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Hiroaki Aoki: A Specialist in Legal Amendments and Development Technical Knowledge, Who is Working to Promote Local Government Digital Transformation (DX)

Aoki has been engaged in local government business systems for over 20 years and is well renowned as a PM*1 who possesses both high-level business capabilities and development technical knowledge. Today, we would like to introduce the story of how he became active in promoting local government DX*2 through his experience in large-scale project management.

*1
Project Manager: A person in charge of an entire project.
*2
Digital transformation: Business reform initiatives that utilize digital technology.

Profile

Hiroaki Aoki
Public & Social Business Group
Senior Engineer

Aoki started at Hitachi Systems in 2000. After being placed in charge of local government business package systems, he was promoted from system development to project manager where he successfully led numerous projects. In 2013, he was recognized as one of the key employees who ensured that a large-scale Japanese "My Number" project was a success. Since 2018, he has been applying his vast experience gained through years of working on local government business systems to his work on new initiatives such as starting up a data utilization business for enhancing package system functionality and promoting local government DX.

"I would like to enrich the lives of residents, employees and local regions by participating in local government DX initiatives, which will be indispensable to our future society."

This is the ultimate goal of Aoki, who has vast experience as a specialist in the development of local government business systems and is now working to facilitate local government DX promotion projects.

Aoki started his career developing business package systems for local governments. Among many local government business systems, he was mainly placed in charge of the development of personal local inhabitant tax and national health insurance systems. Through his work making these systems flexible so they could easily correspond to annual tax system reforms and by improving functionality according to customer's request, he gained a deep knowledge of local government operations and tax systems. Through his design work in upstream process of development, he gained further experience throughout the entire development cycle from requirement definition and basic design to manufacturing and testing. In 2008, he was promoted to become a project manager in charge of large-scale projects covering a range of areas from public pension for personal local inhabitant taxes to special collection systems. Since then, he has achieved great success managing a wide range of projects.

Aoki looks back on his work to introduce the "My Number" system in 2013 as a good example of "his experience that promoted his personal growth". Revisions to the law that accompanied this new system had a great impact on every aspect of local government business systems, and a specialized department within the company was established to assist collaboration between the sales, design, and development departments. In addition, the number assignment, number utilization, and information linkage processes were split into their own dedicated projects. Out of these three projects, Aoki was appointed to be a sub-PM of the highly important number utilization project. In this role, he managed processes, quality, and costs in collaboration with various related parties around Japan, both inside and outside the company.

As this role was vastly different from his regular work where he managed specific business systems, he suddenly encountered the potential problem that his accumulated knowledge and experience alone would not be enough for the project to succeed. To ensure that wasn't the case, he focused on gaining a consensus among all the people involved through close communication and detailed information sharing.

For example, when it was required to ensure a consistent "My Number" user interface and access log acquisition management method across different business systems, in addition to simply preparing work standards and templates for various deliverables and then informing all developers to ensure they are all on the same page, the project manager and development leader conducted comprehensive reviews at the design stage to check the actual screens of the system. In addition to holding regular meetings on a weekly basis with project members to check their progress, identify any problematic issues, and thoroughly manage processes, quality, and costs, they also implemented other detailed initiatives such as introducing a centralized cost management system that differed in each related location and holding briefing sessions regarding system development concepts and operation policies for all related parties such as sales, system engineers (SEs), and customers. At these briefing sessions, they created materials tailored to each individual attendee and Aoki provided explanations as well. By promoting higher levels of understanding and ensuring every party is on the same track, they managed to ensure requests and issues were addressed by the entire team and ensured a consistent level of quality which led to the large-scale project becoming a major success.

Aoki was highly praised for his ability to incorporate his vast knowledge of local government business into his package system development work. There is great value in a PM who is capable of appropriately managing processes, quality, and costs while finding optimal solutions to challenges that satisfy both customer requests and development SEs who have to deal with implementing the underlying technology. Furthermore, actively taking initiatives that go beyond traditional managerial roles such as holding briefing sessions for all related parties, engaging with each and every person to build relationships, and maintaining high-level communication skills are powerful tools to gain trust from people both inside and outside the company.

Taking advantage of these strengths and his vast experience, since 2018, Aoki has been working on enhancing the functionality of business package systems that promote the digitization of local governments. He is skilled at utilizing information from sales staff to gain a better grasp of customer needs, working on specifications that reduce implementation costs and new functionalities that utilize RPA*3 and BI tools*4 from the proposal to the design stages in order to expand the range of new adoption after release. He is also currently participating in local government DX initiatives, which are being promoted throughout the entire Hitachi Group. One of his biggest challenges is starting up new forms of business that utilize data. In each of these cases, his vast business knowledge, communication skills, and personal connections cultivated through many years of experience in local government business systems and his past achievements in large-scale projects have proven to be invaluable, and he has gained the trust and high expectations from those around him.

Aoki stated that after being involved in the development of business systems for local governments for such a long time, he became more and more aware that the systems and services he developed also provided added convenience for local residents in addition to the local governments he was working for. He believed that his work on local government DX that is promoted by the entire Hitachi Group is indispensable for the good of our future society. He aims to continue to enrich the lives of residents, employees, and local regions by participating in initiatives of the Hitachi Group. His work as "a specialist in promoting local government DX" makes him a valuable asset for the Hitachi Group.

*3
Robotic Process Automation: Business automation using software robots.
*4
Business Intelligence Tools: Technology that analyzes and processes data so it can be utilized in business operations.

Aoki's Mission

Enhancing Package System Functionality and Promoting the Digitization of Local Government Business Operations

Currently, Aoki's department is working on improving system standardization and consistency in accordance with government policy through Hitachi Systems' "ADWORLD" local government solution. By adding new functions and specifications that better meet the needs of customers, they are working to strengthen the overall value of their package systems. As a member of this department, Aoki is in charge of managing projects from the proposal to development stages in collaboration with other departments as well as in-house sales and design staff. He works to develop specifications of patterned forms that reduce implementation costs and he develops new services such as the "ADWORLD Data Integration & Analysis Platform" data analysis service that utilizes RPA and BI tools. All of this contributes to facilitating the digitization of local governments.

Creating New Businesses That Utilize Data as Part of the Hitachi Group's Promotion of Local Government DX

As government administrative services are being enhanced through the adoption of digital technologies and regional revitalization projects are accelerating, the Hitachi Group is committed to facilitating the promotion of local government DX. As part of these efforts, Aoki plays a key role in planning new businesses that utilize both customer data and open data. He is working hard to start up new services that support local government policymaking and lead to improve the work efficiency of staff through better data visualization and analysis techniques. Utilizing his personal connections and communication skills cultivated through his vast experience as a PM, he is now focusing on carrying out studies and research while actively collaborating with related parties in Hitachi Group and conducting hearings with local governments.

Participating in Projects Where Juniors Employees Work as PMs in Order to Nurture Younger Generations

With experience working as a PM for a large number of projects, Aoki now participates in projects where junior employees are appointed as the PM to give younger generations more chances to develop their careers. While training these junior employees, Aoki emphasizes the importance of active interaction and keeping an open dialog through collaborations with various related parties in large-scale projects. While monitoring their attitudes and intentions he gives appropriate advice to each junior employee to help them build solid communication skills, the ability to boost team productivity, and gain competence in process, quality, and cost management, which is the fundamental role of a PM.

(This article is as of March 2021)

Information contained in the articles are as of the date of publication, but may be subject to change without prior notice.

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