REGAIN GROUP Co., Ltd. is a sales enablement company powering how businesses train their teams, standardize their sales approach, and close more effectively, all from one platform. Founded in 2008, it serves the sales front line as a collective of sales professionals made up of nine group companies. Its flagship product, "eigyo intelligence," released in 2017, is an AI-powered tool that records and analyzes each customer conversation in real time, guiding staff step by step from ice-breaking to closing so anyone can sell at a consistent level.

Partnership overview

REGAIN GROUP engaged VNEXT to handle the system development of "eigyo intelligence" through a lab-type offshore development model. On the VNEXT side, a dedicated team of talented programmers worked alongside Japanese-experienced bridge SEs, using design documents and UML diagrams as the shared working language to bridge any gap between the two countries. Development ran on a fixed release schedule, with roughly two months of coding and one month of testing, delivering the product in about six months. Backed by a dedicated office, dedicated security, and a well-managed collaborative structure, the engagement stands as a strong example of how the right IT outsourcing partner shapes a successful outcome.

Client testimonial

We spoke with Mr. Noriyuki Tsuchiya, Executive Officer and CTO, who led this project and brings extensive development experience from software firms and Google, about how REGAIN GROUP put VNEXT's offshore development services to work. 

Q: What criteria did your company use when choosing offshore development?

Mr. Tsuchiya: At my previous company, I went through many offshore development projects, and the main reason back then was the low development cost. An equally significant factor was the "passion" the team brought to the project.

Normally, when you staff a system development team through an SES dispatch arrangement in Japan, the cost is billed hourly based on the number of process steps, so the longer development drags on, the more the software firm earns. In other words, it's hard to call that a structure built to produce accurate, high-quality output within a short development window.

When I worked with a Vietnamese offshore development company in the past, however, I felt that Vietnamese engineers seek not just compensation for their work, but a sense of purpose and the chance to grow their skills. This is purely my personal opinion, but they tended to decide whether to take on work based on whether it was new and interesting, and they showed a willingness to take on even difficult projects proactively. I sensed a real drive to create something better. So for this project, I decided on offshore development from the outset, and among the options, a Vietnamese software company with a trustworthy working attitude was my first choice.

Q: Why did you choose VNEXT SOFTWARE?

Mr. Tsuchiya: With offshore development in mind, I was looking for a partner at an IT-related event and stopped to hear about VNEXT SOFTWARE (hereafter VNEXT) at their booth. The first thing that struck me was the sincerity, the passion for the work, and the character of Mr. Kim, who was at the booth at the time. His positive attitude toward our project gave me a good feeling, and I visited the company the following month.

The deciding factor was the company's commitment to this project as a whole. This time, I was to personally handle the selection of the development team members on site, along with the checking and release work once the project started. Because of that, I expected to spend a long stretch in Vietnam, so I was concerned about the office environment there.

When I actually went to Vietnam and raised that point, the timing aligned nicely: VNEXT was relocating to a new office and set aside one room there just for our company. Since our clients are strict about security, they even built dedicated security for us. It came through clearly that VNEXT was putting real effort into this project, and so I decided to entrust it to them. VNEXT's offshore development center gave us a working base that felt genuinely built around our needs.

Project leader for this offshore development engagement - Mr. Tsuchiya

Q: What kind of product did you build through offshore development?

Mr. Tsuchiya: Our company provides sales enablement, and as one of those solutions we developed and released "eigyo intelligence," entrusting the system development to VNEXT.

The goal of sales activity is to convey 100 percent of a product's appeal to the customer so that they buy it. To do that, you need a sales strategy and a way to bring the corresponding sales methods down to the front line. In practice, though, the sales pitch differs for male and female customers, and it shifts by customer type as well. Our employees are trained in that know-how and have high skills, but it's difficult to expect the same level from part-time or dispatched staff at sales agencies. So this tool exists to let anyone carry out sales activity at a certain level.

It's simple to use: first you register what's being sold. When a customer visits, you ask about gender, age, and so on through a short preliminary survey, set the customer attributes from that information, and start. From there, the AI begins recording the conversation, analyzes the customer's words to infer "they probably want to ask about this," and presents the optimal response for that case, that is, the sales talk. It guides the whole thing step by step, from the ice-breaking at the start of the conversation through to the closing talk that leads to a purchase.

The "eigyo intelligence" screen. The conversation is recorded on the spot.

Q: What was the development process for "eigyo intelligence" like?

