How have U.S. and Japanese firms organized and managed the process of becoming recognized leaders in using information technology (IT) to achieve long-term sustainable advantage? The cases support an initial research hypothesis: leading U.S. and Japanese software users are very sophisticated in the ways they have integrated software into their business strategies. They use IT to institutionalize organizational strengths and to continually capture the knowledge generated by their business operations. As an introduction to the specifics of the case presented in this paper for Nomura Research, an outline of the focus of the project and the general methodology used is presented here. In addition, there is an overview of the historical importance of customized software in Japan and how that compares to the United States