Setagaya City’s agile DX promotion: Restructuring administrative services with Support for Mission Critical

A change in the mindset of employees leads to improved services for city residents

The Setagaya City DX Promotion Policy aims to "create a Setagaya where all generations can continue to live with peace of mind," and has set forth a policy of using digital technology to promote the "Re-Design" or restructuring of three areas: administrative services, participation and collaboration, and city offices. According to Mr. Hideki Sugai, Director of DX Promotion Department, the district is focusing on the re-design of the city office, which is the first of the three.

“As digital technology changes the work styles of employees, it will naturally change their perceptions, which will lead to improved operations and, in turn, improved services for city residents. We hope to foster so-called design thinking,” said Mr. Sugai.

Mr. Sugai emphasizes the significance of this idea, saying that while it is natural for the administration to put the convenience of city residents first, it will not lead to essential service improvements unless the mindset of the employees who provide the key services to city residents also changes.

Creation of DX Promotion Department to resolve issues unique to government agencies

Mr. Masanori Saito, Manager of the DX Promotion Division of the DX Promotion Department, recalls that external factors were behind the acceleration of DX promotion in the district.

“The Covid pandemic was the catalyst for this change in the work environment. We could no longer communicate nor share information easily, so we urgently needed to establish a remote work and online meeting environment,” commented Mr. Saito.

Mr. Saito, who had just been appointed to a managerial position at the time, says he felt helpless in the face of the slow transition to remote work.

“Remote work at the city office was not really expected since our most essential work conducted in-person at the office directly with city residents. In the first place, online meetings were not possible in an environment that did not allow internet access from terminals other than those with specific internet-connections. What was a natural shift in the private sector was not feasible at all," said Mr. Saito.

Generally speaking, government agencies tend to lag behind private enterprises in digitization. To overcome this situation, the DX Promotion Department, led by Mr. Sugai, was created and has taken further steps forward to materialize Setagaya City's DX promotion strategy.

Aiming to build a forward-looking infrastructure while keeping up with the evolution of technology

Municipalities have their own security model based on three-layered separation of information systems.

In the "α(alpha) Model," operations are managed by dividing them into three layers: the administrative system using personal numbers, the LGWAN (Local Government Wide Area Network) connection system, and the internet connection system, but the lack of usability of this system has become a problem. Therefore, in the "β (beta) Model," some business terminals and systems in the LGWAN system are allowed to be migrated to the internet connection system, and in the "β' (beta prime) Model,” all terminals and systems can be migrated, but some local governments hesitate due to security concerns and budget challenges.

“By adopting the most ambitious network model allowed by the national government, we aimed to build the next-generation information technology infrastructure in order to create an environment where people can work anywhere without relying on phone calls and emails, something that is common practice in the private sector," explained Mr. Saito.

According to Mr. Saito, the initial plan was to build the β (beta) Model, but after discussions among the members of the DX Promotion Department, they decided to reorient their efforts toward building a more adaptable infrastructure under the β' (beta prime) Model. "By the time we finished transitioning to the β (beta) Model, we would already be behind the trends of the times. Based on the lessons learned from the covid pandemic, we needed to plan further ahead if were to keep up with the speed of IT technology evolution," explained Mr. Saito.

Setagaya City has been building an infrastructure for cloud computing for more than 10 years.

Mr. Hiroshi Kimura, DX Promotion Section Chief, DX Promotion Division, DX Promotion Department, explains how Setagaya City began virtualizing servers when the concept of remote work and teleworking began to spread, and how by 2016, the city had implemented the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

“At the time, there were very few examples of cloud implementations in government agencies, and vendors did not have the know-how, but Microsoft Japan provided us with considerable support. Since the cloud infrastructure was already in place, we didn't have much trouble migrating to the β' (beta prime) Model,” said Mr. Kimura.

Implementing Agile development methods beyond the standard of government agencies

The DX Promotion Department thus began to build a communication infrastructure that does not rely on email or telephone calls by introducing Microsoft Teams and Microsoft SharePoint on the Azure platform. The DX Promotion Department is proceeding with a flexible mindset and policy based on "small starts" and a "trial and error” approach.

For example, the remote work environment was introduced in phases. During the Covid pandemic, there were no expectations of extending internet connectivity to business terminals, therefore access from outside the city office was first permitted only at terminals that had been processed through a closed network. Microsoft 365 E5 Security and Microsoft Intune were subsequently introduced to allow staff to work from home while ensuring security. Since 2023, all employees have been able to work from home, as long as they use terminals that have been migrated to the β' (beta prime) Model.

“If we aimed for a fully comprehensive system right off the bat, we would not be able to introduce it for many years to come. It is important to start small and make adjustments through trial and error if things don't go as expected,” said Mr. Kimura.

Starting where possible, we quickly create and verify model cases, and constantly repeat improvements. In this new way, the development of progressive information infrastructure continues to proceed smoothly, not with the conventional step-by-step project management method employed by government agencies, but with a different approach than what has been the norm up to now.

