Bringing intelligent agriculture to Japan: How SoftBank Technology and Microsoft work together to bring the power of cloud computing to the public sector

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SoftBank Technology and Microsoft

Since its establishment, SoftBank Technology has dedicated itself to the growth of their clients’ businesses through providing ICT services with substantial added value by using advanced information technology and their expertise.

SoftBank Technology has seen success providing modern solutions for customers in the public sector. After working to win a major deal to work with their central and local governments in Japan, Softbank Technology inspired the development of The Agricultural Farmland Information System, a revolutionary solution enabling Japanese farmers and agricultural institutions to search farmland availability throughout the country. The solution quickly became vital to the strategic efforts within Japan’s agricultural sector – efforts core to the country’s growth strategy.

Working with Government customers and cloud solutions

Government customers have a different set of requirements. Customers in the public sector have security concerns that often outstrip their counterparts in the private sector, not the least of which involve legal regulations that require custom-tailored solutions to accommodate.

The Agricultural Farmland Information System was part of a massive project and a major investment by the Japanese Government. As such, it was important to the Japanese cabinet office that the technology, implementation and solution itself were held to the highest standards for data security.

“This project is an important venture for the country; thus, from the standpoint of secure network connection and its operation and management between local networks and the cloud, our past achievements were influential.” – Atsuhiko Mizuta, SoftBank Technology

For the Japanese government, the unparalleled level of care to security made the implementation of a broad, Azure-based solution palatable. The solution has proven to be a breakthrough for the use of cloud technology in the Japanese Government.

“By providing Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics CRM in a core national sector, we made a breakthrough in a broad market. This will have an impact on ministries other than the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), as well as on independent administrative agencies, the 1,730 municipalities, and other national institutions – the project has opened several opportunities for business.” – Atsushi Kurata, SoftBank Technology.

SoftBank Technology’s success in delivering and maintaining valuable packaged cloud solutions for Government customers offers a lesson to partners looking to expand the scope of their business.

Government customers’ security concerns and compliance requirements make shifts to cloud solutions challenging – but rising to that challenge can be a profitable way to benefit from reaching a largely untapped market and opens the door for solutions that can work directly towards the public good – as SoftBank Technology’s has.

Expanding internationally

Helping people is core to SoftBank Technology’s philosophy. SoftBank Technology’s agricultural solution’s scope of impact extends far beyond its benefits to Japan’s Government. The service will have a major impact in promoting economic growth and encouraging social inclusiveness.

SoftBank Technology has already begun the process of expanding the scope of their solution beyond the borders of Japan.

“We are currently having discussions with an international cooperation organization in Japan about developing our agricultural system abroad and received a high degree of interest from officials in countries across Africa and Southeast Asia.” – Ikuma Uehara, Softbank Technology.

Working with Microsoft

SoftBank Technology thrives on a culture of innovation. As such, they work closely with Microsoft to ensure their technical team members are well versed on new products or features well in advance of their broad release.

Microsoft and Azure make a compelling case to government customers concerned about data integrity and compliance and can form the backbone of powerful, impactful solutions targeted at Government customers just beginning their cloud journey.

“We started using Azure services on IoT since the preview stage and we are working with the Microsoft technical team who are supporting us for the validation.”

Microsoft’s technical resources partnered with SoftBank Technology to assist in deployment efforts, with consultants providing some recommendations that proved helpful to Softbank Technology’s work with the Japanese Government. SoftBank Technology’s sales teams also meet with the Microsoft sales team in Japan, preparing value propositions and aligning both organizations sales’ priorities and strategic goals.

Microsoft’s partnership enables SoftBank Technology to train and prepare their resources, align their sales strategies and work with government customers – customers typically restricted from benefitting from cloud computing due to compliance requirements.

By establishing precedent for successful, secure cloud solutions in a largely untapped market and bringing the benefits of those solutions to Japan’s citizens, SoftBank Technology’s solution is a step toward bringing the power of cloud solutions to government agencies around the world.