Sakurai

Our mission is to provide services that streamline indirect cost management for companies, while supporting the strengthening of governance and operational efficiency. Our primary targets range from large enterprises to small and medium-sized businesses in Japan, with a particular focus on approaching accounting departments, information systems departments, and, in recent years, DX departments.
Although the market has seen the emergence of multiple competing services, our strength lies in our ability to provide expense management solutions that span both domestic and international operations, combined with high global integration and connectivity. This enables consistent operational management even in complex environments involving multiple locations, currencies, and regulatory systems.
While we initially focused on large enterprises, we have now gradually expanded our target to include small and medium-sized businesses, broadening our market reach. In the small and medium-sized market, we are actively proposing transitions from existing expense management tools to our service, and we are strengthening our support by lowering the hurdles to implementation and providing operational assistance.

Yamazaki

We have three main pillars: expense management, travel management, and invoice management. We have expanded our service scope, particularly by launching the 'Standard Edition' for small and medium-sized businesses. We have seen a significant increase in implementations driven by trends such as 'Work Style Reform' and 'DX'.

Yamazaki

The Marketing Division consists of the Marketing Department and the Sales Development Department. The Marketing Department is responsible for lead generation through various initiatives such as trade shows and digital marketing, while we in the Sales Development Department are responsible for generating sales opportunities as inside sales. Our department is segmented into Enterprise (focusing on the Tokyo metropolitan area and Western Japan), Large Enterprise, and Mid-Market. We also have teams dedicated to proposing additional solutions to existing clients and teams focused on the public sector. Each inside sales representative collaborates with several field sales representatives to conduct proposal activities.

Sakurai

At that time, we were using another corporate database, but we had two major challenges. In the Marketing Department, the consolidation of lead information obtained from trade shows and webinars was performed almost manually, such as by cross-referencing Excel sheets. However, because the information provided by customers in forms often varies in company or department names even for the same organization, managing customer data was extremely time-consuming. We also assign corporate numbers to manage customer data, but for mid-market and small-to-medium enterprises, there were many cases where corporate number information could not be found or was difficult to assign, which became a management issue.
Also, from the perspective of inside sales, it was difficult to assign industry and sector information to mid-market and small-to-medium enterprise leads, and we felt challenges in segment management. Therefore, we thought that if we could utilize intent data to predict in advance which competitor products the target companies were using, we would be able to formulate hypotheses before approaching them.
As with other products, today's consumers conduct thorough research online before making direct inquiries. I felt that for corporate clients as well, capturing pre-purchase behavior at the earliest possible stage would be a key factor in our future sales activities.

Sakurai

We decided to implement the solution after verifying its various capabilities, such as the wealth of information available and the ability to conduct detailed analysis of companies we are currently approaching.
uSonar's corporate data includes information such as industry, business sector, and company size, which has made it easier to establish a common understanding across departments, such as confirming, "This company belongs to this industry and this segment." As a result, discussions regarding which companies should be prioritized for outreach have become smoother, leading to improved accuracy in our inside sales activities.
Furthermore, the "Story" feature allows us to categorize companies from various perspectives, such as "companies expanding overseas," "companies with fiscal year-ends in March/June," "companies with increasing expense reports," and "companies with growing profits." I see great potential in being able to send optimal outreach emails tailored to the specific characteristics of each company based on these classifications.
Additionally, the highly attentive support we received after implementation was very reassuring. From our sales representatives to our customer success managers, they carefully walked us through the manuals and provided thorough support during meetings and training sessions, allowing us to proceed with the implementation with confidence.

Yamazaki

The essential features that were in Side Sonar were successfully migrated, and given its potential for development as a core service in the future, I made the transition without much hesitation.

Sato

I am responsible for enterprise companies in Western Japan. Because I manage a large number of accounts, it is quite difficult to handle them alone, so it is crucial to prioritize our target list. I check our target list against PLANSonar's intent data to see if there are any customers searching for legal-related keywords, such as "Invoice System," "Invoices," or, a while back, "Electronic Book Preservation Act." Of course, the keywords to check vary by product; for example, for Concur Travel®, which manages business trips, I prioritize outreach to customers who are searching for keywords related to service characteristics, such as "Overseas Business Trips."

Sato

I believe intent data is extremely useful when formulating hypotheses before an approach. By knowing what a customer is interested in prior to contact, we can structure our messaging for the first call. I am convinced that this is essential data for building trust and demonstrating necessity.

Shoji

I am in charge of the large market segment and manage a very large number of companies. In fact, I just joined in January, but I feel that PLANSonar is a tool that allows even a new hire like me to efficiently prioritize approach targets.
In particular, I utilize the "Mixer" function to extract "Story" themes—such as "Companies with frequent overseas business trips," "Companies interested in DX," or "Companies with high overseas sales"—and use that information to develop the context for my approach in daily sales activities.
Additionally, I find the ease of list management to be a significant benefit. For example, when using Excel, company lists become massive, making it difficult to manage and track progress. With PLANSonar, I can register my approach lists and use the "Priority" function to manage and review progress in detail. I believe this is a convenient UI/UX that I would like to share with future team members as well.

Yamazaki

In the Marketing Department, the time required for matching and consolidating customer data has been reduced to one-tenth of what it was before implementing uSonar. Previously, we checked for duplicate company data entirely manually using Excel functions. Since we started using uSonar, we simply upload our lists to PLANSonar, and the core organizational data, such as corporate registration numbers, is automatically assigned.

Yamazaki

We aim to further penetrate the mid-market and SMB segments in parallel with our ongoing focus on large enterprises. Regarding the future utilization of PLANSonar, we have expectations in two directions.
First is our direct automated integration service with transit IC cards, "ICCI (IC Card Integration)," which is offered exclusively by our company. This is a highly convenient feature where transit expense data, such as station names, dates, times, and amounts, is automatically integrated into Concur Expense® upon passing through ticket gates. Since companies in urban areas will particularly feel the benefits, we would like to propose this proactively. Therefore, I believe we can utilize PLANSonar to create targeted approach lists of companies located along specific transit lines.
Another is the proposal of "Verify," an AI-based fraud detection service that we recently launched in Japan. This service can check for over 38 scenarios, such as the reuse of fraudulent receipts, high-cost claims, and the detection of personal use, which helps strengthen corporate governance. I believe we can utilize PLANSonar to extract "companies that are proactive in utilizing AI for business operations" or "companies that prioritize governance."