Ricoh Japan drives digital transformation with Dynamics 365

Ricoh Japan Corp., part of Ricoh Global, manufactures and distributes office equipment such as multifunction printers and copiers, videoconferencing systems and interactive whiteboards, imaging equipment such as digital cameras and signage, and RFID solutions for customers across Japan. Increasingly, the Tokyo-based company is also known for providing digital services, including system integration, software design and development, IT infrastructure, and communication, business process, and sustainability solutions.

As part of its transition from office equipment to digital services, Ricoh Japan collaborated with Microsoft and Accenture Japan Ltd. to design and implement a new sales solution based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales. This system includes migrating close to 300 million records from its previous sales and CRM system. The new solution is now used by 14,000 users, along with generative AI technologies such as Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, is driving Ricoh Japan’s transformation with flexible, data-driven sales capabilities.

Supporting a transformation to digital services 

Ricoh Japan is transforming itself from an office equipment manufacturer into a digital services provider to fit a market that has changed significantly with the rise of remote work. The first step was planning to upgrade the company’s homegrown sales and CRM system, which had supported Ricoh Japan’s sales activities since 2004, to a software as a service (SaaS) platform.

Makoto Nagai, General Manager of the CRM Promotion Office, DX Promotion Center, Corporate Planning Division at Ricoh Japan, explains that the legacy system had been repeatedly updated over 20 years and was familiar to the sales staff, who appreciated its usability. “But the system ultimately became complex, rigid, and extremely expensive to modify, with no leeway for new challenges such as use of generative AI. We decided to use SaaS to create a new system which would follow standard specifications as closely as possible and be responsive to emerging business changes over the long haul.”

Planning for a new system began in 2021. A six-month proof of concept followed in 2022 to confirm the feasibility of migrating to a SaaS solution. Importantly, the new solution was planned not by IT specialists but by the salespeople who would have to use it. The new system, used by 14,000 users, is critical for our corporate transformation," explains Kazuya Ikeda, General Manager of the CRM Planning Office, Marketing Center, Digital Service Sales Division at Ricoh Japan. "Eight top salespeople from all over the country were called in to staff our new CRM Planning Office, which was established in April 2022. Their mission was to consider how to shape the new system. We heard from people in the field and drew up our requirements.”

Staffing the CRM Planning Office with employees outside of IT freed Ricoh Japan from system-based ideas. Instead, user-friendly ideas flowed from the planning office to the dedicated IT team. This strong inter-team communication was instrumental in the project’s success.

Fulfilling a vision with Dynamics 365 Sales 

As Ricoh Japan began to build the new solution, it made sure to align with the company’s "Cloud First" and "Fit to Standard” policies for system development. The business and IT teams unanimously selected cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales for its ease of use and integration and its out-of-the-box capabilities. “There are many strengths in our sales process that we have honed over a 20-year period and hope to carry forward,” Nagai explains. “Dynamics 365 Sales integrates with Power Platform, a line of products facilitating low-code/no-code development and able to meet our Fit to Standard framework.”

Kazunari Sakai, CRM Promotion Group Leader in the CRM Planning Office, Marketing Center, Digital Service Sales Division at Ricoh Japan, adds, “We were already using Microsoft 365 as our information exchange base. By integrating Dynamics 365 Sales with Outlook and Teams, we would be able to smoothly incorporate the new system into our daily work, a key point in its favor.”

Partnering for a successful migration

With the decision to base the new solution on Dynamics 365 Sales made, Ricoh Japan’s next move was to choose an IT partner. After entertaining proposals from several firms, the company selected Accenture Japan Ltd., a leading global professional services firm, in November 2022. "It was important for us to have someone to communicate with us in a clear way about our goals and strategy,” says Ikeda. He explains that a major deciding factor was that “we visualized the same end goal. Accenture clearly shared our goals and strategies, but was also a partner we could easily communicate with, which was a key point.”

Nagai adds, “Accenture had an astonishing track record. Accenture and Microsoft created Avanade as a joint venture. We sensed that with those three companies working closely on this project, we would benefit from enhanced support. Above all, it was Accenture’s track record in successful incorporation of Dynamics 365 throughout Japan.” Accenture formally came onboard in April 2023.

Accenture and Ricoh Japan held more than 30 three-hour workshops over a three-month period to determine the basic design of the new system. The workshops brought 30 to 50 project members and stakeholders together, both in person and in Teams meetings. This style of ongoing frequent communication allowed the teams to pursue their ideal vision while maintaining the Fit to Standard goal.

The development of the new system began in September 2023, with the solution rolling out in production to all Ricoh Japan offices in August 2024. Ricoh Japan’s new system was rolled out so quickly because of three intertwined factors: thorough in-house discussion of sales processes and agreement on an ideal vision; transparent communication between Ricoh Japan and Accenture, boosted by speedy decision-making; and a close relationship with Microsoft.

Ricoh Japan’s old system held a vast amount of data. In the end, just under 300 million records were migrated to Dynamics 365. The migration was smooth, not only because of the processing performance of Dynamics 365, but because of the support Microsoft provided through its FastTrack and Enhanced Solutions teams. “With FastTrack, we followed Success by Design, the Microsoft framework for implementation of Dynamics 365, using Solution Blueprint Review to check upstream processes and identify risks,” says Makoto Uemura of Accenture’s Technology Consulting Division. “We also used Enhanced Solutions, based on the Success by Design framework, to gain Project Quality Advisory support to help Ricoh Japan realize the value of the new system with all due speed. Microsoft support was so reliable that, whenever our employees faced a challenge during implementation, we quickly issued a support request and received timely guidance.”

Generative AI helps accelerate data-driven decision-making 

Among the most significant benefits of the new solution is that it incorporates generative AI technology. In conjunction with the company’s own proprietary technology, Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales is expected to provide stronger support for value-added proposals to customers and improve the productivity of sales activities.

As an example of how Ricoh Japan is using generative AI, product recommendations from four sources appear when users access the new system: from daily reports entered in Dynamics 365 Sales, from industry information on the web, from purchase history, and top-selling products by customer segment. “These all appear automatically,” says Sakai. “Microsoft 365 Copilot is used to summarize Outlook e-mails as well as chats and meetings conducted using Teams.”

Scaling adoption horizontally

Following consultation with Enhanced Solutions on how to achieve companywide adoption of the new system, Ricoh Japan set KPIs and is collecting and sharing case studies. “We've been talking to the team at Enhanced Solutions about how to scale horizontally effectively,” says Ikeda. “We're just getting started with Dynamics 365 Sales, but we feel like we've already had success by launching the service on time. I look forward to continuing to work side-by-side with Accenture and Microsoft."