Devicescape

April 2008 - Based out of San Bruno, California, Devicescape provides WiFi connectivity solutions for embedded devices at home, in the workplace, and for public networks, such as hotspots and municipal networks. The company's solutions make adding a device to a home or enterprise networks effortless and eliminate the hassle of logging in and launching a browser when accessing a WiFi network on the go. Devicescape software supports devices, ranging from mobile phones and game systems to industrial sensors and scanners and even office printers and projectors. One of the company's first client solutions was created for an Epson wireless projector. Large Japanese customers like Epson were the primary reason Devicescape established a Japan office in 2004. Since then, the company's client base has expanded to include several of Japan's consumer electronics heavyweights.

Opportunities in Japan
Establishing an office in Japan was a fairly easy decision for the company, according to John Gordon, chief architect at Devicescape. Before opening the office in 2004, 50% of the company's business came from Japan, where so many of the world's leading edge consumer electronics companies are headquartered, while the other 50% came from the original device manufacturer (ODM) community in Taiwan. "It just made sense for us to set up an office in Asia, and Japan seemed like the obvious choice," said Gordon. "The Japanese companies were driving the technology and leading in terms of innovation."

Market Entry
Like many companies, Devicescape was concerned with both language and cultural issues when entering the Japan market. However, the company found that "most major multinational companies in Japan have people who speak English and are quite accustomed to western modes and ways of doing business," said Beth Rogozinski, director of marketing at Devicescape. "The more difficult aspects were setting up business and working through government regulations and getting an office space, setting up payroll, etc. JETRO and our local employees were significant assets in overcoming these and any other issues we had."

When it came time to set up the Japan office, Devicescape took advantage of several of JETRO's free services. In 2004, the company used free, temporary office space at JETRO's Tokyo IBSC to promote its products and develop new customer relationships in Japan while registering its Japan office. Devicescape also received free consultation on the requirements of establishing a branch office, including company registration and human resource regulations. In addition, through introductions made by JETRO, the company hired an Administrative Scrivener to file legal paperwork required to register the office, as well as a human resources management consultant to set up payroll for Devicescape's employees in Japan. Devicescape also worked with JETRO to find a recruiting firm to hire local technical staff.

While Devicescape does not recall facing any significant challenges in doing business in Japan, the company noted that having to manufacture physical media when selling software to Japanese customers could cause some delays. "Most people were fine with a simple download file or FTP," said Rogozinski, "but the [need to create] a CD caused some issues because [the CD] had to go through U.S. customs and Japan customs and could slow down the development cycle."

To start much of its business in Japan, Devicescape worked with people who were well connected. "Devicescape was lucky enough to have and to hire local business development representatives that already had contacts at some of the largest OEM companies in Japan," said Rogozinski. "The device manufacturer space is very tight knit and having people that knew the right players was a significant asset."

Results and Outlook
The Japan office has so far proven to be very successful. The company has grown its client base to include giants such as Epson, Sharp, Fujitsu, Brother, Sharp, NEC and Nintendo, who are leaders in enabling WiFi connectivity in some of the most widely used consumer devices. "Pretty much everybody has WiFi in laptops that it's a standard feature, but to put WiFi into a camera, projector or TV, almost nobody outside of Japan is doing that at the moment," said Gordon. "In the U.S., we're starting to see WiFi appear in handsets, MP3 players and media players, but we're just starting to see that, whereas Sharp has been putting it into media adapters for the home for three or four years. They're just ahead of the curve."

Devicescape sees further opportunities, particularly to integrate their solutions into handsets as mobile phones in Japan move away from accessing data through telephone networks toward using public WiFi. While Japan has had 3G telephone networks for quite some time, consumers are demanding more content than the current bandwidth can handle, such as larger web content and streaming media. "You're starting to find public WiFi becoming a big deal," said Gordon. "Companies like Softbank and NTT DoCoMo are putting WiFi solutions in all over the place--everywhere they can fit them. Since Devicescape now has this public access technology called Devicescape Connect to get people onto those networks easily, that's a huge opportunity for us." And the higher levels of mobile phone usage in Japan don't hurt. "They're just more connected," said Gordon. "Anybody who travels [to Japan] for the first time is going to notice just how much more addicted everybody is to a cell phone compared to the U.S."

Devicescape has seen great success in Japan and expects to see more. "Japan is a significant focus of our business because of the innovative nature of the companies and their approach toward these devices," said Rogozinski. "As we expand with Devicescape Connect, we're also looking forward to some exciting developments, and we anticipate as big or a bigger presence there as we've had in the past."

Company Profile

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