CIO Bulletin

FSCreation Co. Ltd. — helping companies transition to the cloud with stellar cloud migration services

While modern companies have jumped at the chance to use the cloud for their goods and services, established companies are still in the process of cloudifying their products and services. Modern organizations may now upset the status quo, grow quickly, and attract clients without being limited by legacy systems, thanks to cloud applications and cloud solutions. Businesses that are already established and have legacy solutions are facing pressure to move to the cloud in order to achieve a competitive edge again. By doing so, they may use their domain knowledge to provide more advanced solutions.

FSCreation Co. Ltd. is a cloud computing company that helps other businesses secure their cloudification processes by using methodologies from feasibility studies. Over the course of almost ten years, the company has expanded greatly and made a good impact on the industry, incorporating ongoing operations that are critical to resolving business issues.

Recently, CIO Bulletin sat down to talk to the Representative Director of FSCreation, Chieko Tsujimura, about FSCreation's impact on businesses transitioning to the cloud.

Q. How did the idea of starting FSCreation as a cloud migration company come about? What was the end goal during the time of its inception?

The reason for founding FSCreation was the desire to somehow eliminate the gap between customer requirements and the actual system implementation, which I experienced many times during the on-premises era.

In 2014, cloud usage and cloud migration became widespread in Japan. Back then, if you used the cloud, you could use the service for free for one month, which made it easier for us to carry out feasibility studies with the customer.

Initially, we predicted that it would be difficult to migrate 100% of corporate systems to the cloud and that they would become hybrid systems. We believed that it would be desirable for on-premises systems, networks, and cloud systems to be implemented and operated in a consistent manner, and we ourselves also wanted to optimize the entire internal system.

An additional goal of FSCreation is the “promotion of overall optimization” of the system.

Q. With nearly a decade in the industry, how has FSCreation established itself as one of the leading companies in cloud migration?

FSCreation established itself as one of the leading cloud migration companies in two major ways. Firstly, Microsoft (Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd.) recognized our technical capabilities, agreed to our implementation method, and provided us with the opportunity to meet customers through seminars and other events.

Secondly, the way Japanese companies think has changed over the past 10 years. Instead of only large-scale IT vendors having advanced technical capabilities, the policy has shifted to welcoming small IT vendors as partners as long as they have technical capabilities. Of course, we also worked hard to help companies implement better IT, but it may be fair to say that the times were on our side.

Q. The company started with the hope of leading the feasibility study method for successful system implementation. Can you talk about how the company has achieved that goal?

When we first started our business, we started by explaining what a “feasibility study” was in an IT project, but many companies stopped at just explaining.

However, we encouraged customers to actually experience it, as we thought that it would give a better understanding than just listening to an explanation. This feasibility study method has penetrated the market more.

Also, I think we are fortunate that more and more Japanese IT (WEB) magazines and business magazines explain what feasibility studies are.

Q. Can you talk about the different services FSCreation provides and how using the system creates value for your customers businesses?

Through feasibility studies conducted before and at an early stage of implementation, the customer understands the potential issues in the project and system implementation (operation after implementation), takes countermeasures, and then starts the actual implementation. It becomes possible for customers to operate the system themselves in accordance with changes within the company and with changing times.

I think these are not only due to the influence of our services but also the evolution of technology, which has become a service due to the shift to the cloud, and customers can now use IT technology as a “tool.”

Q. Can you expand on the DX (digital transformation) service FSCreation provides? How does it utilize AI in the process?

In the past, countermeasure activities in the security area could only be carried out as Re-Active activities; however, this has been changed to Pro-Active activities. And reducing incidents through Pro-Active activities makes it possible to allocate time to other activities.

DX has recently increased the number of services provided by our company.

We sometimes use generative AI to understand the content of vulnerabilities and the background of the relevant WorkAround, and Microsoft Defender, provided by Microsoft, includes functions that utilize AI.

Q. In FSCreations IT implementation consulting, you provide unique services during the implementation and evaluation periods. How does this process impact the overall service provided?

This means that we have a "certain level of visibility" in the early stages of the service we provide, during the project, and after implementation.

We will accompany our customers as they progress through their projects, and we will also provide guidance so that they can have peace of mind after the installation.

Q. What advice would you give to someone starting out in the industry? What key lessons stand out in building a successful cloud migration company?

I think it would be helpful to classify and understand the similarities and differences between before/after cloud migration.

For example, the email system is functionally the same as a mechanism for sending and receiving emails both on-premises and in the cloud. However, in the on-premise era, the email system (server) and email client, which were on the same network, are migrated to the cloud, and the email system (server) and email client are on separate networks, with the email system in the cloud and the email client on-premise. If you can identify for each customer what kind of impact these differences will have on them and be able to present countermeasures in advance, you will be able to transition smoothly.

Although this is not limited to system migration, it is possible to predict matters that need to be considered by constantly organizing and understanding the commonalities and differences.

From experience, FS Creation has learned and put into practice that Microsoft 365 implementation and operation have common parts regardless of industry (mostly implementation and operation), and that it is best to take care of the differences between customers.

I believe this idea is common to everyone and can be used by everyone.

Q. What are some upcoming projects FSCreation has? What is in store for the company’s future?

I think business using AI will accelerate further. As an extension of our SI services, we will support the implementation and introduction of systems that incorporate AI.

What’s important is to accept the movement toward democratizing IT tools to be used by anyone and think about what we can do to help our customers along the way.

A brief biography of the Representative Director

Chieko Tsujimura is the Representative Director of FSCreation; she was born in Aichi, Japan. After graduating from a women's university in Aichi Prefecture, she got a job at a travel agency. She switched careers and moved to the IT industry after being involved in system introduction work at the travel agency.