International expansion paves way for diversity

Technology has made the world smaller, breaking borders to connect people from one corner of the globe to the other. Leveraging its vast expertise in this area, JASTEC, one of Japan's oldest information technology services companies, looks outside its home market to gain a cosmopolitan perspective that will enable it to revolutionise the local software industry.

"To make an impact in Japan, we have to collaborate with people outside," says Noboru Nakatani, president and CEO. "If we expand, our people will gain different experiences and skills to come up with better ideas for a more progressive business landscape." JASTEC develops solutions such as business automation systems, process rationalisation systems and packaged software. Specialising in custom application development, JASTEC has been the partner of choice for Japanese enterprises in the fields of construction, manufacturing, finance, insurance and securities. JASTEC partners with only one major customer in each of these business fields to ensure that it can provide the best service and to safeguard confidential information.

Committed to pursuing operational excellence, JASTEC continuously improves processes to deliver the best solutions. It is this strict adherence to quality that earned JASTEC a company-wide level 5 Capability Maturity Model Integration - an appraisal programme conducted by the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University to evaluate the software development processes. JASTEC was the first company in Japan to have achieved level 5 status back in 2003.

JASTEC is open to acquiring companies, possibly from Hong Kong, Singapore and India, that can help it establish a launch pad in the region for working with Asian clients.

"Aside from expanding our business, an acquisition can also help us develop new technologies," Nakatani says. "We would like to have more interactions with intelligent people and there are a lot in Asia. We can learn a lot from them just as they would learn a lot from us."