Promotes contact center service utilizing AI for companies in Vietnam and Japan

BELLSYSTEM24,Inc.(Representative Director, President, CEO:Ichiro Tsuge;Headquarters: Chuo Ward, Tokyo; Referred to below as "BS24") completed its 49% interest in Hoa Sao Group Joint Stock Company (General Director: Nguyen Anh Tuan;Headquarters: Hanoi; Referred to below as"Hoa Sao"), a leading Vietnamese contact center player with eight centers across Vietnam.The company name will change to "Bellsystem24-Hoa Sao Joint Stock Company (Referred to below as BS24-HoaSao)" and start business at full-scale from July. With the completion of this investment, BS24 will dispatch employees to Vietnam in order to participate in local management.

BS24-HoaSao will utilize its 1,500 booths/3,500 agents to provide services for local companies including Japanese companies and offshore services for companies in Japan. It aims to expand its business through collaborating the BS24's expertise on human resource management and skill development with new technologies such as AI and Cloud.

The number of Vietnamese students in Japanese educational institutions is the second largest after the Chinese, which demonstrates how highly motivated they are to acquire the Japanese language. Off shore service for Japan's domestic companies which is a cost competitive market, can be realized through recruiting these high quality resources. In September 2016, elementary schools in cities of Hanoi and part of Ho Chi Minh started implementing Japanese to be learned as the second language. This behavior of Vietnam will allow for securing stable recruiting of fluent Japanese speakers in the future.

BS24-HoaSao has already begun its email inquiry service for Japanese domestic companies. Vietnamese agents who were recruited in Vietnam are using AI to reply to Japanese emails for this service. Providing one-stop customer service support through multiple channels such as chat and phone will be the next step for BS24-HoaSao.

The economic growth of Vietnam is constantly growing. There are already 1,800 Japanese companies which have presence in the country. BS24-HoaSao will proactively develop its contact center service to reach out to these companies and also to a wide variety of industries.

Through these business developments, BS24-HoaSao will aim to reach the revenue target of 3 billion JPY by fiscal year 2020.