Digital Transformation at Santen

At Santen, we are committed to leading the way in digital transformation by strengthening our IT resilience against information security threats and potential disasters. This is a crucial part of our corporate strategy. We actively promote the use of digital tools across the company to enhance our operations and decision-making processes. By improving the digital literacy of each employee, we gain deeper insights into our customers through data, enabling more objective and faster, accurate decision-making. Leveraging continuously evolving digital technologies, including AI, we strive to enhance the quality of our operations and transform business processes, significantly boosting productivity, efficiency, and fostering creativity. This approach empowers us to make faster and more accurate decisions based on data-driven insights, allowing us to make the best choices through a deep understanding of our customers.

Renewing DX certification

Santen renewed its DX certification in 2024, reflecting our dedication to embracing new technologies and continuously improving through trial and error. This commitment to digital excellence supports our goal of sustainable growth as a company. We strive to strengthen our trust with healthcare professionals and build a future where we can make even greater contributions to patients and their loved ones.

  • Please include the DX certification logo, which should be available on the current site!

Faster and Accurate Decision-Making Leveraging the True Value of Data

In today's business landscape, data is one of the most valuable assets, yet it doesn't inherently generate value. To unlock its potential, it's essential to identify the critical data, ensure its quality is reliable, and organize it in a form that's readily accessible when needed. Moreover, this data should be structured into clear and visually accessible information for employees. True value emerges when employees possess a deep understanding of data and analysis, comprehend the information, and apply that understanding to make informed decisions.
At Santen, we are dedicated to extracting true value from data through the following initiatives:

  • Enhancing Data Literacy: We focus on continuously improving data literacy by offering training tailored to each employee's level and fostering community-based mutual learning opportunities. This approach ensures that every employee can deeply understand data and make faster decisions.
  • Strengthening Data Governance: We create an environment where employees can access the necessary data when needed and quickly retrieve visualized, easy-to-understand data.
  • Consolidating Data Infrastructure: We identify essential data, enhance its quantity and quality, and aggregate and accumulate it to build a robust foundation that supports decision-making.

2022年2月に、経済産業省が定める「DX認定事業者」の認定を取得しました。これは当社の取り組みについて、経営者に求められる企業価値向上に向け実践すべき事柄を定めた「デジタルガバナンスコード」の項目に関して認定基準を満たしていることや、ステークホルダーに適切な情報開示が行われていることが評価され認定されたものです。
さらに、ISO/IEC 27001に準拠した情報セキュリティ方針を掲げ、ステークホルダーを守るための取り組みを強化しています。サイバーセキュリティプロセスの構築に加え、情報セキュリティリスクへの対応の一環として、日常の業務の中でサイバーセキュリティへの対応を効率的に習得できるようゲーミフィケーションを利用したトレーニングの実施などもグローバルで進めており、高いセキュリティ水準を保持しています。
内部統制を高める施策としては、次世代ERPの導入を進めています。地域横断型のアジャイルな組織編制により成り立つ高度専門人材チームのもと、社内プロセスの標準化と透明性の向上を目的としたグローバルプロジェクトを推進し、ビジネスモデルの変革を加速させています。標準化されたデータ基盤を会社の重要な経営資源として活用することで、 経営の迅速な意思決定と収益性の改善、新たな価値創出へつなげていきます。 

Through these efforts, we aim to empower each employee to make faster and more accurate decisions, significantly boosting business agility and competitiveness.

Examples of Data Utilization

  • Understanding Customer Insights and Enhancing Commercial Excellence: We enhance customer experience and strengthen trust by leveraging real-time insights to deliver tailored content and engagement. By centralizing customer information and analyzing behavioral data and feedback, we accurately identify expectations and concerns. This allows us to quickly provide content that meets customer needs through the most effective channels.
  • Improving Treatment Outcomes through Data Visualization and Sharing: Through customer support programs and digital solutions, we aim to improve treatment outcomes by visualizing and sharing data to enhance understanding between healthcare professionals and patients. This builds trust, creating a supportive treatment environment and elevating healthcare quality. By visualizing symptoms and treatment plans, we empower patients to better understand their health and actively engage in their care. Additionally, this allows healthcare professionals to quickly assess patient conditions, enabling accurate diagnoses and timely interventions.

Business Innovation and Productivity Enhancement through Generative AI

At Santen, we are actively adopting standard generative AI across the company to streamline operations, boost productivity, and create new value. Generative AI is a pivotal technology driving innovation in modern business, continuously evolving. To effectively utilize generative AI as a valuable partner for our employees, we undertake the following initiatives while thoroughly evaluating its effectiveness and safety:

  • Introduction and Advancement of Standard Generative AI: We deploy standard generative AI with high security across the company, creating an environment where all employees can benefit from it, thereby enhancing satisfaction with daily operations. By integrating this AI with internal data, we facilitate easy information retrieval, promote productivity improvement, streamline business processes, and realize the creation of new value.
  • Development and Implementation of Task-Specific Generative AI: We identify tasks where generative AI excels and develop task-specific AI services tailored to those tasks. Through continuous trial and error, we explore the optimal collaboration between humans and AI, advancing ongoing operational efficiency. Additionally, by combining process automation (such as RPA) and autonomous AI agents, we promote task simplification and automation, further enhancing productivity.

Santen aims to significantly improve the speed and accuracy of employee tasks by introducing and leveraging both standard and task-specific generative AI. By positioning generative AI as a partner for employees, we create an environment where they can focus on strategic tasks, strengthening the company's competitiveness and building a foundation for sustainable growth.

Empowering Employees for the Digital Era

As data analysis and digital technology become increasingly vital across all aspects of business, supporting each employee in effectively leveraging these tools is essential for enhancing the company's competitiveness. At Santen, we focus on key areas such as data analysis, generative AI, and process automation to enhance employee capabilities and support skill development, enabling each individual to achieve their professional and personal goals.

  • Providing Training Tailored to Levels and Needs: In collaboration with partner companies, we offer a variety of training opportunities tailored to employees' skill levels and needs. Through both in-person and online training, employees acquire foundational knowledge of data and digital tools and learn practical application methods.
  • Activating Various Communities: We establish communities where employees can share knowledge, learn from each other, and enhance their skills. By exchanging information on the latest digital tools, daily learnings, challenges, and best practices, we encourage active participation and continuous knowledge updates.
  • Promoting Citizen Development: We encourage employees to proactively use data and digital tools, and sometimes create new value by applying them under the right knowledge and rules. By promoting citizen development of RPA, BI tools, and more, we establish a disciplined development environment under defined governance, supporting certified employees in confidently engaging in development aligned with their needs.

At Santen, we support each employee in effectively leveraging evolving digital technologies with the right knowledge and discipline. By promoting accurate decision-making based on data generated through daily activities, we aim to further strengthen trust with healthcare professionals and continue making greater contributions to patients and their loved ones.