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Business card-based contact management service Sansan forms tie-up with electronic contractmanagement service CloudSign

Tokyo – Sansan, Inc. and Bengo4.com, Inc. today announce they have undertaken a cooperative venture between the former’s Sansan business card-based contact management service and the latter’s CloudSign electronic contract service. A new add-on feature will be available from this May. See below for information regarding inquiries.

Background
When a company acquires the sales activities or services of another, or in business partnerships, aspects including contract history, contract conclusions, transaction timings, and relationships with outside parties all need to be checked between the two companies. Though paperless document processing continues to expand, confirming the list of conditions to which the company has contracted can take a great deal of time and effort. The corporate legal and general affairs departments normally handle such tasks.

Additionally, with current emphasis on corporate governance, the legal department often holds all the contract information collectively. It therefore can be very difficult to see how the different departments, both internally and in the partner company, will interact.

Sansan’s concept is to change how people work, starting with business card management, and to be a business platform that assembles a broad range of business information. CloudSign, in turn, reduces workload by concluding and managing contracts more quickly and safely, while also centralizing contract data.

The two companies mutually developed functions so that contract project management—previously open only to the legal department—now enables other departments to access the necessary information. The companies share the goal of enabling better corporate governance and smoother business negotiations and partnerships.

Overview of functions
In the Contract Management Option Powered by CloudSign, an optional function in Sansan, simply scanning a business card lets users check on the contract information with the partner company. Use of this function requires a service contract with both companies.

Diagram of concept

If Sansan digitizes a business card in which the company name matches the contract data registered in CloudSign, the needed data (and only that data) is provided through Sansan. This includes whether the contract has been signed, the contract data, and the contract title.

The contract information can also be checked on Sansan’s company details screen. To access contract details, the user simply moves from the company details screen to CloudSign’s service to review it. Viewing authority is limited to employees who have CloudSign accounts, with functions giving due consideration to corporate governance.

At the time of launch, contract data that includes personal information, such as employment contracts, is automatically removed.

Value provided:
Reduced contract confirmation work, and greater business speed

Company sales representatives, buyers, the department leading the partnership, and others typically contact the legal and general affairs departments for historical data on contracts when doing business with other companies and needing to confirm the legal relationship and reciprocity. This requires the legal and general affairs departments to check their data, which requires a great deal of time and effort. That lost time could delay sales or even prolong lead time before signing a contract.

With this new service, the business card itself becomes the entry—without requiring legal and general affairs to make confirmations—so the employees can better understand the relationship between the companies. This makes business talks and negotiations more efficient, improves the partnership, and increases business speed.

Reduced workload for legal department
Currently, when legal and general affairs are requested to check information regarding a contract, they must perform tasks such as reviewing the contract list, checking whether the specific contract has been signed, and checking the contract name. If the original paper contract signed is in storage, accommodating sudden requests can require a great deal of time and effort.

The new function removes the need to request confirmation. The process begins simply by importing the business card. Some contract information can be hidden. This greatly increases operational efficiency while ensuring corporate governance.

Converts contract information into sales power, promotes account-based marketing (ABM)
Focus has increased lately on making effective use of points of contact with other firms to apply account-based marketing (ABM). Where the legal department previously held contract information, necessary information (excluding any confidential information) can now be accessed by other departments, allowing them to understand the communication between the companies. This leads to highly accurate approaches, and equally accurate sales activities.

Fees and availability
This is offered as an optional, add-on feature in Sansan. The fee is quoted individually, based on each company’s use

Availability: For inquiries about this new function, which will be available around May 2020, please use the Contact Us page on our website (https://www.sansan.com/form/contact/).

Sansan will continue to pursue its mission of “Turning encounters into innovation,” and will continue to evolve.

CloudSign, through cooperative work with different service providers, will continue working to allow all departments involved in contracts to more efficiently conduct business, and creating a society with easier and more convenient use of legal tech.


About CloudSign (www.cloudsign.jp)
CloudSign centers on replacing Japan’s traditional reliance on paper and ink-based seals with cloud technology. The service that allows contract work to be completed entirely via computer. With all aspects cloud-based, contracts can be far more quickly concluded. Moreover, costs are eliminated for paper, ink, and mailing, and time taken for individuals to place their stamps on forms; therefore, total costs can be reduced. Cloud-based contract management means business transparency is improved, and omissions and leakage are prevented, leading to improved compliance. Small law firms, financial institutions with 28,000+ employees, and listed companies all make use of the company’s services. It is the industry’s leading service*, with more than 50,000 customer companies.

*Of 12 major electronic contract service companies, based on registered customer companies, both paid and unpaid (data by Yano Research Institute, Ltd., as of July 2019).

About Bengo4.com (corporate.bengo4.com)
Headquarters: Kurosaki Bldg. 6F, 4-4-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-0032, Japan
Established: July 4, 2005
Capitalization: ¥439 million (as of Sept. 2019)
Representatives: Tachiro Motoe (lawyer), Director; Yosuke Uchida, President and Director
Listed on: Tokyo Stock Exchange, Mothers Market
Business description: The company’s philosophy is to “make experts more accessible.” Connecting people with those experts are its portal sites: bengo4.com, Business Lawyers, zeirishi.com and CloudSign, a web-based contract service.

Sansan: Using business card management to change work styles
Sansan is a cloud-based business card management service for companies and teams. Scan a business card with the Sansan Scanner Set or the smartphone-based Mobile App, and the information is converted using Sansan’s highly accurate digitization. AI technology gives not only enhanced contact management and sharing, it also promotes internal collaboration and richer customer data. This leads to internal referrals and new business opportunities.

Sansan Inc.
“Turning encounters into innovation” is the company’s mission. The Sansan cloud-based business card and contact management system for businesses, and the Eight business card app for individual businesspeople are how it achieves this mission. The company’s services in Japan and overseas form a business card-based business platform.

Established: July 11, 2007
URL: corp-sansan.com
Address: Aoyama Oval Bldg. 13F, 5-52-2 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001, Japan
Capitalization: ¥6.234 billion (as of July 17, 2019)
Business activities: Planning, development and sales of cloud-based business card management services. B2B: Sansan – https://sansan.com; B2C: Eight – https://8card.net

Media contact
Ryosuke Koike, PR Group, Brand Communication Division, Sansan Inc.
Email: pr@sansan.com; Tel.: +81 (3)6316-3121