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February 2006 -- JETRO held its third annual Business Matching Program at the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC) in Makuhari Messe, Japan in October last year.  During the program, North American technology companies were able to meet face-to-face with nearly 100 leading Japanese companies to explore partnership opportunities.

The experience of the New Jersey software company InetSoft Technology is one of many examples of what can result from such Business Matching Programs. During CEATEC 2004 the previous year, InetSoft met the Japanese distributor Sunart Co. Ltd.  Each found the other to have the qualities they were looking for in a business partner.  Since meeting, the two companies have worked closely together to localize InetSoft’s Style Report business reporting software and will soon release it to the Japanese market.

The Meetings

Luke Liang, vice president of sales for InetSoft, attended the Business Matching Program during CEATEC 2004, for which, in addition to paying participants’ conference fees, JETRO arranged one-on-one business meetings for participants based upon their business objectives and partner preferences. 

“They provided an opportunity for a small corporation like us to go for a reasonable cost,” said Liang.  “We basically only paid our travel costs.  But more importantly, they guided us toward our current Japanese vendor. JETRO not only gave us guidance but also provided a meeting area for us to talk with the companies.  I don’t know how we’d interview so many qualified companies at one time without such a program.”

Although the sheer size of CEATEC could bury a company like InetSoft, JETRO’s Business Matching Program allowed the company to stand out.  “A huge show like CEATEC is dominated by a lot of big players,” said Liang.  “Also, many of the Japanese companies there are concentrated on electronics.  For a small software company to stand out in a conference like this, it’s pretty hard.  But JETRO’s presence allowed us to actually meet good contacts.” 

Partner found in Sunart Co., Ltd.

During these meetings, Liang found all the qualities his company was looking for in Sunart, a Japanese firm seeking to supply some of the world’s latest technology to Japan.  “We started out talking with their top management right off the bat,” said Liang, “which made us feel comfortable that we would be able to better assess whether a potential partner had all the qualities we were looking for.”

Results in Japan

Sunart helped InetSoft launch a Japanese website and localize their software.  Sunart will soon introduce InetSoft’s Style Report software to Japan’s $7.7 billion software market. 

Sunart has also helped InetSoft understand some differences between the American and Japanese business environments.  “In America, we would sell directly to the IT departments of various organizations,” said Liang.  “But in Japan, the system integrators seem to play a much bigger role in the IT industries.  So we are very much reliant on Sunart’s judgment there.”

Sunart is taking other steps to add to InetSoft’s bottom line.  “Sunart has been able to introduce us to quite a few potential customers,” said Liang.  “This includes NEC among others.” 

Sunart is also educating the Japanese business community on the value InetSoft’s Style Report can bring.  “A lot of people in Japan don’t seem to understand business intelligence, which has more substance than simply being a word to glorify reporting.  And it seems like Sunart is really getting good traction there to increase people’s interest in it and get even more potential customers in that segment.”

InetSoft has high hopes for its business in Japan and hopes success will enable them to open a Japanese office one day.  In the meantime, Liang is keeping his eyes open for more JETRO partnering programs while Sunart continues expanding InetSoft’s Japanese client base.