Case Study: Hitachi Construction Machinery Europe

In 2016, Hitachi Construction Machinery began exploring the possibility of achieving Global System Uniformity, a goal the company had previously been unable to reach. As a result, Hitachi Construction Machinery turned to cloud services as the best solution.

By consolidating ERP systems—from collecting information at the headquarters in Japan to analysing and using the data in near real-time—the company also aimed to streamline transactions and inventory for machines and parts across its overseas group companies.

Dynamics 365 and Annata 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management were selected as the best cloud service partners to achieve this goal. Combined with Annata A365, Hitachi Construction Machinery was ready for the future.

Onaka praises Annata's A365 as “an ERP that fits our needs in the vehicle and construction equipment industry perfectly. It includes a full set of features we can use out of the box in nearly all areas of our business—from construction equipment sales to aftersales service, rental, and accounting.

Moreover, each of our machines can be tracked, and we can manage detailed information such as maintenance status and unit revenue. Managing this information in other companies’ ERPs required costly customisation. Additionally, the Dynamics 365 user interface is similar to Microsoft Office, which we are familiar with. This ease of use was another selling point.”

Masahiro Ban, Deputy Department Manager of the IDMS Promotion Group within the Global Solutions Promotion Department of the IT Strategy Center at IT Promotion Headquarters, reflects:

“It was clear that a cloud version was the way to go if we wanted a fast rollout and global expansion of the ERP.”

“At that time, however, there were no examples within the Hitachi Group of using cloud services for ERP. We had a lot to investigate—whether extremely sensitive data uploaded to the cloud would remain confidential, whether long-term use of such a system would result in errors—and there were certainly things that surprised us,” he added.

Despite initial doubts, Hitachi quickly decided to implement Dynamics 365 and A365, which Mr. Ban called “the most rational and cost-effective option.” A key turning point was the wave of ransomware attacks in 2017.

As cyberattacks evolved, the challenges of maintaining internal security became clear. Microsoft, on the other hand, demonstrated strong control over cloud services and received Japan’s first Cyber Security Gold Mark. Security certifications, along with discussions with Microsoft Japan and partners like Annata, alleviated the concerns that initially caused confusion.

Hitachi Construction Machinery Europe transformed its global operations with Dynamics 365 and A365. By connecting sales, aftersales, rental, and finance into one cloud platform, they now manage every machine in detail—across continents, in real time.