*The name of „G Suite“ was changed into „Google Workspace“ in October 2020
Q. What is your purpose for using Questetra BPM Suite?
Sansan, Inc. are developing “Sansan”, the cloud-based business card management service.
Sansan will contribute to the strengthening of the sales force and to sales growth by enabling the effective use of business card information in sales activities. We also are providing “Eight”, a business card management application for individuals which is based on the concept of turning business cards into business connections.
We conducted a third party allotment of new shares with a total value of 500 million yen in April 2013 to expand the market awareness of Sansan and Eight. We will continue to promote the expansion of our organization, and the improvement of both quality and efficiency to accelerate global business development. Under these circumstances, it is important not to drop the speed of decision-making related to business expansion. We decided to make use of Questetra BPM Suite on the Purchasing Application operation, which related to the execution of the various projects as the first goal.
Q. What advantages did you find?
At first, we tried to improve the efficiency of the Purchasing Application operations by using a simple workflow system from another company, which could also cooperate with G Suite (formerly Google Apps). But we were dissatisfied with the system’s inability to allow approvers and decision makers belong to multiple departments concurrently, we could not flexibly determine the personnel in charge of approval tasks, or even configure the deadline of tasks.
Besides cooperating with G Suite, Questetra BPM Suite is also equipped with features that solve the frustrations we had with the other system. Moreover, it is also better for modeling, since we can build a system by drawing a picture of a business flow diagram.
Even without any programming knowledge we could intuitively build a highly functional business system, with functions such as sending email alerts for tasks which have a deadline approaching. After becoming able to operate Purchasing Applications efficiently in Questetra BPM Suite, we have systematized 15 business flows in HR, Affairs, Legal, and 10 more in other sections.
Q. Do you think Questetra helps in raising the speed of decision-making?
I would say the most helpful feature for Sansan is Open Chat. Open Chat is a so-called Enterprise Social Networking function where users can not only send out information, but also associate this information with each business process or application.
Through the active use of Open Chat we can exchange detailed information related to each project without using the telephone, and it leaves records of these information exchanges associated with the projects. This means that important decisions, especially in the approval and decision-making process, can now be made without delays.
Q. Do you have any expectations for Questetra in the future?
Because both the sales and the number of employees have been increasing rapidly in the last few years in Sansan, it has become a big issue to strengthen the internal management system to cope with this. From now on, we would like to establish an environment where business can be conducted efficiently and securely by systematizing it in Questetra, allowing us to implement our internal company regulations.
We had made a strong request to Questetra about the improvement of Open Chat, and you responded to us superbly. One of our current request is that we want to be able to set conditional splits in accordance with the organization which the applicant belongs to, and I’m sure that this request will also be met.
