Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, “Hitachi”) recently hosted the “Hitachi Social Innovation Forum 2017 Milan.” The aim of the Forum was to develop and strengthen partnerships with customers as part of measures aimed at expanding the Social Innovation Business using digital technologies in Italy.
By providing solutions which resolve the issues that Italy is facing, such as growing medical costs, while increasing energy efficiency and productivity and improving the efficiency of public transportation, Hitachi will strive to expand the scale of its business from the current level of 1.2 billion euro to 1.5 billion euro in FY2020.
Italy is currently planning extensive infrastructure investments and technology innovations aimed at achieving sustainable growth. There has been a particularly strong demand to improve productivity using IoT, and to increase the efficiency of social infrastructures such as water and energy. In addition to improving both the quality and efficiency of medical services as part of measures designed to resolve increasing medical costs, the country has been facing a number of other issues. These issues include; the need to put in place highly efficient public transportation to alleviate traffic jams arising as a result of urbanisation, and also to reduce the environmental burden from CO2 emission volumes.
Hitachi’s Social Innovation Forum 2017 in Milan demonstrated to customers and partners the concrete activities that it has undertaken to resolve the social issues that Italy is facing, as well as solving the customers’ management issues. By promoting Collaborative Creation with customers and local partners to provide digital solutions incorporating the IoT platform “Lumada,” along with the knowledge and experience that it has accumulated up to now, Hitachi will contribute to the further development of Italian society and to improving the quality of life for its citizens.
Hitachi has been involved in business in Europe for more than 50 years, and Europe is now one of the most important strategic regions, accounting for 11 percent of earnings for the Hitachi Group as a whole. Hitachi’s policy is to strengthen the business platform in Italy, in order to further expand business in the future with a focus on the railway, power and energy businesses in Europe.
Hitachi’s entry into the electronic component and home appliance businesses in Italy in 1981 offered the opportunity to roll out other businesses as well, including the information & telecommunication systems, healthcare, and industrial device businesses. In 2015, Hitachi acquired all shares of AnsaldoBreda, and by 2016, it had acquired over 50 percent shares of Ansaldo STS in the railway systems business. In 2017, Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd. acquired majority shares of FIAMM Energy Technology S.p.A. in the storage battery business.
In the future, Hitachi will use Lumada along with the business platforms, experience and expertise that it has cultivated up to now to create added value from device and system data and develop digital solutions with a focus on the railway systems, energy, water, and healthcare business fields.
