Breaking Away from Outsourcing: Fukuoka FG's Banking App to See 500+ Annual Releases. CCT's IT Talent Acquisition Support Bolstered FFG's DX

Core Concept Technology Inc. (Headquarters: Toshima-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and CEO: Takeshi Kaneko; hereinafter "CCT"), which provides DX support and IT talent acquisition support, assisted Fukuoka Financial Group (Headquarters: Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture; Representative Director and President: Hisashi Goshima; hereinafter "FFG") in its DX project as an IT talent acquisition support partner. CCT consistently provided rapid procurement of immediate-impact engineers and a follow-up system after deployment, supporting the project.

CCT continuously supported FFG in building an in-house system development structure through agile development, moving away from full outsourcing to external vendors. For one of their in-house products, the personal banking app, CCT helped establish a development system that achieves over 500 releases annually and supported the rapid growth of the DX promotion headquarters from approximately 10 members at its inception to a scale of 200.

From left: Miki Matsuno, Resource Consulting Department, Enterprise SI Business Division, Core Concept Technology Inc.; Tatsuya Negami, Deputy Head of DX Promotion Headquarters, Fukuoka Financial Group Inc.; Yasuhiro Takei, Head of Resource Consulting Department, Enterprise SI Business Division, Core Concept Technology Inc. *Titles are as of the time of the interview.

Background

FFG, which operates five banks including Fukuoka Bank, Juhachi-Shinwa Bank, and Kumamoto Bank, and conducts business throughout the Kyushu region, established the DX Promotion Headquarters directly under the president in 2022. This was done to move away from "individually optimized efficiency" for each department and achieve company-wide reform. While aiming to refresh business processes and create new value, significant challenges remained in the development system.

At the core of these challenges were the traditional waterfall development model and full outsourcing to external vendors. Waterfall development required a long period from requirements definition to development and release, and changes in specifications during development were not easy. This posed a risk of divergence from market conditions and customer needs at the time of release. Furthermore, a system centered on full outsourcing to external vendors also presented the challenge of incurring significant costs and time for each feature addition or modification.

Based on these challenges, FFG aimed to improve development speed and flexibility by adopting an in-house system development policy with the goal of "delivering valuable products quickly."

However, securing immediate-impact engineering talent emerged as a new urgent task for its realization.

CCT's Support and Effects

CCT leveraged its extensive talent database through its broad business partner network "Ohgi" and its agile proposal capabilities to support FFG's project as an IT talent acquisition support partner.

Key Support Details

- Rapid procurement and proposal of immediate-impact engineers tailored to FFG's in-house development policy and development requirements. - Improvement of engineer performance and retention support through regular interviews and follow-ups after deployment. - Establishment of a continuous communication system for early detection and resolution of issues.

Effects

- Adoption of agile development as the basic development methodology for various in-house products. Achieved over 500 releases annually for the personal banking app, one of the in-house products, realizing a development system capable of immediate response to customer and employee requests. - Flexible modifications and feature additions became possible through in-house development, establishing a continuous improvement cycle that was difficult with outsourcing. - The DX Promotion Headquarters expanded from approximately 10 members at its inception to a scale of 200 in about four years. It was established as a core organization driving FFG's overall DX. The System Solutions Department, responsible for in-house development, also expanded to an organization with over 100 employees.

Customer Voice

Tatsuya Negami, Deputy Head of DX Promotion Headquarters and Head of System Solutions Department, Fukuoka Financial Group Inc.

"When we started in-house development, we met CCT when we were completely short of engineers. Their ability to quickly propose the talent we needed and their system of regular follow-ups after deployment to resolve issues before they escalated was extremely reassuring. They have exceeded our expectations in both 'speed' and 'follow-up system.'"

Future Outlook

FFG will continue to focus on developing engineers who can demonstrate market value in the AI era, aiming to evolve into an organization where transformation autonomously progresses from the field. The ultimate goal of the DX Promotion Headquarters is for "the organization to become unnecessary," meaning the realization of a future where DX naturally proceeds led by the field.

CCT will continue to support FFG's DX promotion through IT talent acquisition support and contribute to the medium-to-long-term growth and strengthening of competitiveness for companies.

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