- Country: Japan
- Project timeline: 2018 - 2024
- Customer: Nippon Gas Co. Ltd
Project background
Nippon Gas Co. Ltd (Nichigas) is a major Japanese energy operator primarily focused on supplying gas, as well as selling gas, electric power and home appliances. Founded in 1955, it is today active in both domestic and overseas markets. Since 2016, a series of market liberalisation reforms in Japan's energy sector resulted in Nichigas entering also the retail market which in turn triggered the need for data interoperability to enhance service delivery. As a result of its updated business model, Nichigas was looking for a data exchange solution to streamline its operations and elevate customer experience.
Cybernetica’s contribution
Cybernetica stepped in as a technology partner to Nichigas who was at the time piloting and testing several alternatives for secure, standardised and scalable data exchange. After multiple implementation iterations involving different technologies, Nichigas settled on Cybernetica's in-house data exchange platform Unified eXchange Platform (UXP) that most effectively met both business and operational requirements.
The main use case for the UXP interoperability platform was to enable secure connectivity and communication between multiple information systems of different departments and group companies of Nichigas with its affiliated call centre. The resulting ability of databases to seamlessly work together made it possible to streamline and consolidate the back-office processes of different independent entities and as such to rationalise call centre operations.
Project impact
From business perspective, a trusted environment was created that allowed to retrieve customer information across different entities and thus simplify call centre operations. This consequently led to a smoother and more seamless user experience, increasing customer satisfaction with the service. The customers no longer had to provide detailed information related to their account, as it could now be accessed by the customer support team. In addition, this decreased response times as well as customer support hours needed to resolve any issues because the platform allowed to consolidate all individual information silos under a unique ID and search data across multiple systems.
From technical operations perspective, the implemented UXP technology enabled secure, cost-effective and easy-to-maintain integrations between the databases of different Nichigas group entities. This meant shifting away from creating tedious ad hoc point-to-point connections between organisations, which had previously hindered the productivity of technical teams. Thanks to a standardised approach to sensitive data sharing, operating costs were reduced and cybersecurity risks minimised.
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