(Location: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Ryusuke Kaneki; URL: https://upward.jp), whose vision is to "Innovate the Last Mile on the Frontline," participated on March 11, 2021 in "Innovation Field 2021," a conference on open innovation through industry-government-academia collaboration organized by Mizuho Securities and KPMG AZSA & Co. As a mid-stage SaaS company aiming for an IPO, the company participated in a panel discussion on the challenges and innovations it has faced in reaching its current business scale.
THE FIELD OF "SALES ENGAGEMENT" IN FIELD SALES IS NOW ATTRACTING ATTENTION FROM SILICON VALLEY. KANEKI WILL SHARE WITH US UPWARD'S BUSINESS GROWTH TRAJECTORY, INGENUITY, AND VISION FOR THE FUTURE, AS ONE OF THE FIRST COMPANIES TO ENTER THIS MARKET.
UPWARD provides solutions for field sales to manage and record offline/online customer contact data in the sales field by utilizing location information. 2011 saw the release of a SaaS that seamlessly integrates CRM (Salesforce) and map services, " UPWARD" was released, and Kaneki became President and CEO in 2016. In the same year, the company raised a total of 200 million yen from two venture capital firms.
UPWARD" is currently used by about 300 companies, mainly major corporations, but Kaneki described the challenges and innovations that led to the current scale of operations at Innovation Field as follows.
We were creating an unprecedented, general-purpose SaaS that could be used in any industry, so it took us a long time to get the product solution fit in the marketplace," said Mr. Kurokawa. We had many failures, such as customers who initially purchased the product saying, 'This is a good feature,' but then cancelled it after the second year, but each time we received feedback from customers and refined the product. However, the company has been honest in its efforts to gather a wide range of customer feedback and sublimate it into a product, such as releasing a telephone function as well as an offline function (*).
(*) New "Phone Activity Log" feature added to UPWARD AGENT
https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000022.000015260.html
We had been going through a difficult period for a while, and it was difficult to secure personnel who could contribute to short-term growth. At such a "crouching" time, what we needed was to create a "group. We gathered people who had good relationships with each other, and took on the challenge with talented members who could believe in what they could not see. When you reach a certain level, you need to change from a "group" to a "team" in order to achieve a rapid increase in ARR (annual recurring revenue). We need to change from a "group" to a "team" in order to achieve a rapid increase in ARR (annual recurring revenue). Now, we need to further refine what is already taking shape, and we need to excel. Over the past year or two, we have seen an increase in the number of very strong colleagues. My mission at this stage is to create a rewarding work environment for these people.
As we continue to increase the number of members and expand as a business, I feel that it is of paramount importance to instill these visions, missions, and values in our employees. In light of the market conditions of the Corona Disaster, we would like to transform ourselves from a "group" to a "team" in order to achieve more aggressive growth, maximize our performance, and achieve business growth through product fit, We will achieve business growth by maximizing performance and product fit.
The conference is organized by Mizuho Securities and KPMG AZSA & Co. under the theme of innovation through open innovation by collaboration between industry, government, and academia. The fifth Innovation Field 2021 is being held online on Thursday, March 11 and Friday, March 12, 2021.
UPWARD IS A SALES ENGAGEMENT SERVICE THAT UTILIZES ADVANCED LOCATION-BASED TECHNOLOGY TO AUTOMATICALLY DETECT AND RECORD SALES ACTIVITY DATA IN CRM TO OPTIMIZE THE SALES ACTIVITIES OF SALES REPRESENTATIVES IN THE FIELD. BY AUTOMATICALLY OVERLAYING ACCUMULATED SALES ACTIVITY DATA AND CRM DATA ON A MAP AND AUTOMATICALLY NOTIFYING OPTIMAL APPROACH DESTINATIONS, UPWARD SUPPORTS THE FORMULATION OF STRATEGIC SALES PLANS UTILIZING CRM DATA.
PR TEAM, CORPORATE GROUP HEADQUARTERS, UPWARD CO.
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