It's easy to talk about fast development and business transformation with SaaS, but reality isn't that simple.

Since changing jobs and coming to my current company, I've been exposed to SaaS low-code and no-code environments. While my own hands-on development experience is somewhat limited, I've been involved in a variety of projects across multiple products.
What I frankly feel after trying it is that if we can develop quickly while sticking to OOTB (Out Of The Box), we can definitely reap the benefits.

However, the actual field is not that easy.
Business departments often request to "keep the current way of doing things," and a mysterious obsession often leads to demands for customization that deviates from OOTB.

Then there is the unique awkwardness of foreign-made tools.
Japanese displays get messed up, and perhaps the workflow concepts just fundamentally clash with Japanese culture, making it hard to be praised as "easy to use" in the field.
Because it's a packaged environment, there are many hidden specs and limitations, and I feel there are actually many stumbling blocks where things don't behave as intended.

Ultimately, to advance rapid development with SaaS, I think strong prerequisites are needed: the IT and business departments pointing in the same direction, and a commitment to adapting to OOTB.

I know that so-called JTCs (Traditional Japanese Companies) are also trying hard to promote DX and AX, which is clear through interactions at events and corporate associations.
But they often overly prioritize security and governance, and the relationship between IT and business departments remains unchanged.
Without a strong top-down leader, and with a deep-rooted culture of outsourcing everything instead of doing it in-house, it's genuinely hard to advance SaaS development and business transformation simultaneously. Generational differences in sensibilities might also play a part here.

Even if you introduce a globally highly-rated SaaS, whether you can utilize it and generate ROI truly depends on complex factors.

What happens if you excessively introduce foreign SaaS and public clouds but fail to fully utilize them?
The original earnings made by JTCs just become revenue for US companies, functioning simply as an "indirect remittance system." Honestly, I think it's quite difficult to change this structure.

That's exactly why I try to face my daily work with the mindset that it's important to select products with a posture of maximizing what is good, and to utilize them well.

It's a rambling piece, but I suddenly felt the urge to write this down because I feel this exact same frustration—which I've had since I changed jobs—applies perfectly to the context of recent AI adoption.

Thoughts on SaaS Low-code Development and the "Indirect Remittance System"