Challenge
Growing complexity and the push for standardization
As JFE Shoji America’s business expanded across North America, the IT environments of its group companies became increasingly shaped by each company’s individual requirements.
Prior to Sawada’s arrival, HCL BigFix had been deployed across the North American group companies as the standard tool for asset and patch management. However, CEMCO and Studco — both of which joined the group through acquisitions — had their own RMM tools in place, leaving the standardization of IT management tools across the region as an outstanding challenge.
HCL BigFix played an important role in enabling Tokyo HQ to maintain global visibility into asset and patch management. At the same time, the way endpoint management and operations were divided between HQ and the regional subsidiaries made day-to-day operations difficult for the local teams.
“The configuration and delegation of access in HCL made daily operations more complex than they needed to be for our teams on the ground,” says James Fiorillo, CIO at Kelly Pipe. “Adding or removing devices, patching on demand — these routine tasks weren’t as straightforward as they should have been.”
Against this backdrop, there was a clear need for a new solution that could address the limitations of the existing tools while accommodating the individual requirements of each subsidiary under JFE Shoji America Holdings. In addition, the group companies were required to comply with JFE Group’s security patch management standards and reporting requirements. Even so, Sawada believed that with the right solution in place — one that took into account the operational realities of each North American subsidiary — these requirements could be met efficiently and without undue burden on day-to-day IT operations.
Solution
Unified IT operations platform delivers near-instant time to value
JFE Shoji America replaced the variety of tools that had been deployed across its North American group companies with NinjaOne. However, the rollout was not a company-wide deployment from the outset. Sawada first introduced NinjaOne at a North American group company he was concurrently overseeing, where he personally designed and managed the policies. Through hands-on experience, he gained confidence that NinjaOne could address the challenges the group had been facing — and that he could recommend it to other group companies with conviction.
Results & Outcomes
Replacing four tools with one
After validating the solution himself, Sawada reached out to Fiorillo. Together, they discussed the challenges James had been experiencing with asset and patch management, and aligned on what an improved state would look like. It was only after that conversation that they moved forward with a NinjaOne demonstration.
“I was surprised at how easy it was to onboard, to be honest,” says Fiorillo. The transition from HCL and its supplementary tools was fast and seamless. There was zero downtime during migration, and teams began using NinjaOne immediately, delivering near-instant time to value.
“It’s worlds better than what we had. We had multiple tools, like WSUS, TeamViewer for remote management, and PDQ for pushing software,” says Thomas Foreman, IT Manager at CEMCO, which joined the JFE Shoji group through an acquisition in 2022. “With NinjaOne, we were really able to get a handle on our tech. Having NinjaOne Remote in the same platform is a cherry on top. We’ve reduced the need to deploy field techs on-site by 25 percent thanks to all of NinjaOne’s capabilities.”
Mergers and acquisitions are no longer an IT headache
NinjaOne helped JFE Shoji streamline the onboarding of all existing group companies, and it became a superpower for newly acquired companies coming into the fold.
“As soon as we join a system to the domain, it automatically pulls the NinjaOne custom policy and installs all of our business apps,” says Foreman. “Just like that, our systems are off and ready to go.”
Onboarding was once a long and cumbersome process that required a dedicated field engineer to manually install and set up custom software for each newly acquired group company. Now, NinjaOne automations have simplified new company onboarding, effectively eliminating the need for engineers to manually onboard new companies. Mergers and acquisitions have been transformed from an IT headache to an easy process, thanks to NinjaOne’s built-in and reliable automations, custom policy, and intuitive UI/UX.
Hardening the perimeter around the world
Meeting JFE Group’s patch management and security policies has also been streamlined thanks to NinjaOne Autonomous Patch Management. Built-in features like Patch Intelligence AI expedite decision-making by helping Sawada assess patch risks and prioritize updates effectively. From there, automated, best-in-class patching deploys appropriate updates customized to each group company and its devices. With real-time reporting, Sawada can easily and quickly ensure that all group companies are compliant.
Conclusion
NinjaOne didn’t just replace a fragmented toolset at JFE Shoji America; it paved the way for a fundamentally different way of operating. A multi-entity organization spread across North America managed to unify IT operations, standardize device management, simplify new-company onboarding, and comply with HQ policy — all with the help of NinjaOne.
“If I didn’t have NinjaOne, I couldn’t do this job,” says Sawada. “I’m responsible for overseeing eight different group companies across North America, some without IT departments, and each with different needs and challenges. Thanks to NinjaOne, I can do so with great confidence — the platform is simple for my distributed teams and reliable for HQ.”
Looking back on the rollout, Sawada reflects: “Introducing NinjaOne was just the starting point. What truly made the difference was having colleagues like Fiorillo and Foreman — people who deeply understand their own business and IT environment — who took ownership of the platform and made it work for their teams. Without them, NinjaOne would never have become the indispensable solution it is across our group companies today.”