Integrating and strengthening the IT infrastructure for the graphite electrode business acquired from the German manufacturer with the infrastructure at Showa Denko Europe GmbH had become a key challenge for expanding the business in Europe. Hideki Shibata talks about how the relationship came to be, “We needed a trustworthy partner that could build us a robust IT infrastructure that supports not just the carbon division but the entire European business segment of the Showa Denko Group. We also considered local system integrators, but we chose KDDI as our partner because their support for our Asian and North American operations demonstrated seamless communication, both in and outside of Japan.”

Once the data center was built, KDDI began to revamp the network that connects the locations for the carbon division. Naito says, “The operating efficiency of the network was poor because the German manufacturer outsourced a local vendor to operate and manage the network and thus lacked detailed knowledge of the specifications and design. The overly complex configuration also made it difficult to change over to the new network, but the engineers at KDDI Deutschland studied the physical circuitry at the site and made a detailed proposal of the changeover method. The end of the contract for the existing network was imminent, so we really appreciated the quick changeover.”