Employee Spotlight: Kenichi Tate - SYSCOM GLOBAL SOLUTIONS

FEATURED EMPLOYEE

How Kenichi Tate’s Past Is Guiding SYSCOM’s Client Service Future

Role:	ERP Analyst
Division:	Business Solutions Division – Engineering Team
Location:	New York
Expertise:	Analytics, Business Analysis, Corporate Finance, SQL, Power BI, Functional knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics product (D365)
Experience:	2 years at SYSCOM
Hobbies:	Travel, swimming, driving, tennis

Role

ERP Analyst

Division:

Business Solutions Division – Engineering Team

Location:

New York

Expertise:

Analytics, Business Analysis, Corporate Finance, SQL, Power BI, Functional knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics product (D365)

Experience:

2 years at SYSCOM

Hobbies:

Travel, swimming, driving, tennis

Kenichi Tate is a Senior Assistant ERP Analyst in our Business Solutions Division at our New York office—but he wasn’t always at SYSCOM GLOBAL SOLUTIONS. He wasn’t even always an ERP Analyst. In fact, it was only two years ago that Kenichi came to SYSCOM out of grad school, and before that, he was a corporate banking analyst at a prestigious financial company in Japan.

It’s Kenichi’s experience in corporate banking that makes him so good at ERP analysis. As a banker, he dealt with financial applications as an end user. That time spent on the other side of the IT solutions relationship—the client side—makes him an invaluable asset to SYSCOM’s day to day operations and strategy. Thanks to his previous career, he actually understands what our clients need.

The bank he was with at the time had a history of serious system issues, and he saw the effect it had on the day-to-day operations of the bank. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a finance company or another industry, the system used by the company will always influence how business operates,” says Kenichi. “It affects the company as a whole, including the customers of the company.” The business of the company includes, well, everything. “When there’s a failure at a financial company, it isn’t just the bankers who can’t access. It’s ATMs stopping. Corporate clients can’t process transactions.”

Kenichi came to understand the importance of the end-user experience. “Beyond a tech perspective, I can sympathize with end-users from their perspective. I understand their pain points—tiny things like the look and feel, the speed of the system.” Thanks to the time he spent as an actual user of client systems, he knows how to evaluate solutions for his client more contextually. “What are the benefits of upgrading? Those questions are my starting points when doing projects.”

That focus on the end-user directs all aspects of Kenichi’s work with clients, including what solutions to recommend. He likes to stay on the cutting edge of the industry and know what’s available or soon to be available to his clients. “A lot of clients are afraid of trying out new things or switching to a new way of doing things,” he says. “Users are usually already comfortable with the current tools, methods, and approach they have, so they may be reluctant to accept changes.”

But not accepting changes or adopting new behaviors could be holding businesses back—not just in the long term, but right now. As an example, he points to AI. “Business intelligence can be derived by AI and visualized by interactive dashboards,” he explains. “The process doesn’t necessarily involve programming, and some are free as well.”

It’s not just about making a powerful tool—it’s about making one that fits the customer’s needs.

Kenichi Tate

Senior Assistant ERP Analyst

These advanced capabilities aren’t the future—they’re right here, right now. Everyone, from the CEO of a Fortune 50 company down to a small business owner with a single retail shop, can access these tools right now. And for Kenichi, getting the right tools into the hands of the right businesses is what his job is all about.

“I try to keep things as simple as possible. A lot of times, technicians can be very technical or explain things in a complicated way, but users don’t need that. They need to understand, to be sure, but they also need to be able to accept what we’re proposing.” As always, it’s the end-user’s experience with the solution that makes the difference. “If they feel it’s tedious, complicated, hard to understand, they wouldn’t listen. By starting simple and then getting into the details, it helps the customer understand.”

As an example, he explains a recent case with a customer. “We’re designing an implementation package of Microsoft Dynamics 365 which doesn’t require traditional business requirement analysis. Usually, the project would require the hearing of business requirements first, then we’d put together the system and show it to the client.” But Kenichi’s team is working to reduce development time to put a prototype in the clients’ hands as quickly as possible, reducing client cost and project time.

“We’re working to create predefined packs of standard functionalities in Microsoft Dynamics 365, tailored to clients based on characteristics of their business. If we have a lot of international companies specializing in trading, we’ll build a package for them almost ready to use right away.” This minimizes development time and allows the client to start using it as quickly as possible. “They can start touching it from a very early phase, while we’re still discussing business requirements.”

This is about more than functionality—it’s about helping small- to medium-sized businesses get up to speed and start competing sooner rather than later. “These packs keep costs low and are easier to get started with for the user, even with no prior knowledge—an appealing product in terms of time and cost.”

Kenichi doesn’t try to give his customers the biggest hammer in the toolbox—he tries to give them the right one. “It’s not just about making a powerful tool, but also one the customer knows how to use that fits their needs.” And his job doesn’t stop there: “After implementation, we don’t stop. We keep providing support, even after implementation.”

In the end, it comes down to simplicity, understanding, and—above all—communication. “Understanding the nuances in customer requirements is foundational to project communication,” he says.

And understanding those nuances is a lot easier when you’ve lived and worked them yourself.

To learn more about the Microsoft Dynamics 365 packages Kenichi and his team develop for small- to medium-sized businesses, click here.