Founded in 1915, Japan’s Shimane Bank has played an integral role in the country’s most sparsely populated region, funding and supporting local businesses over more than a century of change. The bank has close ties to businesses in Shimane, and a head office in historic Matsue City, home to one of Japan’s few intact 17th century castles. When Shimane Bank entered into a capital and business alliance with SBI Group in 2019, it sparked a new era of change and modernization. The alliance presented an opportunity to take a new look at old processes and modernize everything from the bank’s mobile apps to its sales systems.
With 24 branches in Shimane province and nine branches in the neighboring Tottori region, leaders at the bank pushed ahead with transformation and realized that the contracts for many of its networking switches and servers were due to expire. This presented the perfect opportunity for infrastructure renewal alongside wider transformation. Shimane Bank also knew that its previous approach of buying hardware outright and managing it directly was costly and labor-intensive, with hardware bought from varying vendors over time. The bank needed a simpler approach.
Turning to a Trusted Partner
Tsukasa Fujiwara, Business Administration Group, Shimane Bank, said: “We had introduced different networking devices at different stages over the years, which complicated asset lifecycle management. Our IT team spent many hours registering and updating inventory, checking up on contract deadlines and managing equipment replacement and disposal – leaving them with less time to dedicate to strategic work.”
Shimane Bank had previously replaced its virtualization infrastructure, introducing Lenovo’s ThinkSystem servers. That project was a success, so it was natural that the bank continued its partnership with Lenovo when updating physical infrastructure. With many tasks such as updating equipment placement still completed manually, and equipment disposal taking up time and financial resources, the bank had reached the limits of its traditional approach of purchasing, owning and managing equipment. Leaders were keen to find a more effective solution for tasks including daily operational management and long-term asset management.
Mr Fujiwara said: “In the past, we didn’t have enough storage space, so we had to manage the equipment in various dispersed locations. During the last renewal, I had to drive the truck myself to take the equipment to the disposal site.”
Freeing Up Time and Costs Through Flexibility
The shift meant that Lenovo handled all management tasks, from procuring IT equipment to renewing maintenance contracts. The bank opted to procure its latest round of hardware through Lenovo TruScale Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), becoming the first financial institution in Japan to do so. The flexibility of Lenovo TruScale meant the bank could reduce upfront costs and, by offering the hardware and modular services needed via a pay-as-you-go model, released Shimane from the obligation to manage its own IT assets. Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V2 servers and Cisco networking equipment were also adopted through a multi-year lease arrangement.
Shimane Bank also took the opportunity to update its device fleet, switching to Lenovo ThinkPad L13 and Lenovo ThinkPad L15 devices across the business. Staff at the bank said that support from Lenovo Advisory and Professional Services, which also drove the bank’s migration to virtual infrastructure, simplified a difficult job which involved procuring network equipment and integrating different systems.
Mr Fujiwara said: “This was a complex project, involving many moving parts and players. Our success came down to close collaboration and trust between everyone involved. We genuinely worked as one team.”
Linda Yao, Vice President & General Manager, Hybrid Cloud and AI Solutions at Lenovo said: “With Lenovo TruScale, Shimane Bank has simplified its entire infrastructure lifecycle and vendor management, freeing the IT team to focus on core business priorities. By moving from large upfront IT investments to the flexibility of our pay-as-you-go model, they’ve unlocked capital for innovation. Lenovo’s end-to-end solutions – from pocket to cloud – provide the simplicity and agility needed to drive lasting transformation.”
A Transformed Approach to Drive Innovation
Leaders at the company believe the change will reduce the financial cost of fixed asset management, shifting from capital to operating expenditure. The move has released capital to drive further service improvements and innovation at the bank, while simultaneously freeing up IT teams from burdensome duties, so they can focus on core business tasks and drive innovation.
Mr Fujiwara said: “Switching from asset-free to expense processing will optimize our balance sheets and deliver a positive impact on our finances by removing the burden of fixed asset management. Lenovo TruScale has completely transformed how we think about hardware procurement, and we are eager to explore more solutions that take us beyond conventional approaches. As the nature of our work and technology strategy continues to evolve, we look forward to having Lenovo as a partner who can help us navigate that change.”
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