As part of this project, Mr. Takumi Murakoshi and Ms. Rika Yoshizawa of the DX Promotion Division, DX Promotion Department, Setagaya City, are in charge of building the server environment and implementing business tools.

"Both cloud management of data and confirmation of emails from outside the agency will lead to changes in the way employees work, so I feel that we are contributing to the creation of a foundation for DX,” said Mr. Murakoshi.

Ms. Yoshizawa is also enjoying her work with a sense of fulfillment, as she said, “Right now, we are building a function that allows access to Teams from smartphones, but it requires coordination with other team members, and I feel that my experience is expanding.”

Microsoft Japan's one-to-one support service for infrastructure development

Microsoft Japan's Unified Support and its add-on service Support for Mission Critical (SfMC), are underpinning this advancement of DX.
Both of these support services are designed to help customers use Microsoft products more effectively and make the most of their business operations.

Microsoft Japan offers Unified Support and its add-on service, Support for Mission Critical (SfMC). Both support services are designed to bolster businesses through more effective use of products from Microsoft.

Unified Support is a unique support plan that covers all of your contracted Microsoft products and provides 24/7 support from Microsoft engineers. The SfMC service is an add-on plan in which a Microsoft engineer (called a customer lead) with a comprehensive understanding of the customer's situation provides optimized support for the product area in question.

“When we contracted support services with Microsoft Japan, Unified Support was still called Premier Support for Partners," recalls Mr. Koichi Aida, Deputy Director of DX Promotion Division, DX Promotion Department, Setagaya City.

We needed reliable support to ensure a secure system. At the time, the contract was for indirect support through a partner company, which resulted in slow response times and the inability to respond to unexpected problems. The city therefore decided to enter into a Premier support contract, the first of its kind among Tokyo's 23 wards.

“Premier Support enabled us to work effectively with the vendor who developed the system, and we were able to build a solid system. Since then, they have continued to support us to this day,” said Mr. Aida.

In addition to Unified Support, the district also introduced SfMC to build its next-generation information technology infrastructure. Mr. Kimura explained the significance of introducing SfMC as follows.

“We can look up product descriptions on the internet, but SfMC can help us determine whether the product and the vendor's construction process are suited to Setagaya City's circumstances. It is very advantageous to have support optimized for our circumstances," said Mr. Kimura.

“There are cases where information not yet publicly available is needed for building a system, and it is difficult for the vendor alone to solve such issues. With the introduction of SfMC, we can receive support that only Microsoft Japan can provide, such as direct confirmation with the developers," said Mr. Kimura.

“We have regular meetings, but we also appreciate having 24/7 support for unexpected consultations," says Mr. Murakoshi, who is responsible for system implementation and maintenance. “As a government agency, we are not allowed to shut down the system on weekdays and often perform updates on weekends and holidays, so having a support service that we can consult anytime is a big relief."

Ms. Yoshizawa added, “I can ask questions whenever I have them, and I have received a lot of help from them. Personally, I don't think we have fully utilized the Microsoft 365 applications yet, so we want to make use of Microsoft Power Platform and Copilot for Microsoft 365.”

“With Microsoft's support, we are aiming for further improvement,” added Ms. Yoshizawa.

Connecting design thinking fostered by the power of digitalization to city services

“I realized once again that Setagaya City has received considerable support from Microsoft Japan," said Mr. Sugai. Setagaya City will soon enter the implementation phase of the “Setagaya City DX Promotion Policy Ver. 2.”

“Under the Setagaya City DX Promotion Policy Ver. 2, we aim to achieve service design by creating an environment in which employees can utilize digital tools as much as they like. We also plan to promote professional development so that employees can learn how to use Power Platform and other tools to reform the operations of city offices. We are looking forward to the continued training and support from Microsoft Japan,” explained Mr. Sugai.

“I believe that the initial users of both Teams and Power Platform will continue to take proactive initiative, but our challenge will be how to follow up with those who come after them. We would like to provide support with continuity,” commented Mr. Kimura.

“We are definitely looking forward to utilizing Generative AI. Currently, we have just started to use a chatbot for Q&A in Teams. This is an area that will continue to advance in the future, so we would like to actively promote its use while taking security into consideration,” said Mr. Aida.

“Looking at their efforts in the area of Generative AI, I have a sense that Microsoft has leaped ahead to the forefront of the industry. I hope that Microsoft will continue to provide truly valuable services to the world,” commented Mr. Saito.

There has been remarkable anticipation in the council assembly on the possible availability of Copilot for Microsoft 365. Active use will soon be reality since licenses for the trial have already been obtained and the trial environment is currently being built for Copilot for Microsoft 365.

As an administrative agency, Setagaya City decided that the best and fastest way to improve services for city residents was to change the mindset of its employees, and based on this decision, established the DX policy.

Through small-starts and trial-and-error initiatives, innovative efforts pioneered by government agencies nationwide are steadily beginning to bear fruit. Microsoft Japan will continue to provide optimal support as a driving force behind the promotion of DX.