Fujitsu, Nissin Healthcare Food Service build cloud-based system for home food delivery service

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Fujitsu said it has worked with Nissin Healthcare Food Service Co Ltd to build a cloud-based food delivery system for the company’s Shokutakubin service, which delivers boxed meals to the homes of subscribers. The system, which went into operation in April, offers nutritious meals safely and comfortably.

Built using Fujitsu’s cloud, the system manages business information such as orders, products and customer lists, and also handles all payments, covering every aspect of the service’s operations from orders by individuals to deliveries.

Nissin Healthcare Food Service is already in the process of rolling out a nationwide service to deliver a set of seven boxed meals together in one refrigerated package. It also plans to launch a nationwide service for individual hot meals delivered daily from the company’s nearest location, which would make it Japan’s largest food delivery service.

Operating food services in more than 4,500 hospitals and nursing homes, Nissin Healthcare Food Service is already Japan’s leading food-service company, and has moved into the second phase of its business by launching a subscription-based home-delivery meal service called Shokutakubin.

Shokutakubin, available nationwide, is a service for daily home delivery of individually packaged nutritious meals offered safely and comfortably based on the knowledge and experience of the company’s staff of 7,500 nutritionists and registered dietitians.

For its part, Fujitsu built the food delivery system that underpins this service. The system manages business information, such as orders, products and customer lists, and also handles all payments, covering every aspect of the service’s operations, from orders by individuals to deliveries. Fujitsu was able to have the system operational in such a short amount of time due to the fact that it runs entirely in the cloud on FGCP/S5, the company’s on-demand virtual public cloud service. Additionally, FGCP/S5 is offered on volume-based billing that allows virtual use of the entire platform, minimizing the upfront investment required and enabling capacity to be added in order to accommodate sudden spikes in demand during sales campaigns. It also has the flexibility to accommodate future growth into non-food services.

With Japan’s aging society, the home food delivery service market, which was worth 54.9 billion yen in 2009, is forecast to reach 77.5 billion yen in 2015 (according to a Nissin Healthcare Food Service study). Nissin Healthcare Food Service wanted to leverage the knowledge and experience of its 7,500 nutritionists and registered dietitians to help ordinary people with their daily meals. The company is already in the process of rolling out a nationwide service for a set of seven boxed meals to be delivered together in one refrigerated package.

During the summer, the company plans start a nationwide service to deliver seven meals of the customer’s choice. In addition, the company plans to expand a service, currently available only in some regions, for individual hot meals delivered daily from the company’s nearest location, which will make it Japan’s largest food-service company.