration, the company has been developing a portfolio management system with four pillars: machinery and tools business, construction materials business, construction machinery business, and IoT solutions business. The company has also established a brand called "UNISOL" that oversees the entire group, and a philosophy system with the vision of "Towards a society overflowing with 'things you want to achieve'," and is promoting its business based on its mission of "Opening up the present with inspiring proposals and accompanying clients through to the future of change." The company is pushing forward with a medium-term management plan to realize a roadmap toward its desired state in 10 years, and with the slogan "'That's a good idea,' one after another," it aims to be the number one solution partner by proactively addressing various challenges faced on-site with unique ideas.

Therefore, taking the opportunity of revamping mission-critical system, core system, we decided to consider creating a platform that would serve as a data integration hub, allowing us to centrally manage data from all our business companies and simultaneously contribute to business automation.

HULFT Square, a Japanese company specializing in no-code development, offers iPaaS integration including SaaS.

As a hub for linking data from various systems, they wanted to automate not only data collection but also the entire business process. In fact, they had been using ETL tools before, but due to their nature, they weren't using them with a focus on process automation. "We needed an environment where we could execute and manage data processing and transformation at the program level in order to automate the entire business process. In addition, knowledge of APIs was necessary to link with surrounding systems in an open environment provided by SaaS, and after investigating various options, we concluded that iPaaS was the right solution for us," explains Yamamoto.

While many iPaaS solutions are made overseas, the company focused on HULFT Square, a Japanese-made iPaaS. "HULFT has a strong track record in Japan for data integration, so we took notice of HULFT Square provided by Saison Technology. In particular, its ability to be used flexibly with no coding requirements matched our needs," says Takamichi Ninomiya of the department.

"Because it can process and transform data at the program level, we felt it could lead to the automation of our operations. Unlike overseas products that charge based on the number of scripts, HULFT Square uses a resource-based license and is not dependent on the number of scripts. We were also considering using it for EDI, so we anticipated that the number of scripts would increase with the number of trading partners, making it ideal in terms of future development," said Ninomiya.

Furthermore, the fact that it is a Japanese-developed iPaaS and offers a Japanese GUI and support was another deciding factor. "It wasn't a mandatory requirement, but considering our internal resources, the fact that everything was handled in Japanese gave us peace of mind," said Ninomiya. In addition to support in Japanese, the support was also comprehensive on a project basis, and the extensive support services, including pre-implementation evaluation and verification support such as assistance with script creation, were also attractive features.

After conducting a proof-of-concept (PoC), it was determined that the IT planning department members could easily use it. The ability to start small by selecting resource-based plans was also highly valued, and HULFT Square was adopted as the new data integration platform.

HULFT Square was evaluated as a data integration platform that includes data processing and other related tasks.

Currently, HULFT Square handles data and file transfer with mission-critical system, core system and cloud services, as well as data processing such as data transformation and conversion. Several people who implement data integration mechanism use it on a daily basis. The timing of data integration varies depending on the application, ranging from processes performed once a day, such as generating report data, to EDI applications that execute processes every few minutes.

One specific application is the urgent need to comply with the revised Electronic Bookkeeping Law during the Proof of Concept (PoC) phase. It is being used to store documents such as purchase orders and invoices exchanged through various cloud services, including business systems operated by the company, email attachments, and SaaS fax services, in separate folders on Google Drive.

HULFT Square is also utilized in the EDI area. Files attached to e-mails, files placed on specific servers, cloud storage boxes, etc., are retrieved and processed into CSV, Excel, and other formats for import into mission-critical system, core system using HULFT Square. The entire group has about 100,000 business partners. At present, the number of companies that can conduct electronic transactions is a portion of the business partners of G-net Corporation, one of the operating companies, and is expected to be around 70 by the end of FY2025. Once these developments are completed, it is expected that approximately 670,000 order details will be processed annually. We plan to further increase the ratio of EDI-capable clients in the future," Ninomiya explains.

In some of our business companies' mission-critical system, core system, we use RPA to export data to Google Sheets and utilize HULFT Square 's ETL/ELT functions to integrate the data with BigQuery and other systems. We also use HULFT Square for temporary data processing, such as data migration during the transition of our business card management service and when creating a large number of folders in Google Drive.

We appreciate that the new use of HULFT Square has made it easier to create an environment that leads to the automation of tasks such as document output.

Furthermore, replacing traditional program-based data integration with no-code development using HULFT Square contributes to reducing man-hours. "Because development can be done by dragging and dropping component icons like a blueprint, script development man-hours have been reduced by up to 80%. It is easy to visualize and offers advantages in terms of maintenance. As the number of processes increases, the effects should become even more apparent," says Ninomiya. "Even members with little experience in program development are using HULFT Square, and the great thing about no-code is that they can become self-sufficient while being trained. It is the perfect solution for us in the sense that the members of the IT planning department can master it," Yamamoto adds, giving it a high rating.

HULFT Square 's resource-based licensing makes it easy to increase the number of development members and scripts, which is one of its unique advantages compared to other solutions.

In terms of support, there have been comments that the thorough support provided from the PoC stage before implementation, including weekly meetings and training, contributed to building a sense of security. "Even when we were faced with the need to comply with the revised Electronic Bookkeeping Law, which was not initially planned, they were able to advise us, and we are satisfied with the comprehensive support, including not only assistance at the inquiry desk but also the time they dedicated to meetings. They have also responded flexibly and quickly to requests for additional features, and they are properly listening to the voices of the users," says Mr. Ninomiya.

Expectations are high for its use as an integrated platform for data integration, including aggregation and external API exposure.

The use of HULFT Square started on the receiving side of EDI, but now it is also being used on the sending side, such as for order forms to suppliers and delivery date responses to customers. In addition to HULFT Square, the data integration system also exists within the group, and Mr. Ninomiya would like to consider consolidating it into HULFT Square as an integrated platform for data integration. Some of the other mechanisms that are being run independently can also be executed via APIs, so we would like to create an environment that allows us to manage a series of flows starting from HULFT Square," he said. Furthermore, they are eager to expand the applications of HULFT Square, such as data generation in the preliminary stage of using generative AI and RAG to improve the accuracy of responses.

With many business systems currently deployed across the entire group, there are high expectations for the use of HULFT Square for purposes such as linking account information. "Ideally, we'd like a system where, for example, if we change account information managed in the HR and payroll system, it will be smoothly reflected in all business systems. We want to streamline account management with HULFT Square," Yamamoto emphasizes. He also appreciates the API management functions, such as authentication and access control, which are useful when developing and publishing APIs. "By developing and publishing APIs while ensuring security with HULFT Square, so that our business partners can access and use internal data such as product information, we want to further improve efficiency," Yamamoto said, outlining his future plans.

• The customer's company name at the time of this case study was Furusato Maruka Holdings Co., Ltd. The contents of this case study are subject to change without notice.

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• The content of this case study is current as of the time of the interview. The content of this case study may change without notice.