SoftBank, Hakuhodo and Arm form joint venture to help companies transform themselves by utilizing data

SoftBank Corp. (“SoftBank”), Hakuhodo Inc. (“Hakuhodo”) and Arm Limited (“Arm”) today announced the formation of INCUDATA Corp. (“INCUDATA”), a joint venture that will enable companies in Japan to transform themselves by utilizing data.

INCUDATA will support companies with one-stop services so they can use data to transform their businesses. INCUDATA's solutions encompass strategic planning for data utilization and the construction and operation of analytical platforms to implement business initiatives, as well as consulting services. Through its data-related solutions, INCUDATA aims to contribute to the increased competitiveness of its client companies. In addition to SoftBank's proprietary data and Hakuhodo Group's consumer data, which are both sufficiently anonymized, INCUDATA will utilize Arm® Treasure Data™ enterprise CDP, Arm's customer data platform. With the combined data analysis technologies and know-how of the three companies, INCUDATA will offer individually optimized end-to-end solutions that cover strategy planning and actual implementation.

With the rapid spread of AI technologies and IoT in recent years, the importance of data utilization has increased in business activities. At the same time, a lack of human resources capable of planning and executing data strategies, and data silos—repositories of data under one system or department that remain isolated—have become hurdles for companies. As a result, the mainstream of data utilization until now has been largely based on third party data being used in advertising to increase sales. By making use of the data utilization know-how of SoftBank, Hakuhodo and Arm, INCUDATA can support the formulation of data strategies with greater effectiveness and the use of data when executing business initiatives. Specifically, by utilizing Arm Treasure Data eCDP, customers can consolidate and combine their first-party data with second-party and third-party data for analysis. With this, various marketing tools and other external systems linked with Arm Treasure Data eCDP can then be deployed to execute business initiatives. For example, clients can expect improved customer traffic, higher loyalty and fewer defections thanks to a high degree of personalization in their marketing activities. Furthermore, data analysis can yield insights, including consumer attitudes and latent needs, for utilization in sales, product planning, manufacture, distribution and other stages of the business process.

SoftBank is co-creating new businesses with other companies and supporting companies' digital transformations by utilizing data and leading-edge technologies. In addition to its repository of proprietary marketing data and consumer data, the Hakuhodo Group has a team dedicated to data marketing and a track record of marketing and consulting services that integrate digital and offline marketing. Arm Treasure Data eCDP, which was named as Best Customer Data Platform at the 2019 Marketing Technology Awards, has been installed by over 400 companies worldwide, many of which are large companies. INCUDATA will work to bring together the knowledge and insights accumulated by SoftBank, Hakuhodo and Arm, and contribute to the growth of client companies in Japan by promoting data utilization.