Mitsui Fudosan Realty focuses investments on IT assets that generate value by enabling data-based inventory

Mitsui Fudosan Realty, one of Japan’s largest real estate distribution companies, found its IT costs rising each time a new system was introduced. Determined to optimize these expenses, the company turned to WalkMe Discovery to automatically measure the usage status of systems introduced within the company. By identifying systems with a significant decline in users and that were not being used as intended, they were able to successfully decommission seven systems.

Going forward, Mitsui Fudosan Realty plans to carefully examine the necessity of their systems based on their return on investment and focus on systems that create value.

As a leading real estate distribution company, Mitsui Fudosan Realty offers a wide range of solutions to meet real estate needs, including selling, buying, renting, leasing, and utilizing real estate. As of March 2025, it boasts the highest number of real estate sales brokerage transactions handled in Japan for 38 consecutive years.

The company has positioned “strengthening its digital strategy” as one of its major initiatives for the future, and continues to pursue new ways of doing business in the real estate distribution industry.

In 2024, the company had over 130 systems in operation that included a mix of old and new systems, which in turn increased security investments and drove up IT costs. In fact, the company’s IT investments have been steadily increasing over the past decade. “With a declining workforce, the days when increasing sales simply by opening more stores are coming to an end. To efficiently perform work with fewer people, the scope of IT support will continue to expand. This means it’s important to carefully examine the systems we need based on return on investment and optimize IT costs,” said Yoshifumi Saito, Director of IT Management at Real Estate Realty Co., Ltd.

To address this issue, the company began taking concrete steps, such as holding an annual IT asset inventory meeting. However, there was no system in place to objectively and comprehensively grasp system usage. Saito explained that they were still forced to rely on subjective judgment. “Even when we conducted surveys and interviews with user departments, the only response we got was, ‘we’re using it’. It didn’t tell us how much it was being used in daily operations, or whether it was being used as intended. For example, suppose a system was introduced to a department of 1,000 people, with the expectation that everyone would use it. If it turns out that only 400 people are using it, the remaining 600 need to be identified—whether it’s because they weren’t fully aware of it, didn’t know how to use it, or was difficult to use. In other words, simply discussing whether it’s being used or not won’t lead to a solution,” stated Yoshifumi Saito.

The company began gathering information in search of a way to visualize system usage, but was unable to find a solution that perfectly met their needs. At that time, the company became interested in WalkMe as a Digital Adoption Platform capable of building operational guidance on target systems.

They then implemented WalkMe Discovery to automatically detect the extent employees are using software in internal web applications, enabling them to confirm whether employees are using the software as intended.

Unlike tools that simply provide license login rates or site clicks, WalkMe Discovery extracts data for each site, overlays it with organizational and employee attributes, and correlates it with employees’ work to provide a detailed understanding of internal and external software usage. This was exactly the solution the company was looking for, and they found no other option than WalkMe Discovery.

When the company introduced WalkMe in April 2024 by linking WalkMe with HR data, they were able to gain detailed insight into who in which department was using what and how. At inventory review meetings, they were able to advance discussions based on data visualized by WalkMe Discovery, and after implementation, they successfully decommissioned seven systems. These included systems with a significant decline in users, systems that were costly but not generating value, and systems that were due for replacement. The system costs saved approximately ¥200 million in annual IT spend that can now be reallocated to more useful IT investments.

Furthermore, there are limits to comprehensively managing a huge number of systems with limited IT resources. With the help of WalkMe Discovery, the company has strengthened governance while also achieving significant efficiency gains. “The introduction of WalkMe has also played a major role in enabling us to promote internal transformation. Unlike in the past—when decisions were often made based on a vague sense that “this level of cost is probably unavoidable”—we are now able to explain, based on data and logic, whether an investment is truly necessary. I feel that even the management team, who had repeatedly questioned the ever-increasing IT costs in the past, is now more convinced and aligned when it comes to IT budget planning,” says Saito.

Meanwhile, from the perspective of security governance, the discovery of shadow IT activity was an unexpected by-product. Uncovering usage patterns that could have led to major security risks if left unchecked gave the company an important realization and prompted them to quickly take the necessary measures. “I don’t know of any other tool that can visualize user behavior in such detail. By using WalkMe Discovery, we can analyze system usage trends by area and analyze differences in usage by age group. This will enable us to see what specific measures need to be taken.. A system is only valuable if it is used. Rather than leaving post-implementation operations to each department, we believe that WalkMe Discovery, which allows us to continuously control our investments, will play an important role in establishing usage practices that create value,” states Saito.

“As digitalization accelerates globally, it’s extremely important for IT departments to not only actively invest in new systems, but also visualize whether existing systems are being used as intended and invest only in those that create value, as this is crucial for supporting future business growth,” Saito emphasized. Once usage levels are visualized, WalkMe’s capabilities will likely be needed in the future to determine how to encourage use. Saito added, “If a task takes three hours instead of three minutes then it’s a loss for the company. It’s surprisingly difficult to know whether you’re using the software in the correct way. If WalkMe could visualize this level of usage, it could actually dramatically improve efficiency.”

Mitsui Fudosan Realty now has a system for creating an environment that allows them to master software and extract more value, ensuring results that are commensurate with their investment. WalkMe Discovery is an important stepping stone for the company to achieve sustainable growth going forward.