Supporting "100 Companies, 100 Approaches" to DX The Transformation Guided by "Dentsu DX Ground": Breaking Free from the Past
Across industries, efforts to drive data-driven service improvements and product development are intensifying. However, numerous obstacles hinder DX advancement, spanning system construction, operational changes, and collaboration both internally and externally.
Amidst this, three Dentsu Group companies—Dentsu Digital Inc., Dentsu International Information Services (ISID), and Dentsu Isobar (Isobar)—have established "Dentsu DX Ground" (DDXG), a cross-organizational unit to strengthen cloud integration.
We spoke with representatives from the three companies about the fundamental challenges in today's DX landscape, the background and strengths of this new organization, and examples of DX initiatives they are driving.
(Written by: Riyo Nawa, Photography: Tatsuro Sekiguchi, Edited by: MarkeZine Editorial Department)
※This article is reprinted from MarkeZine. Company names, etc., are as of May 2021.
<Table of Contents>
▼Three Digital Firms Strengthen Cloud Integration
▼Aligning the Misaligned Goals of Marketing and IT
▼Evaluating "Does That DX Make Sense?"
▼Covering the Entire DX Landscape While Maintaining Advertising Strengths
▼Driving Internal Efficiency Alongside Enhanced Customer Experience
▼Sharing Knowledge to Further Strengthen Systems and Expand Services
Three Digital Companies Strengthen Cloud Integration
──Dentsu Digital Inc., ISID, and Isobar announced the establishment of DDXG in January 20 21. Could you explain the background?
Isobar's Makoto Yoshioka (Yoshioka): In recent years, client demands have become increasingly sophisticated and complex, creating a situation where cross-cloud solutions are required. In this environment, we need a structure that combines each company's areas of expertise to deliver services and provide even greater value to clients.
Yoshioka: Therefore, the three companies have decided to collaborate more deeply than ever before. This will enable us to propose the construction, operation, and utilization of large-scale cloud solutions in the most optimal way, and to support the strengthening of integration for companies advancing their DX initiatives.
ISID: Mr. Shigetaka Nakamura (hereafter Nakamura): Currently, the scope demanded by customers is expanding. We are seeing more cases where we propose and build full-range solutions encompassing marketing, e-commerce, BI, and more. While individual companies often propose and win contracts within limited domains, collaborating as three companies allows us to broaden our scope and enable integration across the entire value chain.
Katsushi Koshikura, Dentsu Digital Inc. (hereinafter Koshikura): Beyond projects becoming larger and more complex, the challenge of "how to create customer experiences" has become more prominent than ever. Additionally, the way clients' employees work is changing. Issues that lie outside the scope of services traditionally requested in our relationships with each company are now surfacing within the clients themselves. Addressing this became our most urgent mission.
Separate from the establishment of DDXG, Dentsu Digital Inc. and Isobar merged in July 2021 and will operate as the new Dentsu Digital Inc. The customer experience (CX) domain knowledge cultivated at Isobar will be further strengthened within the new Dentsu Digital Inc. and DDXG.
Aligning the diverging priorities of marketing and IT
──What are the most commonly cited obstacles to DX advancement today?
Nakamura: One is the disconnect in communication between the marketing and IT departments. First, they speak different languages, so they don't understand each other. But it's not just a matter of terminology; often, they don't see eye to eye because their perspectives are fundamentally different.
Nakamura: Since the goal for marketing departments is business success, they want to run the PDCA cycle at high speed. Considering speed and cost, they want to deploy trial systems directly into production.
On the other hand, the IT department prioritizes long-term, stable operation. They want to thoroughly address performance, security, and other so-called "non-functional" aspects, so they prefer to avoid rushing into full-scale operation.
To drive DX forward, aligning both parties' perspectives is crucial. I believe bridging this gap is precisely the role we are uniquely positioned to fulfill.
Validating whether that DX initiative is meaningful
Yoshioka: At our company, we sometimes get consulted on fundamental questions like, "Does pushing DX or building new systems really make sense?" That's why we prioritize the discovery phase—hypothesis testing—and work with clients from the strategic level.
Particularly from a marketing perspective, we often hear concerns where upper management pushes for new tool implementation without proper consideration, only to find it doesn't align with ROI. Our strength lies in assisting with ROI calculations based on hypotheses in such cases.
Koshikura: We also hear concerns like, "We created a new organization to drive DX and have cross-functional projects running, but we don't know how to proceed concretely." The larger the organization, the greater the need for people who can act as hubs to drive projects forward. Yet, that's often where the shortage lies.
Furthermore, the primary challenge on the marketing side is making data usable for the marketing team. There are as many approaches to DX as there are companies. We help identify processes from business challenges and reconstruct initiatives with a bird's-eye view.
Covering the entire DX spectrum while retaining strengths in advertising
──How does DDXG's service scope differ from conventional system construction support and consulting?
Nakamura: By leveraging each company's complementary strengths in their respective areas of expertise, we cover the entire spectrum of DX-related domains.
Nakamura: What sets us apart is starting from a customer-centric, customer experience perspective. We handle everything from concept development and customer journey mapping to prototyping and validating the value of the systems we build.