Mr. Tsuchiya: I have system development experience and can produce basic design documents and specifications myself, so essentially everything proceeded based on the design documents. I also selected the programmers who would actually write the code in Vietnam, and the only spec I required was whether they could draw UML diagrams, the kind that let you see a system's structure and behavior at a glance, and whether they could read the UML diagrams we provided. Vietnam has many people who speak Japanese or have worked at Japanese companies, but I deliberately did not make that a requirement. UML diagrams are an international standard, common across the world. Because they're expressed as diagrams, discrepancies rarely arise, and as long as you have them, the system simply can't go in the wrong direction.

The language barrier between Japanese and Vietnamese can be crossed with UML diagrams. If anything, when two Japanese speakers work together, the very fact that words get through tends to pull the project along by means other than UML diagrams. It was precisely because we set the rule "the only shared language is UML diagrams" and "just look at these and we're fine" that things moved along without a hitch.

“The keys to offshore development success are the quality of the bridge SE and the management method. Work experience in Japan is a plus”

Q: How was VNEXT's development quality?

Mr. Tsuchiya: I recruited programmers in Vietnam and gathered a team, and luckily some very talented people joined. Among them, one was so capable and ambitious that after about half a year they left to "go independent and start their own company." I'd say that itself reflects the high aspirations of Vietnamese engineers (laughs).

On this project, two programmers in particular played a central role, and they were a tremendous help. Without them, honestly, releasing at a high level within the deadline would have been difficult.

Q: So, straight to the point: what do you think is the key to offshore development success?

Mr. Tsuchiya: If you have a person in charge or an upstream SE who can write basic design documents and test specifications, offshore development is a great option. And even without such a person, in VNEXT's case the bridge SEs who serve as the connection include people who can speak Japanese or have worked at Japanese companies, so it's easy to work with them. The one who worked on our project in particular had worked in Japan for four to five years, and was very capable and dedicated.

That said, the point to watch is schedule management. This isn't limited to Vietnam and can happen in any country, but in offshore development you tend to end up in a "well, we built it" state right up against the set deadline. As the client, I'd rather have it done earlier so we can surface issues together and then submit a polished version, but it rarely works out that way. So I set checkpoints at key stages early on.

One more thing I was careful about was making sure only I could touch the production system environment. In the Japanese way of thinking, if there's a major problem at release you handle it by postponing the release and don't do anything that isn't planned. But from experience, in offshore development, when a serious problem appears right before release, people tend to fix it on the spot, which then triggers secondary damage. So I decided that all release work would be done by our company.

“Looking back on the offshore development project: VNEXT's "sincere response" and "collaborative structure" led to success”

Reflecting on offshore development -The success driven by VNEXT's sincere approach and collaborative system

Q: How was VNEXT's handling of things? Was the release on schedule?

Mr. Tsuchiya: Thanks to them, from the moment we decided to start this business and met VNEXT, all the way to a successful release, we were able to move fast, in just about six months. The time actually spent on coding was around two months, and the testing period about one month. The schedule set the release date first and did as much as possible within that window, and the smooth release was thanks to the excellent programmers and bridge SEs. This is a good example of how the right IT outsourcing partner shapes the outcome.

Q: Looking back on this offshore development project as a whole, what do you consider the success factors?

Mr. Tsuchiya: Compared with Japanese software firms, offshore development has a big advantage on cost. On quality, though, I believe that beyond the company's handling of things, the bridge SE's skill has an enormous influence. It comes down to how capable the person bridging you and the on-site programmers is, and whether they take it on with real passion.

This time, VNEXT told me that the staff assigned to "eigyo intelligence" were an especially talented group, and they were able to gather such people precisely because VNEXT supported us across the board, including preparing a new office. Their lab-type model, with a dedicated team working alongside us, made all the difference. For our company too, I think this became a fine example of offshore development done well.

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About VNEXT HOLDINGS

Evolving from VNEXT SOFTWARE, founded in 2008, VNEXT HOLDINGS is a trusted AI-augmented software development and digital transformation (DX) partner. Headquartered in Vietnam with representative offices in Japan, our team of over 550 specialists has delivered more than 800 projects for over 400 clients across the Asian market, with expertise spanning custom web and app development, AI and ML, blockchain, enterprise system solutions, SAP ERP, legacy modernization, and offshore development.

Drawing on deep experience across manufacturing, retail, healthcare, finance and fintech, logistics, and education, we apply globally recognized standards to help enterprises modernize, scale, and compete with confidence. Committed to supporting businesses at every stage of their DX journey, VNEXT HOLDINGS combines AI-powered services and solutions with an AI-augmented workforce to deliver greater speed, scalability, and quality.