Creating value together NEC Vision 2017 Case Studies and Highlights Co-creating social value through human-digital integration The increasing diversification and globalization of our society is giving rise to a range of complex social issues that are closely intertwined. As we look to address these issues, we must also find ways to respond to a fast-changing market environment. NEC is committed to helping solve the issues that society is facing so that we can realize a society that is brighter and more prosperous for all. We are doing this by bringing the world our cutting-edge Solutions for Society. These solutions leverage our information and communications technology (ICT) assets to provide our customers with the tools they need to quickly transform their organizations while at the same time creating the important social values of Safety, Security, Efficiency, and Equality. As we develop our Solutions for Society, we are “co-creating” with our customers and partners, as well as governments, local bodies, and international organizations, to devise new business models that will meet the needs of the future. Going forward, NEC will continue to take on the challenge of creating social value through human-digital integration, from the customer’s perspective and the perspective of society, as a partner who is trusted to the fullest. This booklet introduces some of the Solutions for Society businesses that NEC is involved in and examples of how we are working with our customers to create value for society. We have also issued “NEC Vision 2017 for Social Value Creation,” which describes the vision that we at NEC have for creating social value through our business activities. We invite you to read this booklet also. Big Data Solutions 02 NEC Vision 2017 Case Studies and Highlights Highlights 1 Creating value for society through Marketing × Innovation ▶PAGE 04 Highlights 2 To the world, and to the future: Highlights 3 Creating new value with Taking on the challenge of diverse partnerships creating social value ▶PAGE 10 across the globe ▶PAGE 14 Case Studies and Highlights of Solutions for Society Safety (Physical Security/Cyber Security) ▶PAGE 16 Traffic and Urban Infrastructure ▶PAGE 22 Telecommunications ▶PAGE 24 Manufacturing/Logistics/Retail/Services ▶PAGE 28 ▶PAGE 32 Cloud Solutions ▶PAGE 34 SDN Solutions ▶PAGE 36 At a Glance ▶PAGE 38 Scan the QR code on each page to watch a video or ：Video ：More information find out more about case studies and interviews. NEC Vision 2017 Case Studies and Highlights 03 Highlights 1 Moderator Executive Vice President and Executive Vice President and Think Tank SophiaBank VP CTO (Chief Technology Officer), NEC CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), NEC Kumi Katsumi Takaaki Fujisawa Emura Shimizu How will the role of people change with the advance of AI? What kinds of value will be produced when things and people are connected through IoT, providing us with a deeper understanding of contexts? We spoke with NEC's Takaaki Shimizu (CMO), Katsumi Emura (CTO), and Kumi Fujisawa from the think tank SophiaBank, who is involved in international consulting and critique. at things. NEC is introducing a system to What must people do to monitor for potential faults in plants by produce value from AI? collecting data from several thousand sensors installed in the plant and analyzing the data by using AI. The Fujisawa: “Digital” is currently a major technology takes an overall view of theme when speaking of business and things and detects potential faults by technology, from the viewpoint of the looking for breakdowns in the “integration of marketing and interrelations among sensor data. This is innovation.” similar to how Eastern medicine makes a Shimizu: To produce digital value requires diagnosis by looking at the whole body. understanding of both “digitization,” Takaaki Shimizu In that sense, AI and the Internet of converting to and using data in digital Things (IoT) solve problems by looking form, and also “digitalization,” which is must note that in earlier AI “booms,” AI globally at a lot of data, which could be the transformation of business through was misunderstood as something that said to be a more like an Eastern technology, and engaging in both these would take over all human tasks. medicine approach. In my AI research, activities in the medium-term. It has Emura: Unless someone decides on I’ve come to think people’s job is to think become possible to solve business issues something concrete that they want to do, more deeply about things. That may be by creating value from data through the AI won’t think of it for them. This is a because I’m getting older, though. advanced capabilities of computing, key point. Humans recursively rethink Fujisawa: AI is expanding into more and networks, and software. Artificial things in an analog way, which is the more fields, such as factory automation, intelligence (AI) is again