Case Study: How We Solved Our Own Growth Challenges with Managed Redmine

Overview

At Fusion Systems, we’ve been in business for over 25 years, growing from a small IT services company into a multi-national organization with teams across Japan and Asia. But growth brought new headaches—governance gaps, spiraling costs, and disconnected systems that dragged us down.

We didn’t just understand our clients’ challenges. We lived them.
That firsthand experience drove us to create a solution that became the foundation for our Managed Redmine service—a secure, flexible, and cost-effective platform designed to solve the exact problems we faced.

The Challenge

As our business expanded, so did our pain points:

• Runaway Costs: Multiple disconnected systems created uncontrolled spending across departments.
• Governance Nightmares: Without unified oversight, compliance and reporting became nearly impossible.
• Tool Chaos: Freee, NetSuite, ZenDesk, ZohoDesk, SalesForce, ServiceNow, and others cluttered our workflow—but none talked to each other.
• Team Burnout: Employees grew frustrated as off-the-shelf products consistently failed to meet our specific needs.
• The Goldilocks Problem: Enterprise systems were too expensive and bloated. Custom solutions seemed too risky and resource-intensive.

Something had to give.
We needed a system that delivered control, visibility, and efficiency without the hefty price tag and rigid limitations of generic enterprise software.

Our Solution

Instead of continuing to wrestle with mismatched tools, we built our own platform, harnessing the power of Redmine and supercharging it with our proprietary Reactor code base.

Our mission was straightforward:

• Roll out incremental improvements through modular deployments.
• Keep costs predictable and manageable.
• Maintain complete ownership and privacy of our data.
• Create a solution flexible enough to serve every department’s unique requirements.

We developed a cloud-based platform that replaced, consolidated, and transformed our fragmented systems:

What We Replaced

• ZenDesk
• NetSuite
• HR knowledge base & PTO tracking
• Staff expense management
• Dozens of complex, error-prone spreadsheets

What We Added

• ISMS & Governance Controls: Change control, problem management, and compliance tracking that actually work.
• Financial Tools: Invoicing, expense management, and reporting dashboards.
• Automation: Automated invoicing, expense approvals, P&L reports, balance sheets, and forecasting.
• Tailored Workflows: Custom processes designed to match each division’s exact needs.

How We Implemented It

Over 18 months, we worked side-by-side with department leads to design, test, and deploy each module.
This agile, iterative approach let us:

1. Roll out improvements gradually without disrupting daily operations.
2. Incorporate direct feedback from the teams actually using the system.
3. Scale our solution smoothly as our business grew.

The result? A highly customized, cloud-based platform that delivered:

• Full control over our data and systems.
• Portability to avoid vendor lock-in.
• Security and peace of mind without managing infrastructure internally.

The Results

By solving our own problem, we achieved what no off-the-shelf tool could deliver:

Before	After Fusion’s Platform
Rising, unpredictable IT costs	50%+ reduction in system costs
Fragmented workflows across multiple tools	Unified platform for all operations
Manual financial reporting (days to complete)	Real-time, automated reporting
Low employee adoption & constant frustration	High adoption thanks to tailored design
Limited governance visibility	Centralized, real-time oversight

Why This Matters for You

Our Managed Redmine service is the product of lived experience.
We know what it’s like to struggle with mismatched systems and runaway costs because we lived it.
The solution we built for ourselves is now available to you—a proven, scalable platform that gives you control without the headaches.

With Managed Redmine, you get:

• A platform that’s already been battle-tested in a growing enterprise.
• Tailored features built for your specific workflows and compliance needs.
• A cost-effective alternative to overpriced enterprise systems.
• Bilingual support and a partner who truly gets your challenges.

Take the Next Step

If you’re facing the same challenges we once did, don’t settle for a system that almost fits.

Let us help you implement the solution that transformed our own business.

Get Managed Redmine Hosting