January 2024: Yasuyuki Tsukase, Tokyo Office Branch Manager
Yasuyuki Tsukase is leading SYSCOM’s booming Tokyo office to a roaring new year
Yasuyuki Tsukase
Tokyo Office Branch Manager
An early interest in technology led me to start my career in IT. In the early days, I frequently worked with workstations, but as time progressed, personal computers like Mac and Windows emerged. Soon, every employee had a company-provided PC, and I had a wide variety of responsibilities as a systems engineer, extending to networks and the helpdesk. Later, after working as a project manager, I transitioned to a sales role focusing on solutions like ERP, including SAP and Microsoft Dynamics.
Before my time with SYSCOM GLOBAL SOLUTIONS, I often found myself pulled between pushing products and actually helping customers solve their problems. To me, it’s always been an easy decision: my job as an IT expert is to provide the best solutions to the customers.
At a previous company, my expertise in ERP led to me being appointed to start and manage a global office in India, providing global ERP services. However, the office struggled to meet its condensed and short-term goals and expectations, leading to closure within three years. Thankfully, I met our founder and CEO, Seishi Sato, at that pivotal moment in my career, and he was of a similar mind.
President Sato wasn’t so bothered by the result. I vividly remember him saying, “Microsoft Dynamics business needs at least three years to develop, and will take more than three years to expand the business.” I shortly found myself in charge of SYSCOM’s new Tokyo office.
Launching the Tokyo office
Mr. Sato clearly knew that establishing results in business is not easy. It takes multiple years to build trust with customers and partners. It takes time to secure deals. In the beginning, our goal was to prove ourselves. Even with lower transaction amounts, it was necessary to build a track record. We started with zero recognition in Japan, our challenge was to build SYSCOM’s awareness.
We had to be scrappy. It was a startup from scratch, and even with that, the difference between launching a business in the United States versus launching it in Japan was significant. What started in a four-person room in Marunouchi with no windows grew to fit eight people, then 16, then 36 before moving to Hamamatsucho, but I’ll never forget those early years. We were fighting just to stay in the fight. Many things didn’t go as planned, but by the third year, our Dynamics business had finally achieved profitability.
Originally established as a sales office targeting Japanese companies expanding into the United States, today, our Tokyo office has evolved into a branch that caters to the demand for Microsoft Dynamics in Japan and the Asian region. Sato-san originally set our goals, and we’ve worked relentlessly to achieve them. But even with Sato-san’s guidance and our hard work, demand for Dynamics implementation in Japan and Asia exceeded expectations.
So, our mission expanded. Today we offer tailored implementation and support to customers in Japan and Asia who are looking to utilize Microsoft Dynamics globally. And in 2024, we’re creating an Azure Platform team to help migrate peripheral systems surrounding Dynamics to Azure, expanding capacity for responsive data analysis. Ultimately, we’ll offer Dynamics 365 Copilot in our services as well.
2023’s success, and 2024’s future
In 2023, the first year of our mid-term plan, we were generally able to achieve our objectives. In the second year, 2024, we’re rolling out Dynamics 365 templates for features that traditionally require customization for each customer in Japan. It’s a strategy already being deployed here in the US with the Dynamics 365 Business Central Standard Pack. By focusing on areas with a certain level of anticipated demand, we can reduce developmental efforts for individual projects.
And we have plans to expand upon that strategy. The Business Central Standard Pack simplifies the implementation process, but what we are trying to offer is more about focusing on expanding business coverage. The Japan template, designed for Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, adds functionalities that are often requested by companies in Japan beyond the standard operations of D365. It allows for the use of additional features that are crucial for companies in Japan without any additional development, enabling easy adoption.
Originally, SYSCOM’s Tokyo office was supporting Japanese companies as a US-based company. Leveraging the characteristics of our company, we intentionally organized the structure with global talent. However, going forward, we plan to hire more Japanese talent. This will enable us to respond flexibly to the larger-scale introduction of systems in Japan and enhance the system integration between Japan and other countries.
Tokyo’s office—and its people
Our Tokyo branch is composed of members with various nationalities, spanning Japan, Asia, India, and Europe. I feel that the provision of Dynamics 365 Finance & SCM by this multicultural team enhances business value. An approach that works in one country may not necessarily work the same way in another. Our understanding of the characteristics of different countries and regions enables us to smoothly communicate in Japanese with stakeholders in Japan and subsequently oversee global operations from Japan.
Dynamics 365 Finance & SCM requires customization for the implementation based on the country, region, and industry. Therefore, we assign consultants who are tailored to each customer’s local characteristics, business practices, and industry-specific terminology.
The differences in nationality and culture contribute to the flexibility of our Tokyo branch’s business. We have a culture of respecting each other’s opinions. Within the Tokyo branch, we encourage open communication regardless of job titles or age differences. This sometimes leads to junior employees making suggestions to senior employees, and it’s not uncommon for these ideas to be embraced.
Cultural differences means the challenges clients face and the solutions they require can vary. One of the strengths of the Tokyo branch is that our multinational team can understand those challenges in their own languages, then facilitate deploying the solutions both domestically and in various countries worldwide.
For me, our office’s strength is inspired by the main thrust of Sato-san’s, and SYSCOM’s, main philosophy, “Think Local, Act Global,” and we continue to evolve it with our team members. It provides us with a framework to help us get back to our primary job: providing the best solutions to our customers.
Our Tokyo branch is composed of members with various nationalities, spanning Japan, Asia, India, and Europe. I feel that the provision of Dynamics 365 Finance & SCM by this multicultural team enhances business value. An approach that works in one country may not necessarily work the same way in another. Our understanding of the characteristics of different countries and regions enables us to smoothly communicate in Japanese with stakeholders in Japan and subsequently oversee global operations from Japan.
Dynamics 365 Finance & SCM requires customization for the implementation based on the country, region, and industry. Therefore, we assign consultants who are tailored to each customer’s local characteristics, business practices, and industry-specific terminology.
The differences in nationality and culture contribute to the flexibility of our Tokyo branch’s business. We have a culture of respecting each other’s opinions. Within the Tokyo branch, we encourage open communication regardless of job titles or age differences. This sometimes leads to junior employees making suggestions to senior employees, and it’s not uncommon for these ideas to be embraced.
Cultural differences means the challenges clients face and the solutions they require can vary. One of the strengths of the Tokyo branch is that our multinational team can understand those challenges in their own languages, then facilitate deploying the solutions both domestically and in various countries worldwide.
For me, our office’s strength is inspired by the main thrust of Sato-san’s, and SYSCOM’s, main philosophy, “Think Local, Act Global,” and we continue to evolve it with our team members. It provides us with a framework to help us get back to our primary job: providing the best solutions to our customers.
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