Project Background

The client company had developed and operated its own quotation system, but it had become outdated in terms of functionality. In terms of ease of use, the system was easy to use for experienced users, but it was not user-friendly for general users.

Specifically, the functional expansion that had been developed over a long period of time was reaching its limits. In addition, each screen had many input items, making it difficult to use unless the user was an expert, and each client site had to assign a dedicated user to input the information.

On the other hand, an IT vendor in the U.S. offered a packaged quotation system specialized to the construction industry. The solution was based on a product configurator as its core, and implemented a mechanism whereby the system would identify the product code by the specifications, size, and optional items selected by the user.

Although there are other solutions available marketed as "product configurators", the afformentioned U.S. vendor's solution had preset basic settings for building manufacturers. This feature enabled the users to skip the set up and configuration process and to start in a short period of time, giving the product a huge advantage from others.

A Japan-US joint project team was set up to verify the feasibility of implementation (PoC), but this was the first time for both companies to conduct a joint project with an overseas company. JP Tokyo was selected to help facilitate the project by leveraging its knowledge and experience.

Process

The U.S. IT vendor had a local project manager who was ultimately responsible for implementing the company's solution. JP Tokyo not only shared information and worked closely with the U.S. IT vendor's project manager, but also supported the local project manager by providing advice and suggestions on business practices in the Japanese construction industry and Japanese client relations in promoting IT projects.

JP Tokyo's consultants mainly visited the client company and held online meetings with the U.S. IT vendor to support communication between the two companies through in-depth discussions and demonstrations of functional requirements and the structure of the current system.

When consultants from the U.S. IT vendor visited Japan (five times in total, about one to three weeks per visit), we carefully prepared and proposed an agenda and progress schedule that met the client company's team composition and requirements and collaborated on facilitating the project progress in Japan.

In addition to supporting the promotion of the project, JP Tokyo prepared supplementary materials and explanations that were easy for the U.S. IT vendor to understand, based on the explanations and materials JP Tokyo itself obtained from the client company. JP Tokyo's consultants have experience in business process analysis, IT planning, and development. We assisted the U.S. IT vendor's understanding of the project by asking supplementary questions and checking with the client company.

Results

The PoC project was relatively large in scale and took less than a year, with a total of more than 20 project members from both companies. While perhaps exceptional for a PoC, the results were useful in determining when to introduce the solution by conducting a comprehensive verification without limiting the scope. Specifically, the verification was not limited to user functions of the solution, but also included verification of multiple data transfer protocols, flexibility of customization, and a demonstration of the maintenance method of product data information required of users for post-implementation operations. This enabled us to comprehensively verify the points necessary to identify the issues to be addressed.

Key Findings

We realized once again that more careful explanations and discussions are necessary for foreign IT vendors who have little to no project experience with Japanese client companies.

Although people tend to think that U.S. companies lean towards logical thinking, communication with the client companies' members outside of the project through chats and meals, etc. was important and helpful in gaining their trust. With these ice breakers, the subsequent progress of the project was noticeably smoother.

As mentioned earlier, the project involved many people, was comprehensive in scope, and was a joint overseas project, so it goes without saying that careful advance preparation and groundwork were necessary.

JP Tokyo’s Differentiators

In projects that span across multiple countries such as between Japan and the U.S., JP Tokyo's consultants, regardless of industry or sector, carefully elicit the client company's needs and unique business functional requirements, and communicate them to the other side, bridging gaps in understanding and perception to achieve smooth project progress.

Not only do we provide project management support, JP Tokyo also provides strong support to overseas IT vendors as shadow project managers based on our experience in domestic IT projects.