Nowcast Supports FineToday in Building a Next-Generation Data Analytics Platform

Nowcast, Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Hitoshi Tsujinaka; hereinafter "Nowcast"), a member of the Finatext Group that realizes embedded finance through next-generation financial infrastructure, has supported FineToday Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director, President and CEO: Tetsuro Komori; hereinafter "FineToday") in building a next-generation data analytics platform using Snowflake and dbt to accelerate company-wide data-driven management.

Through this support, FineToday has established an environment capable of integrally managing and utilizing core data, such as supply chain and financial accounting data.

■ Background

FineToday is a personal care company that manages brands such as "TSUBAKI," "SENKA," and "uno." As the company promoted data utilization to optimize its entire value chain from production to sales, it faced the following challenges:

• Black-boxed and Siloed Data Pipelines
  In the previous data infrastructure, complex business logic was hard-coded into programs, and data structures were not optimized for specific analytical dimensions. This required significant man-hours for data reuse, quality control, and modifications, hindering rapid data utilization.
• Lack of Data Governance
  There was a lack of catalog functions to manage data location and definitions, making it difficult for developers and users to access necessary data. Additionally, there was a need for stronger control over permission management and resource management across production and verification environments.
• Need for Advanced Data Utilization
  The previous infrastructure made it difficult to perform data analysis based on integrated and controlled metrics and analytical axes across the group and global operations. This hindered rapid and flexible decision-making and limited the cross-functional use of data, making it difficult to implement advanced analysis using AI models.

■ Overview of Support

Nowcast provided end-to-end support, ranging from architectural design and implementation to the formulation of operational rules and skill transfer to internal engineers.

1. Rebuilding Dimensional Models with Snowflake and dbt
By adopting Snowflake for the Data Warehouse (DWH) and dbt for data transformation, complex supply chain and financial data were restructured into dimensional models organized by business axes such as "Product," "Customer," and "Time." This visualized complex processing logic based on SQL, creating an environment where anyone can handle data with consistent definitions.

2. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with Terraform and Enhanced Governance
AWS and Snowflake infrastructure configurations were codified using Terraform. This automated environment construction, prevented configuration errors, and enabled strict permission management and audit log tracking, establishing an enterprise-level governance system.

3. Promoting AI Data Utilization through a Semantic Layer
To facilitate intuitive data searching via natural language and the use of Generative AI (such as Snowflake Cortex Analyst), Nowcast supported the development of a semantic layer. This allows business users to easily and accurately extract necessary data through AI by integrally managing analytical axes and business metadata.

■ Comment from Hidehiko Komuro, IT Division, FineToday Co., Ltd.

"Previously, the specifications of our data infrastructure were a black box, requiring significant time and cost for modifications and the ingestion of new data. With Nowcast's support, we introduced modern technologies like dbt and Terraform, transforming it into a highly transparent platform that we can manage and operate ourselves. Moving forward, we will leverage this platform to accelerate business-linked data utilization."

■ Future Outlook

FineToday will continue to promote the sophistication of its data utilization with this new platform at its core. Nowcast will continue to strongly support FineToday's digital transformation (DX) through both Generative AI and data infrastructure.

【Inquiries regarding Nowcast's Data & AI Solutions】

For companies interested in this case or Nowcast's Data & AI solutions, please contact us via the link below.

Inquiry Form: https://finatext.com/contact