receiving antithesis of “digital,” and you could say and self-driving cars, isn’t it? attention as one form of software. We that this is like an Eastern way of looking Emura: AI is able to handle an increasing 04 NEC Vision 2017 Case Studies and Highlights Katsumi Emura more efficiently. In face recognition, advances in analysis of motion can reveal a person’s internal state from subtle changes in facial expression. Fujisawa: Such as nervousness… Emura: Yes, that’s right. When we’re talking like this, we can read each others’ internal state by watching subtle changes in facial expression. AI is doing the same thing. But people make the final decision on what to do. For example, thinking “My boss might be in a bad mood, so I’d better not talk to him.” Fujisawa: AI makes things easier for people, but people also need creativity and effort to increase their abilities. Shimizu: Rather than simply having excellent AI, it is a question of how to solve problems using AI for people and enterprises; how to resolve issues by combining information and communications technologies (ICT) and the real world), “Analysis” and products that incorporate AI. All “Prescription,” and optimizing those capabilities, including problem processes are features of NEC the WISE. approaches, integration, and consulting, Fujisawa: The image of a brain is strong must work together. Supply chains are with AI, but AI at NEC seems broader, rapidly getting more complex, so including looking, listening, and problems cannot be solved individually, determining actions based on the results and a single company cannot do of analysis. Like using the five human everything. Each player must cooperate senses… with the others, using the technologies Emura: Yes, we have technologies such and products that are their strengths. as speech recognition, language Fujisawa: NEC’s perspective, which understanding, estimation and transcends the company and the prediction. For a long time, we have had industry, is fundamental for particularly strong technologies for collaboration. extracting data from images and Shimizu: What we can accomplish on our interpreting it. About 50 years ago, we own is limited. Working together with Kumi Fujisawa commercialized a machine for reading many others, we can co-create and postal codes, and we have been working achieve our goal of “Orchestrating a number of things that people do on biometrics technologies in the form of brighter world.” normally and regularly. The important Fingerprint Identification and Face issue is not that cars can drive Recognition for more than 40 years. automatically, but to consider what new These are being used in more than 70 IoT destined to handle things people can do when they are freed countries around the world. unstructured data from driving automobiles. From our interaction with customers, we have learned much, become aware of changes Addressing social issues Fujisawa: IoT is also an important key in society, and recognize that people are through AI that explores word, along with AI. How is NEC what is important. the interior handling IoT and what are its main technologies? Fujisawa: In human evolution, humans Shimizu: IoT goes beyond manufacturing, ³Five-senses AI´ thought and made decisions based on and is spreading to many fields, such as cooperating with humans visual information before writing. In finance, insurance, healthcare, and NEC’s areas of technical expertise, AI logistics. IoT must handle huge amounts seems to be doing what humans did at of unstructured data. With earlier IT Fujisawa: I understand you have the beginning of their evolution. processes, data was structured and established an NEC AI brand. Emura: That is true. Most image data is organized before it was input and then Emura: Yes, it is “NEC the WISE.” “Wise” still being analyzed from outward processed according to rules to produce is an adjective, but “the wise” is a plural appearance, but we are also working on answers. In contrast, with IoT the noun, meaning “wise people.” So we use looking at the interior. For example, various components, products and “NEC the WISE” to refer to NEC’s various internal cracks or cavities in concrete can sensors cannot be connected without cutting-edge AI technologies, with the be found by looking at images of subtle first building a standard structure, idea that people and AI work together on vibrations on the surface. This could be including architectures and processes. solutions to complex and advanced used to diagnose degradation in Without such connection, IoT is just pie problems. Realizing “Visualization” (of infrastructure such as bridges and roads in the sky. To solve this, NEC decided on NEC Vision 2017 Case Studies and Highlights 05 Highlights 1 Creating value for society through Marketing × Innovation Tigre in Argentina. By linking two-rider motorcycles with purse-snatching events, we contributed to reducing crime rates in the city.