Another crucial aspect we emphasize is the often-overlooked back-end operations. While refining the customer experience is vital, proceeding without considering "what operations exist and their scale" leads to painful lessons once implementation begins. If the customer experience is the tip of the iceberg, the back-end operations are the massive submerged ice mass beneath. Covering this depth is a key advantage of our three-company collaboration.
When the target service model is One to One, contact and retention with named users become the core focus. At the same time, we also want to acquire new customers and maintain continuity from anonymous users. Being able to include the necessary advertising domain within our scope is a major strength of ours.
Koshikura: In Japan, consulting firms often lack advertising capabilities. Dentsu Digital Inc. has a large digital advertising division with years of support experience. We cover solutions at a depth unmatched by other companies.
Yoshioka: Isobar focused on owned media and owned content. Merging with Dentsu Digital Inc. now expands our coverage to include paid media, which is a huge advantage. We believe that by leveraging the advertising strengths accumulated within the Dentsu Group and undergoing structural reforms like the merger, we can also strengthen our support for DX and CX.
Driving internal efficiency alongside enhanced customer experience
──Could you share specific examples of the support provided?
Yoshioka: For example, the apparel industry is currently focusing on direct-to-consumer sales. However, the reality is that existing commerce platforms can only provide the "purchase experience," not the "joy of shopping."
Therefore, we are undertaking initiatives that go beyond just the commerce infrastructure. We are leveraging CMS on top of it to enable highly flexible expression and enhance the customer experience. We've created a system where end users can concretely see and feel what they want.
Koshikura: In the financial industry, the challenges were adapting to changes in customer behavior patterns driven by smartphone-centric transactions, and optimizing internal bank structures and resource allocation.
Therefore, we unified the information communicated across diverse customer touchpoints—smartphones, web, branch counters, call centers—and organized customer behavior data. We designed a system capable of making appropriate proposals to individual customers, integrated it into the cloud, and optimized the customer experience.
Internally, we created segments based on factors including customer asset size to improve targeting accuracy. Furthermore, by redefining on- and offline channels according to each customer's specific challenges, we optimized communication for every customer, leading to greater efficiency in staffing and initiatives.
Nakamura: In the case of manufacturers, many business models rely on retailers or agents, making the lack of direct customer information a challenge.
While shifting to direct sales is one solution, manufacturers can also create mechanisms that benefit distributors without changing the business model. For example, a manufacturer could establish a customer platform to build a community and cultivate fans through information dissemination. Purchases themselves would then be directed to distributors. The key to success lies in the type of content created.
At DDXG, we join the client's team from the planning stage to explore more feasible approaches, enabling clients to focus on their content and services.
──I see. I imagine clients may require different cloud solutions based on integration with existing systems or simplicity. What solutions does DDXG offer?
Koshikimura: Broadly speaking, we handle CRM, MA, owned CMS, data management systems like CDPs, BI tools for acquiring and analyzing customer data, web analytics, and more recently, e-commerce platform solutions. We believe we cover the entire spectrum of areas required for customer experience DX. We also have products that are particularly strong in specific domains, so we combine these based on the client's situation when making proposals.
Sharing knowledge to further strengthen our capabilities and expand our services
──Finally, could you share your future outlook for DDXG?
Yoshioka: All three DDXG companies support every solution and platform, and each possesses extensive experience.
Isobar, through its merger with Dentsu Digital Inc. and unified operations, feels a brighter future is unfolding. Beyond simply sharing resources, we believe sharing knowledge and continuously expanding our service domains will strengthen our future structure.
Beyond the organizational structure, I also anticipate creating more new services. As the Dentsu Group, we want to lay the groundwork properly in the DX domain and its recruitment activities to secure excellent talent.
Nakamura: Since knowledge sharing is incredibly valuable in this world, we want to proactively offer our own knowledge while effectively absorbing insights from the other two companies. Together, the three companies should develop unique methodologies and services.
Koshikura: Having established DDXG as a single brand, a "hallmark," we now want to infuse it with soul. We will deliver solutions and offerings, consistently providing the unique value that only DDXG can deliver across various domains.
For inquiries about Dentsu DX Ground, please contact:
Dentsu DX Ground (DDXG), introduced in this article, supports companies in strengthening integration for DX advancement across all domains.
For details on support services or inquiries, please contact:
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Author
Katsushi Koshikura
Dentsu Digital Inc.
Since joining Dentsu Digital Inc., he has consistently worked in the marketing technology domain, including CMS, MA, and CRM, driving numerous client projects. He possesses broad capabilities spanning the promotion of technology partnerships, selection, implementation, and utilization support.
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Supporting "100 Companies, 100 Approaches" to DX The Transformation Guided by "Dentsu DX Ground": Breaking Free from the Past
Nakamura Shigetaka
Dentsu Inc. International Information Services, Inc. (ISID)
Previously involved in launching an airline mileage system. Oversaw post-login functions on the member website and handled overall CRM responsibilities. Joined Dentsu Inc. International Information Services in 2007. Served as PM for various marketing projects including media placements, site search, B2B e-commerce sites, and MA implementation. Currently works as an IT consultant bridging strategy, marketing, operations, and systems.
Yoshioka Makoto
Dentsu Isobar Inc.
Since the launch of Dentsu Inc. Isobar's Kansai branch, I have supported numerous companies and local governments in solving their challenges, primarily through digital solutions. Currently, I manage two departments and focus on new business development and client acquisition, particularly in the DX domain.