Hitachi’s technology consulting arm is teaming up with Stripe to help companies process business transactions more efficiently. 

Tokyo-based Hitachi is one of the world’s largest industrial conglomerates. It makes a vast assortment of products ranging from elevators to particle accelerators. Its technology consulting arm, Hitachi Digital Services, helps organizations with IT modernization projects. One of the subsidiary’s areas of expertise is integrating business applications to facilitate data sharing. According to Hitachi Digital Services, that capability is at the center of its new partnership with Stripe.

Stripe operates a cloud platform that companies use to process e-commerce purchases. It also sells various related services. Stripe has a payment gateway, an application that moves financial data such as credit card details between the various systems involved in processing a transaction. The tool is available alongside a fraud detection engine and an analytics application called Sigma. Companies can use the latter product to turn their Stripe transaction data into dashboards. A hotel operator, for example, might build a report that visualizes seasonal sales fluctuations.

Hitachi Digital Services will help organizations deploy payment processing systems powered by Stripe. The partnership is launching with an initial focus on the insurance sector. According to Hitachi Digital Services, its consultants will deliver solutions based on “modular architectures”. That’s a design approach focused on easing code maintenance.

“Unlike traditional monolithic payment systems that are difficult to update or scale, modular architectures allow organizations to deploy flexible, API-driven components that can evolve independently,” Stewart Reeder, the head of insurance at Hitachi Digital Services, told Boardroom Insight. “This approach gives enterprises the agility to introduce new payment methods, integrate AI-powered capabilities, strengthen fraud prevention, and scale operations without disrupting the broader ecosystem.”

Large enterprises don’t run their payment processing software in isolation. They integrate the software with their other business applications, which often requires writing a significant amount of custom code. Hitachi Digital Services can help Stripe customers with the task. 

Hitachi Digital Services spokesperson Ailara Heather explained that “by combining Stripe’s programmable financial infrastructure with Hitachi Digital Services’ systems integration expertise, the partnership enables organizations to modernize fragmented payment environments while maintaining connectivity across critical enterprise platforms such as CRM, ERP, and policy administration systems.”

CRM and ERP systems are a focus of the partnership because companies often integrate such applications with their payment processing infrastructure. A wholesaler, for example, might want to let its salespeople generate Stripe invoices without leaving the interface of its internal CRM platform. Easing the invoice creation workflow not only saves time but also reduces the risk of human error.

Companies integrate Stripe with their ERP software for similar reasons. At its core, an ERP system is a database that stores an organization’s most important records. Bringing transaction logs from Stripe into the fold is a natural step for many firms. Integrating a company’s ERP system with Stripe removes the need for employees to manually import transaction data, which lowers the risk of data entry errors. It also skips a significant amount of manual work. 

Hitachi Digital Services and Stripe intend to broaden their partnership over time. The plan is expand the collaboration’s focus beyond the insurance sector to the retail, transportation and hospitality segments. Hitachi Digital Services says that the initiative ties into a broader market trend.

“The partnership between Hitachi Digital Services and Stripe highlights a broader shift in how enterprises approach payments within increasingly digital and AI-driven markets,” Ailara told us. “Rather than functioning as isolated back-office systems, payments are becoming strategic business capabilities that influence customer experience, operational efficiency, scalability, and revenue growth.” 

Photo courtesy of Hitachi