New business development that creates hundreds of millions of GMV just one year from team launch.

VERTEX Technologies, Inc. is a rapidly expanding venture company that has created numerous hit apps for consumers. Using the number and speed of new business launches improved by Jitera as a source of power for corporate growth, the company has successfully created new businesses with sales in the hundreds of millions of yen.

VERTEX Technologies releases new business products at a pace of one per month when at most. Jitera is a development partner for new businesses, assisting in the build up of development systems and speedy development.

Number of Plate appearance and release speed are most important.

Perhaps, many of us have heard the fact that newly stood businesses do not succeed so easily. This comes with the success rate called ‘Senmitsu’, meaning that only 3 out of 1000 potential businesses succeed.

“The number of plate appearances and the speed of release are most important” is quoted by the product owner for new app development at VERTEX Technologies, Tanaka. This company has been successful in launching new businesses on a regular basis.

“The success rate is low for new businesses, and therefore increasing the number of plate appearances is important. Another important factor is trends and timing. What should be focused is to bring the product, in steps with the times, to the market ahead of the competition.“

Therefore, one KPI at VERTEX Technologies was to release one new app per month.In order to achieve "number of plate appearances and speed of release", proposals for new projects are always accepted from the field, and under the quick judgment of the representative, suggestions that seem to make good sense are immediately turned into projects.

Development team running with solidifying the concept

After the project is turned on, we will start developing the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), with an emphasis on speed to get feedback from the market at the fastest possible time.

In order to release the MVP in the fastest possible time, it is required to "keep running while solidifying the concept". At a stage when the necessary features have not yet been established, ideally, the development team should be consulted casually to sort out the requirements for the application and start development while refining the concept.

To achieve this, collaboration with the development team is extremely important, but VERTEX Technologies also needs to solve the problem of limited in-house development resources. While existing businesses, which are the breadwinners, and other new businesses that are clearly growing, require development resources, Mr. Tanaka says, "It is difficult to devote valuable internal development resources to the development of new businesses that may or may not be successful."

Today, the company has formed a development partnership with VERTEX Technologies and Jitera, and is releasing new products at a rate of once a month at the most. There was a lot of trial and error before the current new business development structure was established.

”It is very difficult to select an outsourcing partner that can balance speed, quality, and cost. In the past, we focused on low cost and outsourced to an offshore development company, but this failed because it did not match the speed and quality we were looking for. We have also outsourced to individual contractors, but the management costs involved and the quality of the output varied widely from person to person."

Development using automation solution “Jitera” that combine speediness and quality

By using “Jitera” development automation platform, we have been able to release MVPs three times faster than with conventional development. For example, development that was estimated by other companies to take 3 to 6 months was completed in 1 to 2 months.

”In a new business, being able to launch two to three months earlier than other companies is a huge advantage. We have a very good balance of QCD, which is very important in development."

The quality of the product and code has been recognized as being on par with those written by experienced engineers. The new business, which has released its MVP and is clearly responding well to the market, has been continuously developed with engineers from VERTEX Technologies joining the Jitera development team. In doing so, we do not have to go through the process of rewriting code twice due to problems with the quality of the code output from the development automation platform. We are able to smoothly start enhancement development for the product's significant growth.

In addition, the Jitera's development team has a majority of engineers who are experienced and capable of leading the team, which is also a point for receiving good evaluations.

“Jitera has many experienced project managers and engineers, and is working as a team. Therefore, leading to no management cost and we are able to achieve stable outputs speedily. This is an advantage over other development methods.” says Tanaka.

Jitera's development team as "escort runner" for new business

Tanaka says that Jitera matches the style of "Development team running with solidifying the concept".

As mentioned above, VERTEX Technologies' new businesses are developed by consulting with the development team from the early stages of conception. Feedback from the development team often leads to major changes in the content and features of the business. Jitera's development team is always ready to consult with clients and to be a partner in thinking about business and operations from a development perspective.

”I've had wall-to-wall meetings with the Jitera team, and we've changed some of the features and policies of the app. I appreciate the fact that Jitera is not just an outsourced developer, but also an advisor who can give us input from the business side."

Jitera's strength lies not only in the high level of each engineer, but also in its diverse team, including those who have started their own businesses and experienced M&A, and those who are well informed with successful overseas application cases.

Annual sales of 300 million yen in one year. Rapid growth created by speedy development.

Some of the new businesses developed with Jitera have grown to annual sales of 300 million yen within a year after launch.

The key to success was to release the product with a slightly differentiated concept as quickly as possible, right after the industry-leading service was born, and to gain first-mover advantage. This case shows the importance of speedily releasing a service that is in step with current trends. After the fastest possible release, operations proceeded without any particular problems, and the service is growing steadily.

”We hope to create many new applications in the future", says Tanaka.

When VERTEX Technologies told us that they would release one new business per month, we were surprised at their audacity, but Jitera will do our best to meet their lofty goal.