NEWS

OPT, Inc. (Head Office: Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo; President & CEO: Daisuke Kanazawa; hereinafter “OPT”), an Innovation Agency leading the digital shift, established OptDigital, Inc. (hereinafter OptDigital) as a wholly-owned subsidiary on April 1, 2020, with the aim of expanding the OPT Group’s digital shift business. OptDigital will provide systems that are indispensable for creating corporate DX services (*1), and support the achievement of digital shift (*2) from a developmental perspective. OptDigital has already received many inquiries regarding DX and orders for DX projects from financial institutions, and is proceeding with a large-scale DX project worth hundreds of millions of yen in terms of development scale and multiple other projects.
 

1. Background and Purpose of Establishment
With the swift spread of social media and smartphones, the means of communication have shifted significantly away from conventional methods, such as face-to-face contact, telephone, FAX, and email, to chat media, such as LINE (*3). In addition, the spread of COVID-19 this year has made non-face-to-face communication more important than ever, and companies are faced with the pressing need to re-think the way they keep in touch with their customers.
In this context, OPT has expanded beyond the boundaries of its traditional advertising agency business in recent years, to provide corporate customers with support for consulting and service development related to digital shift. DX services, which solve issues in a range of industries through digital shift, do not require projects that take years to complete the process from requirements definition to systems development, as seen in large-scale development projects. Instead, these services require “fast, cheap, and user-friendly” systems development through the minimum necessary agile development and deployment on platform apps such as LINE that serve a large number of users.

OptDigital specializes in the creation of DX services requiring flexible and speedy systems development. It offers a full range of services, from service design to development and PDCA. By utilizing an agile development structure, major platform apps such as LINE, and universal technologies such as cloud services, OptDigital achieves “fast, cheap, and user-friendly” systems development, promoting digital shift for corporate customers, and eventually for entire industries.

When establishing OptDigital, OPT recruited Kenta Noro as President. Mr. Noro has a track record of producing innovations for the insurance industry through digital shift, including an insurance claims service utilizing LINE, and a post-accident automobile repair estimate service utilizing AI. Kazuki Nozawa, an expert in the creation of DX services, with extensive experience in the systems development of SaaS utilizing cloud services and services for consumers, was appointed CTO.

2. Business Overview
(1) Contracted systems development
OptDigital provides a broad range of services, from the development of business communication platforms and web software, to web content production, smartphone app development services, and CRM systems development. Utilizing an agile developmental structure and universal technologies such as cloud services (AI, OCR, cloud servers), it provides flexible, low-cost, speedy development.
(2) Construction and development of cloud and SaaS systems
OptDigital builds and provides services that allow customers to use its proprietary software via the Internet to increase the efficiency of customer operations.
(3) Development support services
Developmental and technical support is provided by staff with extensive experience and specialized knowledge, through quasi-mandate and similar contracts, whenever necessary during each phase of development.
(4) Consulting services
OptDigital analyzes customers’ operational issues based on its experience in systems construction in diverse industries and businesses to suggest improvement measures to optimize systems construction.

* Differences between conventional systems development and OptDigital’s systems development

3. Corporate Officers

Kenta Noro, President

After graduate school, Mr. Noro joined NTT DOCOMO, INC in 2011. He was involved in business planning and formulation in the business planning division. He later established and promoted dPOINT. From 2017, he was engaged in creating new services at Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance Inc. (currently Sompo Japan Insurance Inc.), and established plans for an insurance claims service utilizing LINE and the SOMPO AI repair estimate service, as project leader. In just under three years at the company, he was responsible for around 20 new projects.
When OptDigital, Inc. was established in 2020, he was appointed President (current position). 

<Comment from Mr. Noro>
Even with the present-day evolution of digital technologies, in many industries, companies are still using telephone, mail, and FAX to keep in touch with their customers. Personally, from my experience of creating new services at a large company, I am well aware that DX is not a bed of roses. Rather, it is an untidy engagement with legacy systems. The problem is not insurmountable however, if you have agile, speedy, and flexible systems design. Now, based on my own experience,  we have established a new organization OptDigital specializing in DX, and will use our expertise to achieve our corporate clients’ visions of DX. Moreover, we will develop proprietary SaaS services to package our solutions to provide easy access for more companies, and strive to bring about a transformation in the ways that companies interact with their customers.

Kazuki Nozawa, Director & CTO

Mr. Nozawa was engaged in the development of logistics systems at an IT vendor before joining the CyberAgent Group and developing a wide range of media and ad products, etc. After that, at mixi, Inc. he engaged in constructing in-house systems for optimizing digital marketing. Then, after founding a SaaS venture company in 2017, he joined OPT, Inc. in 2019.
When OptDigital, Inc. was established in 2020, he was appointed Director & CTO (current position). 

<Comment from Mr. Nozawa>
Rather than simply making and supplying products, we want to co-create with client companies, helping them develop services and systems to maximize customer value into the future.
We aim to deliver DX by selecting technologies that will not become obsolete, providing flexible design, and minimizing the technical liabilities.

OptDigital helps strengthen the customer touch points between companies and users through the construction of digital services. We will continue aiming to achieve a world where companies and users can connect more easily, more conveniently, and more deeply.

*1 DX services refer to a range of services that use digital technology to transform existing industry structures and practices.
*2 The process can be divided into three phases: digitization, where information is converted from analogue into digital format; digitalization, where process efficiency is enhanced using IT (digital technology); and digital transformation (DX), where industry structures and business models are upgraded based on digitization and digitalization. The phrase “digital shift” is used to describe the whole process and initiatives in these three phases.
*3 “LINE” is a trademark or registered trademark of LINE Corporation.

 [About OptDigital, Inc.]
OptDigital is a tech company that combines DX and platforms to promote digital shift, and aims to help strengthen the customer touch points between companies and users through the construction of digital services and to achieve a world where users and companies across a range of industries can connect more easily, more conveniently, and more deeply. OptDigital will continue contributing to the transformation of corporate business models.