■Business overview of Kit Alive <5039>

1. Company Overview

The company operates in two main axes: "System introduction support" and "System product development support" of the world's largest US enterprise Salesforce in the CRM field. When customers introduce "Salesforce", the company not only handles design, development, and maintenance in a one-stop manner, but also provides support services for the development, publication, and operation of SaaS (Software as a Service) products for customers who wish to provide applications on "Salesforce". The company, a subsidiary of Telus Sky <3915>, which traditionally provided cloud integration and other services, is the third listed company after BeeX <4270> to provide services for transitioning from core systems to the cloud. Following its listing on the Sapporo Stock Exchange's Ambitious Market in September 2022, the company reduced Telus Sky's shareholding from 58.2% to 49.5% and transitioned from a consolidated subsidiary to an equity-method affiliate.

※ Combining various cloud products to create an optimal environment tailored to the customer's problem solving needs.

2. History

In 2000, Yuudai Kaya, the current president and CEO, joined Win Consult as a system engineer (SE) after graduating from Hokkaido University. In 2007, while working as a new business manager, Mr. Kaya launched the "Salesforce.com Business Division" on his own. With the growth of this division, in August 2016, Mr. Kaya received investment from Telus Sky and established the company, starting operations in October 2016 after receiving business transfer from Win Consult. In October 2020, the city of Sapporo was selected for the "J-Startup HOKKAIDO" program carried out jointly with the Hokkaido Economic Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Sapporo Industrial Promotion Foundation. In September 2022, it newly listed on the Sapporo Stock Exchange's Ambitious Market, and in January 2023, received the "2022 Annual Achievement Award" from the Sapporo Stock Exchange for its contribution to the economic activities of Hokkaido.

※ A promising startup company selected with the aim of being rooted in Hokkaido and supported by cooperation between the government and the private sector. The selected companies have grown to a total of 55 companies by February 2024.

3. Business content

The company provides an environment where customers actively utilize IT and supports customers in achieving DX together. For this purpose, they provide 'Salesforce introduction support' for developing and maintaining Salesforce, and 'Salesforce product development support' to assist in building SaaS applications. By introducing Salesforce, customers are able to use CRM and sales support (SFA), leading to increased sales.

Salesforce, which the company promotes for sales, is suitable for building internal IT infrastructure as it enables quick system construction through 'agile development' and 'no-code development', allowing flexible adaptation to changes in the external environment. Both sales of the company's 'Salesforce introduction support' and 'Salesforce product development support' are growing, creating a synergistic effect in sales activities. The company will continue to focus on these two pillars.

The method of dividing and subdividing elements that make up a system into detailed segments, and designing, developing, testing, and releasing in short periods repeated for each classified range, as opposed to 'Waterfall Development' which sketches the final diagram first and progresses from upstream to downstream processes sequentially.

A method of developing applications without writing source code using a programming language.

The company is a secondary dealer of Telus Sky, which holds the sales rights of Salesforce in Japan. They purchase licenses of Salesforce, a SaaS product, from Telus Sky and sell licenses to customers. Products developed in conjunction with 'Salesforce product development support' are also sold as a licensed sales dealer. Since the spread of COVID-19 accelerated remote work, the company has been actively promoting the introduction of SaaS products from its base in Sapporo to nationwide.

(1) 'Salesforce Introduction Support'

They provide support for introducing 'Salesforce' to client companies and system development services based on 'Salesforce'. To maximize the effects of introducing 'Salesforce', customization and configuration by IT engineers with specialized knowledge of 'Salesforce' are necessary. The company's specialty is that about 90% of its employees are IT engineers specialized in 'Salesforce', creating tailor-made systems that match the client's business. IT engineers provide all stages of system development, such as IT consulting, requirements definition, design, development, system testing, and operation maintenance, in a one-stop manner. Projects vary depending on the client's industry and size, so the company facilitates internal communication and spreads and shares expertise among employees to meet customer needs.

(2) 'Salesforce Product Development Support'

"Salesforce" users can purchase the necessary applications from the marketplace operated by Salesforce, called "AppExchange", to perform various customizations and extensions other than CRM. In "AppExchange", not only products developed by Salesforce are available, but also numerous products developed by third parties utilizing Salesforce's development tools and APIs are sold. The company provides technical solutions and advice on application development on Salesforce for companies engaged in product development, as well as quality assurance, testing, and implementation support. With the company's support, customers without expertise can also engage in their own product development. The request for "Salesforce implementation support" is increasing as companies focusing on product development outsource licensing sales and refer users in need of implementation support to the company.

(Reported by FISCO guest analyst Hiroshi Nakayama)