The SaaS Source: January 2024
From industry insights to key appointments, these are some of the top stories from the software-as-a-service industry in Japan during the past month.
Exploring Domestic Opportunities for Digital Contract Management Platforms
An interview with DocuSign Japan Managing Executive Officer Koichi Hoshino, published January 15 on WeeklyBCN, reveals how SaaS companies that offer digital contract services can help streamline Japanese companies’ processes (in Japanese). The interview points out that companies that offer contract lifecycle management (CLM) would allow companies to make their entire contract process digital. The digital transition began for some companies during the pandemic, but some stages in the process are still paper based. Hoshino, whose company offers the DocuSign CLM platform, explains that CLM can only be meaningful if it is a one-stop service that covers the entire process. He adds that it is necessary for DocuSign Japan to partner with a variety of Japanese companies to develop effective solutions.
Nomura Real Estate Commerce Adopts Business Management Platform
According to a January 18 piece on Yahoo! Japan News, Nomura Real Estate Commerce has begun using the Loglass Business Management SaaS platform (in Japanese). Loglass will allow Nomura Real Estate Commerce—which manages the commercial facility business of the Nomura Real Estate Group and handles everything from consulting to facility management for commercial facility development across Japan—to build a business management system that can accurately manage income and expenditure according to projects, business partners, and operations. Prior to adopting the platform, Nomura relied on spreadsheet software, which was prone to user error, technical difficulties, and the time needed to maintain spreadsheets. Since adoption, Nomura has remarked on Loglass’s ability to manage 1,000 projects and visualize income and expenditure on a project basis.
Hotel Room Cleaning Platform Developer Raises ¥430 Million
Edeyans, the developer of Jtas—a platform that hotels use to manage guest room cleaning—has raised ¥430 million, according to a January 12 story in Sogyo Techo reports (in Japanese). Jtas integrates with hotels’ property management systems, allowing hotels to acquire data regarding cleaning operations and develop methods for improving cleaning efficiency and quality. It will also allow hotels to boost productivity and more accurately assess employee performance. Edeyans says that it will use the funds to expand its business and develop services and products. Currently, as more tourists are returning to Japan following the pandemic, hotels are experiencing both a boom in business and a need to streamline operations.
Decarbonization Leader Appoints Former Veeva Head as Advisor
A leader in providing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions visualization solutions, Booost Technologies has appointed former Veeva Japan CEO Takashi Okamura as advisor. As a January 29 press release published on Jiji.com explains, Booost is responsible for managing about 7.5 percent of Japan’s total greenhouse gas emissions, and is providing solutions and comprehensive support to companies and local governments (in Japanese). And by way of its Sustainability Cloud offering, the company enables the management of ESG performance that can lead to increased corporate value. Okamura was named representative director of Veeva Japan, a cloud company focused on pharmaceutical and life science applications, in 2011. Since retiring in 2022, he has played an active role in supporting SaaS startups.
