Tokyo-listed SIer Comture makes an "FDE model" shift part of its mid-term plan and launches FDE training

Comture Corporation, a Tokyo-based systems integrator listed on the TSE Prime market, announced on October 30 that it is stepping up group-wide development of FDE (Forward Deployed Engineer) talent. In the release, Comture says its mid-term business plan calls for a "shift to the FDE model". It frames FDEs as people who go into the customer's site, find the problem, implement a solution and then stay involved through adoption and ongoing improvement. The plan has three steps: train FDEs in-house, deploy them on customer projects, and package what the group learns into training it sells to other companies.

The first concrete step is a two-day "FDE talent development course" from Comture group company Edifist Learning and DASA Japan, the Japanese arm of the DevOps Agile Skills Association. It starts in November 2026 at Edifist's Yaesu learning centre in Tokyo. Edifist's own release says the course centres on four skills: discovery, translating problems into solutions, implementation, and supporting adoption. Exercises cover value cases, problem definition, on-site analysis and planning the move from PoC to production. The list price is 187,000 yen including tax, with a 30% discount for the November 11-12 pilot run.

For FDEs, the notable part is the framing. The course proposes a "Japanese-style FDE model": instead of assuming one all-round hire, existing SEs, PMs, tech leads and AI engineers work together as a small team that performs the FDE function. Like Hitachi and the iCD/Cravans skills-framework work covered earlier, this shows Japanese IT services firms rebuilding their delivery model around FDEs by retraining staff they already have, not only by hiring. Engineers at Japanese SIers should expect FDE-style, customer-embedded roles and in-house reskilling paths to keep spreading.