Background of Implementation: Addressing the Need to Eliminate Manual Labor in Business Partner Management

Generally, when initiating new business-to-business transactions, it is essential to register information regarding the partner company into an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system such as SAP. For Sumitomo Corporation and companies using the Sumitomo Corporation Group standard ERP system, streamlining the process of submitting registration requests to these ERP (partner database) systems had become a significant challenge.

For example, when a new partner registration request was submitted, it was necessary to perform tasks such as checking the internal database for past transaction history and manually verifying detailed information about the applicant company via external websites in accordance with established procedures.

The IT Planning & Promotion Department at Sumitomo Corporation implemented uSonar's corporate database to eliminate these manual efforts, improve operational efficiency, and enhance data entry accuracy. The new system is now fully operational.

Data Integration Overview Diagram

uSonar's corporate database is one of the largest in Japan, covering 12.5 million business locations using our proprietary LBC code. By linking LBC to Sumitomo Corporation's partner database, the process for partner registration requests has become significantly faster. Moving forward, operational efficiency is expected to improve across Sumitomo Corporation and the 26 companies utilizing the Sumitomo Corporation Group standard ERP.

1. LBC is one of the largest corporate databases in Japan, built by uSonar and covering 12.5 million business locations, which is nearly all such locations nationwide.
2. An 11-digit LBC management code is assigned to every business location, with constant maintenance to reflect status changes such as new establishments or bankruptcies.
3. LBC allows for the identification of not only corporate attributes such as corporate numbers, industry types, and sales scale, but also capital relationships and headquarters/branch relationships through its coding system.
4. Through API integration with ERP systems, corporate attributes from LBC are automatically applied when partner registration requests are submitted by group companies.

We are grateful to uSonar for providing consistent and comprehensive support from the initial stages of our system evaluation through to the final release. Regarding the LBC service we have implemented, we intend to leverage its full potential by starting with the streamlining of our client information application processes, followed by exploring its deployment and utilization across our group's various business sites.

This department is responsible for strategic planning and execution in the corporate IT sector for Sumitomo Corporation and the Sumitomo Corporation Group, as well as managing the IT infrastructure for the entire group. As a member of the DX Center organization, we are accelerating the digital transformation of the Sumitomo Corporation Group.