Case Study: Nikon achieves faster global development and improved collaboration with Perforce

Nikon Leverages SCM Automation for Global Development

Nikon’s imaging-software division — supporting products across the U.S., Japan and Germany with about 61 developers — struggled with slow, unreliable version control (Microsoft Visual SourceSafe over ISDN), poor visibility into changes, frequent backtracking, and inefficient ad‑hoc file sharing that wasted time and money. The teams needed a scalable, high‑performance SCM that could support distributed development and eventually be extended for non‑IT users and business stakeholders.

After evaluating options, Nikon chose Perforce for its speed, architecture and integration, deploying it in about a week with a single internal lead. Using Perforce plus automated scripts, builds, smoke tests and APIs, Nikon improved release automation, code visibility, backups and branch management; development speed and collaboration increased, Perforce became the division’s SCM backbone, and the company is now extending integration with wikis and broader change‑management use for business users.

Nikon