Main Topics: 1. Collaboration with partner companies Unirita (3800) is working to strengthen its solution delivery capabilities and secure sales channels through collaborations with partners. As one of the electronic invoicing support solutions released by Hitachi Solutions, the Marutto Document Cloud Service provided by Unirita was adopted as one of the services for electronic billing and web delivery of documents such as invoices and for mail delivery of paper documents. Additionally, the customer success platform Gro provided by Unirita was adopted as the foundation of the customer success of the legal support cloud service "RICOH Contract Workflow Service" offered by Ricoh Japan, and the Operational Management System LMIS provided by Ricoh Japan was adopted as the service management platform for the customer managed IT service. Furthermore, the business process automation tool, bindit*, which is a cloud-based IPaaS tool specialized in the integration of applications provided in the form of SaaS, has been collaborating with various services such as Cloud Sign, Google Chat, Microsoft Outlook, Chat GPT, Kintone, Google Calendar, and SmartHR, and expectations for a new growth axis are increasing. *bindit is a cloud-based IPaaS tool that specializes in the integration of applications provided in the form of SaaS, which can automate the integration of applications with no-code. It has a wide variety of recipes, a free flow creation function, and a simple UI, making it easy to use even for non-IT engineers.
Caster <9331> has laid out a policy to promote business partnerships with SaaS vendors (various platforms) by capturing the transition from BPO to BPaaS and from the position of a third-party talent supplier. Furthermore, in terms of utilizing AI technology, they are actively pursuing M&A and collaboration with other companies, and have been able to achieve specific results in each case.
1. Start of online business concierge service.
In March 2024, a business partnership was formed with Kokuyo <7984>, and through Kokuyo And Partners Co., Ltd., which provides BPO services within the Kokuyo Group, a new online business concierge service called 'Online Concierge' was launched. The Kokuyo Group has been providing a wide range of BPO services tailored to new ways of working and workplaces. Through this collaboration, the aim is to integrate Caster's state-of-the-art technology that supports remote workers in a fully remote organization, enabling business efficiency, cost reduction, and enhancing client competitiveness. The key features of the new service include 24/7 support, wide range of task support, no need for manual preparation, no need for nurturing or management, and reduced employment risks.
2. Signing of capital business partnership with Money Forward.
In May 2024, Caster signed a capital business partnership with Money Forward <3994> (MF) which provides personal asset management services and cloud services. The collaboration aims to expand mutual businesses. The basic partnership includes: 1) Cross-selling Caster's services and jointly developing new services to about 1.5 million of MF's SME customers, 2) Providing Caster's services and resources to introduce many functions to 'Money Forward Cloud', targeted at around 8,000 medium-sized corporate customers by MF, 3) Providing new human resources through both companies' collaboration to address the shortage of staff faced by tax and accounting firms in collaboration with MF's cooperating tax and accounting firms. It seems that discussions will continue on further collaboration in the future. With this transaction, MF has acquired 20.3% of the issued shares of Caster outside the market (as of April 1, 2024).
Business SaaS platform that collaborates various data related to back-office tasks to streamline tedious tasks in accounting and human resources for business operators. It can be said that this platform is a perfect match for the accounting and labor field that the company is strengthening.
3. Launch of 'eYACHO BPO Service' for the construction industry.
In August 2024, we started providing the "eYACHO BPO service" through a business partnership with MetaMoJi Co., Ltd., which is promoting construction DX, by offering the construction management support app "eYACHO". By providing BPaaS for the construction industry, we aim to improve the efficiency of processes using the construction management support app, as well as reduce the labor-intensive tasks that contribute to overtime work, such as preparation of documents, information gathering, and introduction of tools for collaboration companies that change with the progress.
* It is a construction management support app that improves the productivity of construction management by digitizing drawings and documents, real-time sharing functions, and the ability to create daily reports and inspection reports instantly on site without returning to the office. In May 2024, it was ranked No. 1 in usage share at Senekon (based on the "Usage Trends Survey of Construction Management Support Apps in the Construction Industry" by MM Research Institute Co., Ltd.).
4. Consolidation of Gramms as a subsidiary
On June 1, 2024, we acquired all the shares of Gramms※1, which develops business efficiency tools for EC companies, and made it a wholly-owned subsidiary. Gramms performs annotation※2 in AI development in the EC field and conducts verification of technology using various large-scale language models (LLMs). With this acquisition, we are able to incorporate AI technology that assumes continuous improvement in accuracy into EC-related tasks requested in the remote assistant service "CASTER BIZ assistant" by receiving technology sharing from Gramms.
*1 It operates an engineering organization with about 40 members from 12 countries around the world and manages it remotely. "ZenFotomatic", which was developed to improve its own EC listing operations, is used in more than 180 countries and regions, including major reuse companies in Japan. It also provides tools such as "SASAGE.APP" to automate the tasks of photographing, measuring, and preparing documents for EC operations, as well as outsourcing tasks and developing business systems for EC businesses.
*2 Annotation refers to the process of adding tags or metadata information to data such as text, voice, and images when creating training data for machine learning.
5. Signing of the joint venture agreement with Ortsu
On September 1, 2024, we established a new company called LUVO Co., Ltd. in order to start a joint venture with Ortsu Co., Ltd. to develop and operate products and services utilizing AI. By combining the expertise in human resources business held by Caster and the AI technology elements held by Ortsu, the aim is to improve the productivity of human labor. Initially, the focus will be on the business of annotation, which can be said to be a necessity in AI learning, and the integration with the personal AI concept. LUVO, which was established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caster, is planned to receive physical (license and technology) provision from Ortsu in the future, and the provided physical assets will be converted into capital through DES (Debt Equity Swap) scheme.
※P.A.I (R) (Personal Artificial Intelligence), a venture company aiming to achieve "liberation from unproductive human labor" by creating AI clones.
(Written by Fisco Guest Analyst Ikuo Shibata)