Sakurai

Our company provides services with the mission of "streamlining 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, and we are focusing our efforts on approaching accounting departments, information systems departments, and, in recent years, DX departments.
Although there are multiple competing services in the market, our strength lies in our high level of global integration and collaboration capabilities, in addition to providing expense reimbursement solutions that span both domestic and international markets. 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 business market, we are actively working on proposals to switch from existing expense reimbursement tools to our service, and we are strengthening our support by lowering the hurdles to implementation and providing operational assistance.

Yamazaki

In addition to expense reimbursement, we have three pillars: travel management and invoice management. We have expanded our service area, particularly by offering 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 campaigns, while our Sales Development Department handles the creation of sales opportunities as an inside sales team. Our department is segmented into Enterprise (focusing on the Tokyo metropolitan area and Western Japan), Large Enterprise, and Mid-Market teams. We also have dedicated teams for upselling to existing customers and for the public sector. Each inside sales representative collaborates with several field sales representatives to conduct proposal activities.

Sakurai

At the time, we were using a different 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-sized and small-to-medium enterprises, there were many cases where corporate numbers were missing or difficult to assign, which became a management issue.
Furthermore, from an inside sales perspective, it was difficult to assign industry and sector information to mid-market and small-to-medium enterprise leads, and we felt there were 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 reaching out.
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 agreeing that "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," or "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 and customer success representatives to the detailed guidance provided during meetings and training sessions while reviewing the manuals, they walked alongside us, allowing us to proceed with the implementation with full confidence.

Yamazaki

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

Sato

I am in charge of enterprise companies in Western Japan. Because I manage so many 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" or "Invoices," or, a while back, "Electronic Book Preservation Act." Of course, the keywords to check differ depending on the product; for example, for Concur Travel®, which manages business trips, I prioritize and approach 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 reaching out to prospects. By understanding what a customer is interested in prior to our initial contact, we can structure our messaging for the first call. I am convinced that this is essential data for building trust and demonstrating the necessity of our solutions.

Shoji

I am responsible for the large enterprise market, which involves managing a very large number of accounts. In fact, I just joined the company in January, but I feel that PLANSonar is a tool that allows even a new hire like me to efficiently prioritize outreach targets.
In particular, I utilize the Mixer function to extract themes for stories—such as companies with frequent overseas business travel, companies interested in DX, or companies with high overseas revenue—and use that information to develop the context for my outreach 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 track progress and view information clearly. 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 had to manually check for duplicate corporate data using Excel functions. Since we started using uSonar, we simply upload our lists to PLANSonar, and the key fields for organization, such as corporate registration numbers, are automatically appended.

Yamazaki

We will continue to aim for further penetration among mid-sized and small-to-medium enterprises in parallel with our focus on large corporations. Regarding the future use of PLANSonar, we have expectations in two directions.
First is our exclusive direct automatic integration service with transit IC cards, "ICCI (IC Card Integration)." 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 find this particularly beneficial, we want to actively propose it. Therefore, I believe we can utilize PLANSonar to create approach lists narrowed down to companies located along specific transit lines.
The second is the proposal of "Verify," an AI-based fraud detection service we recently launched in Japan. This service can check for over 38 scenarios, such as the reuse of fraudulent receipts, high-cost claims, and personal use, helping to strengthen corporate governance. I believe we can use PLANSonar to extract companies that are proactive in utilizing AI for their operations or those that prioritize governance.