Apigee Helping Kao Sales Teams ‘Look Good’ When Visiting Salons
June 28 2016 - 9:00AM
Apigee® (NASDAQ:APIC), the API company, today announced that Kao
Corporation, a leading global manufacturer of premium beauty care
brands like Jergens®, John Frieda® and Goldwell®, has selected the
Apigee Edge API management software to help the Global 2000 company
build and deliver modern APIs and apps. Today, Kao Corporation’s
Apigee-powered Sales Partner mobile app promotes sales efficiencies
by arming its sales representatives with near-real time sales data
and customer information delivered online or offline on iPads.
Digital solutions like the Sales Partner app are designed to help
Kao maintain its position as an industry leader in today’s
increasingly mobile and digital world.
For more than 120 years, Kao Corporation has been representing
premium skin and hair care brands that are recognized worldwide for
their innovation and quality. In addition to Jergens®, John
Frieda®, and Goldwell®, iconic Kao brands in the AEMEA division
also include Curél® body lotions, Ban® antiperspirants, Bioré®
facial care, and Guhl® and KMS California® hair care products.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Kao Corporation generates
$12.16B in annual sales and has a market cap of approximately $26B
as of May 2016
Kao selected Apigee’s API platform to help build apps that more
easily integrate with partners and external systems, including
mobile and cloud solutions. The company’s recently launched Sales
Partner app provides Kao sales representatives with a large amount
of sales KPIs (key performance indicators), territory and customer
data, easily accessible while visiting salon customers. The
app integrates with Kao’s core systems including ERP, business
intelligence, and CRM. It provides near-instant access to
customer sales and product information such as high and
low-performing product information and other critical sales data
relevant to each customer. Future features leveraging Apigee will
include more app-to-app integrations such as mobile order entry
apps as well as product related and marketing asset apps. The
Kao apps using Apigee APIs can provide a connected and seamless
experience for the sales rep so they can provide a premium beauty
customer service for their salons.
“In today’s hyper-connected world, gone are the days of stacks
of outdated paper reports in the trunks of sales people’s cars, as
well as isolated backend systems that may or may not be able to
connect to each other -- let alone to external partners and mobile
or cloud apps,” said Keith Soward, Application Group Manager at Kao
USA. “Our customers want immediate access to real-time product and
customer data, custom-tailored to their needs. We need to be
agile and fast. Sales and marketing teams can’t wait six
months to get the app or data they need in order to drive
sales. We have to have our data available for new apps, new
technology, new partners, and new ecosystems.
“Digital disruption is real and we want to disrupt the
disrupters. The specific Sales Partner apps using Apigee API
management make our sales people look good when they walk into a
salon and will help enhance our sales efficiencies and
professionalism, empowering us to more aggressively compete with
digital natives entering our industry,” he continued.
“Adapting to the new digital world is a requirement in many
industries today, and beauty care is no exception,” said Ed Anuff,
Apigee’s senior vice president of strategy. “Global
manufacturing companies like Kao Corporation are seeking to easily
expose their internal systems to create personalized and engaging
customer experiences. We believe that through solutions like
the Salon Partner app, Apigee’s API management can help enable Kao
Corporation increase customer engagement and interaction time, and
ultimately drive more sales.”
The Apigee Edge platform is enterprise-grade API management
software that empowers organizations like Kao Corporation to
securely deliver and manage APIs and API traffic at scale. Apigee
Edge includes comprehensive lifecycle API management capabilities
including API gateway; developer portal; API, app and developer
analytics; API monetization features; multi-tenancy support for
high scale, and more.
The Apigee Edge API management software is part of Apigee’s
cloud native API platform, which also includes Apigee Insights, an
API-based, self-service predictive analytics solution; Apigee Link,
an API-first Internet of Things (IoT) product for connecting
devices to the Internet; and Apigee Sense, an intelligent API
security product.
About ApigeeApigee® (NASDAQ:APIC) provides a
leading cloud native API platform for digital business. Many of the
world's largest organizations select Apigee to enable their digital
business, including 33 percent of the Fortune 100, four of the top
five Global 2000 retail companies, and five of the top 10 global
telecommunications companies. Apigee customers include global
enterprises such as Walgreens, Burberry, Morningstar, and First
Data. Apigee is headquartered in San Jose, California.
Safe Harbor StatementThis press release
contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding
market adoption of digital technologies, planned customer adoption
and implementation of Apigee’s products, potential future customer
opportunities and opportunities between Apigee and Kao Corporation.
These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations
and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in
circumstances that are difficult or impossible to predict.
Consequently, you should not rely on these forward-looking
statements. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from
those contemplated by these forward-looking statements as a result
of such uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances,
including without limitation risks and uncertainties related to
market adoption of digital technologies, the ability of Apigee’s
software to meet its customers’ needs, the quality of Apigee’s
software, support and services and related infrastructure capacity
and any incorrect implementation or use of Apigee software.
The foregoing list of factors is not exclusive. Additional risks
and uncertainties that could affect Apigee’s financial and
operating results are included under the captions "Risk Factors"
and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition
and Results of Operations" and elsewhere in Apigee’s Quarterly
Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on May 27, 2016. Apigee’s
SEC filings are available on the Investor Relations section of the
Company’s website at http://investors.apigee.com and on the SEC's
website at www.sec.gov. Apigee disclaims any obligation to update
the forward-looking statements provided to reflect any change in
its expectations or any change in events, conditions or
circumstances on which any such statement is based.
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Apigee Media Contact:
Mark Wheeler
press@apigee.com
615.516.6147
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