NTQ Japan

NTQ has an R&D team consisting of four members at its headquarters in Hanoi in order to put advanced ICT technology to practical use. The team is actively working on practical application of AI, IoT, robotics, e-learning and image recognition technology. Truong Dao Quy Duong, Sales Manager at NTQ, says that the company’s high level of technological capabilities are made thanks to the work of the R&D team. "I used to travel to Japan on several business trips a year and did not conduct any active marketing of our services. The R&D team can show customers what we are capable of. In fact, we have some customers who decided to place orders with us after seeing our R&D team's work," says Mr. Duong.

iLUTon was indeed born from this R&D team's work. As they understood the company's technological capabilities through the experiences of working with NTQ twice for app development, A.C.T. visited NTQ in March 2017. They quickly decided to enter into a joint development agreement after seeing a PC security device, a contact-type system, that was then under development by the R&D team. In the joint development, A.C.T. determined the specifications of the PC security device, including changing the system to contactless, to launch the product in the Japanese market while NTQ was responsible for the system development and product design.

Business models where Japanese companies outsource part of their work to Vietnamese companies are becoming more common. The collaboration between A.C.T. and NTQ, however, is a notable case of a new partnership model between Japan and Vietnam where companies from both countries collaborate on system development on an equal footing.

NTQ Japan has now moved its head office to the Yokohama World Business Support Center (WBC) in Yokohama, with 17 employees mainly working at this location.

When asked about the reasons for having chosen Yokohama, Mr. Duong said: "JETRO Yokohama introduced the WBC to us, just as we were looking for a property in the suburbs of Tokyo." Yoshiteru Ogawa, NTQ Japan CEO, added: "JETRO has a wide networks. We appreciate their support in connecting us not only with local governments, such as Yokohama City, but also with industries and companies." The company decided to move into the WBC in consideration of several factors; such as that many of its customers have bases in Yokohama, making it easier for employees working onsite to get together; good access to the Tokyo Metropolitan Area; and low rent.

Regarding the support from JETRO, Mr. Ogawa said: "We are grateful to JETRO for their continued support even after we opened our Japanese office. They always help us out by answering detailed questions about matters such as withholding tax and visa requirements." He explained that visa applications had been troublesome as the documents required varied depending on personal circumstances, such as family, of the employees to be sent to Japan and therefore a precedent could not be applied.

Of the 17 employees who work for NTQ Japan, more than 10 are involved in offshore software development working as onsite members at its client companies. When asked about the company’s strengths, Mr. Duong said: "Our strength is that we conduct our business from the customers’ point of view. We are not two separate parties of ‘customer and service provider’ but are ‘one team.’ To this end, we employ people who have a good balance between language skills, technical knowledge and manners. Another strength of ours is that we have our own R&D team that is continually taking on new challenges." The company has gained Japanese companies’ trust by following the Japanese corporate customs of "thinking from the customer’s perspective, keeping deadlines and responding flexibly to changing specifications." The trust the company earned has led to a steady increase in the number of its clients through referrals from existing clients.

Regarding the company’s future prospects, Mr. Son says, "At the moment, our main business is still offshore development services, but as we want to increase the ratio of joint development projects, such as iLUTon, we hope to build our own R&D team in the Japanese subsidiary. The first step forward is to transform the Japanese subsidiary into a company working independently from the Vietnamese headquarters." While the company thinks it is essential for iLUTon to first gain a foothold in the Japanese market, it also plans to launch the product worldwide in the future. If realized, it will serve as an example of a product jointly developed by a Japanese and a Vietnamese company being launched globally.

(Interviewed in January 2018)