Learning video services

Globis learning without limits

The product has been developed from the passion of a Ruby engineer in the company.

Unleash innovation and revolution in “EdTech” (education and technology) with technological innovation. 

Partner interview

Globis Co.Ltd

CTO Assistant

Developed in the form of LAB

Development fields: Video services / human resource training

Organization scope: 301-1000 people

Development technology: Ruby on Rails / jQuery

Since its establishment, Globis Joint Stock Company has upheld the vision of “Creating an ecosystem that includes Human, Money, Wisdom in business and innovating, implementing a revolution for society”. In recent years, the company has promoted the transition to “technovate” (Technology Innovation), and “Glovis Digital Platform Division”, creating a new revolution in education through technology and an application using this technology.

Globis has had no technical team so far, thus Sun* is acting as technical advisor. One might wonder why one of Japan’s leading educational services providing corporations chose to grow under the Global Team? Where does the cut-over that leads to success lie? We had a talk with 1 of the 2 leaders of this department with the aim of finding the answers to the question.

How do you feel when you came to Vietnam to try building the LAB team together ?

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I think the advantage of offshore development is that the number of employees can be increased at the same cost, rather than low cost. In Japan it is only possible to appoint a team of 5, while at Sun*, it is possible to appoint a team of dozens of people. In other words, you will be able to generate power out of the number. This feeling of speed is really great. This is what I feel as my biggest advantage when working with Sun*.

Entering a growth phase, there are situations where communication costs arise. At the stage of detailed adjustment, it is necessary to both grasp the situation and adjust. However, when entering this stage, I think it will be faster if internal official staff or specialized staff are able to handle reasonably. I feel if responsibilities are allocated like that, it will be really great.”

Trust relationships go beyond customer relationships

“Unlike systems maintaining projects, Globis unlimited learning is a project that creates service from scratch, operating in the Agile form. Its spec is not predefined but developed during the process. To make an ideal service, we have worked together with customers to think of features, and come up with the proposals.

On the day of the service release, we had dinner at 11:00 pm and worked until 4 am. Both the PM and GL of the project also provided support for members who cannot participate. Everyone was determined that “We can definitely do it”, and worked all night for a timely release.

Thanks to our members’ efforts, we were able to increase the number of people using the old service tenfold within two months after the service’s release. The client said “Globis unlimited learning is a great success.” Besides, I’m really happy to hear that news has been posted on NHK and the press.

After the project ended, Mr. Globis visited the Hanoi office to congratulate on the success and have dinner with the team. The Globis project participants were the top managers, but the dinner party was really fun and informal, as if there were no client – service provider relationship.

We are currently working on the next project with Globis. I think I have been able to act according to Sun’s slogan “Make awesome things that matter.”, overcoming cultural and language barriers, and building a relationship of trust with Globis.The greatest achievement of the member, I think, is involved in this project is that we have built the foundation to create better services in the future.”

“Globis Unlimited Learning is my first project since my membership at Sun*. This project is a test version so it will affect the future project promotion. I have high expectations and desire to quickly prove my ability and win the trust of customers.

At the beginning of the project, there were a number of hiccups and unexpected failures. The person in charge of Globis is an expert with high technical capacity, especially Ruby. I work with great people, so there is a feeling of tension that we have to do well on the project.

I have learned a lot from comments and suggestions during the code review process. Not only do we rely on BrSE to communicate with customers, we also actively approach them. I have learned that projects can be accelerated by providing information validation within the capability so that no difference in perception occurs.

Globis has a pretty serious testing process that takes a considerable amount of time to carry out, but I’m grateful that I have had the opportunities to work on the project with talented engineers and learned a lot.

“I was under pressure when knowing that this is an E-learning project for a famous company in Japan, but I also held high hopes for being able to do something great. I have participated in E-learning in America and Europe, but I feel there are many differences and there is quite a lot to learn.

This project thoroughly applies Agile. At the beginning of the project, many specs had yet to be decided, and the way the work is accomplished is different from the projects I’ve been involved in so far so I was quite confused at first. With the help of members through experience in Agile, I quickly caught up with the other team members in a short period of time, and learned a lot during the working process.

First, the other members and I have done research about online training services around the world, frequently asked questions in the Q&A sections of the service. In addition, we paid attention to Japanese customs and psychology from friends working in Japan, and learnt about solutions and services in Japanese market to provide better user experience, from which to propose feature-related schemes to customers.

The project continually generates changes. Each feature change is minimal, however, the UI is updated so frequently that development team members can’t keep up with that speed. In order to solve this problem, I have carefully written these daily changes into tools like the Prototyping tool for other team members to follow.

When I propose an idea to a client, I have concerns about whether I am satisfied with it despite careful preparation. I think I need to constantly work hard to come up with suggestions to improve the service. Mr. Suenaga welcomed this proposal and appreciated this idea. Globis is very happy to see we are part of the team. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to think seriously about the service and feel the growth.

Globis Co.Ltd.

Establish business institutes, train business leaders, invest in joint ventures, publish/announce business practices. By creating these ecosystems, we continue to challenge creativity with a mission to build more human resources, train joint ventures, and maintain Japan’s dynamism.