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Is there any way to reduce the time spent on research summarization? If you are a person engaged in research work at a consulting firm, a financial service company, or a corporate planning department, you may struggle with this issue daily. ShareFair's software may significantly solve this issue.
The software is called "ShareFair Findings". Ryo Okazaki, CEO of ShareFair explains, "ShareFair Findings is a software that automatically structures the texts about companies and industries, and allows users to find the information they want easily". There are already a number of summarization services that extract the "likely important parts" of the text information, but for business use, summarization is not necessarily a suitable approach, as every user has a different set of objectives and needs for information. Therefore, according to Okazaki, "we focused on creating a function that automatically organizes and structures texts using algorithms based on natural language processing to make it easier for users to narrow down their searches." This function allows users to reach only the information they want 10 to 100 times faster than before.
For example, when summarizing corporate and industry information such as "EV development methods and energy efficiency of major automotive companies" or "landscape of venture capital funding for healthcare startups", the software automatically analyzes the content of the uploaded Word or Text file and converts it into an appropriate Excel file, which significantly reduces the amount of time spent on subsequent work.
To use Findings, users create an account, select the way to structure documents, name of the target company, and topic words to be extracted, and upload documents. Users who have tried it have commented with delight, "it only took 10 minutes to summarize documents that would have taken 3 hours", "I now use Findings to process reports before I read them", etc.
The software, which users have highly evaluated, obtained a patent as an information processing device that utilizes natural language processing algorithms. It is currently available completely free of charge as a beta version, and the launch of the service for English text in July enables it to meet a broader range of research needs.
ShareFair was founded in February 2019 with the vision "Brighten the world by sharing knowledge". It all began with Okazaki's personal experience while working at a consulting firm.
“Research is a process of input ⇨ analysis ⇨ output, and I felt there was a huge need to evolve the process of qualitative information handling in all areas of research. The process of summarizing information still relied on manual effort, especially for younger employees, who had to work late into the night every day to conduct research and summarize the results. In order to obtain appropriate and in-depth input, it is necessary to have opinions from experts who are knowledgeable about the information needed. Although many existing services provide matching services for this purpose, the result of search and selection are not always consistent due to the difference in knowledge of the person in charge. I could do better - with this sense of confidence, I decided to launch a new company.”
For a startup, it is essential to have a group of few selected masterminds. The chosen man was Jumpei Kobayashi, a classmate of Okazaki from his university days, with a close friendship over 20 years. He was well versed in the financial industry and exceptionally dedicated to his work. “I was so eager to work with him that I put all my 13 years of experience at a consulting firm into a presentation for him," Okazaki revealed his feelings. Okazaki's passion reached Kobayashi, and the decision to work with him was a decisive factor in bringing them out of the unknown into a tangible image of the company.
Soon after the launch, ShareFair entered the matching business as its founding business and released "ShareFair Expert", aiming for the apex in two aspects: "degree of knowledge match" and "speed". Leveraging their in-depth knowledge of a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, semiconductors, healthcare, and finance, they search for and propose experts with pinpoint accuracy from all over the world. At the same time, they analyzed and systemized the process one by one. As a result, the company was able to realize a service that quickly connects experts with high accuracy, even with knowledge in niche industries.
"We were better at connecting fuzzy things like knowledge and requests right in the middle. In terms of business structure, as the Expert service expanded, Findings was created by combining several technologies to evolve the processing of the information obtained from the Expert service. We believe that the role of our product is to enable people who create new value in the world to create even more value by reducing the time they spend searching for and summarizing information.” (Kobayashi)
“We are building up our research platform with Expert for input and Findings for analysis and output. We already have several ideas to follow Findings, and we plan to update Findings and shift to our next products simultaneously." (Okazaki)
Technical capabilities should not be the only factor that brings about product excellence and service expansion. ShareFair has a vision for social contribution and a value of sharing "fair", which is the origin of the company's name.
Okazaki reflected this in his new company.
"I love the word "fair" from my childhood," he said. "Whenever I was lost, I would think about what is fair, and then I would move in a fair direction. The word "fair" has positive meanings such as honest, open, and fine, while I believe that the most important benefit of fairness in business is that when we are aware of the importance of fairness, we are naturally able to communicate with others and work comfortably together.
Notably, ShareFair has continuously donated a percentage of its sales since its foundation to educational activities around the world to "ensure that everyone has access to a fair education”.
Most of these donations have been allocated to fund school construction and school meal programs in Ghana and Kenya through certified NPO, for which ShareFair is an official sponsor.
The company aims to create a sustainable "circulation of knowledge" in which the children, who are the "knowledge of the future," will one day grow up and share their knowledge.
ShareFair Findings positions "knowledge" as the starting point for creation and has made it possible through technology to process qualitative information, which has a high potential need in the business domain.
ShareFair Findings will continue to leverage partnerships in diverse fields to support appropriate decision-making based on facts and spread the wings of creativity worldwide through "sharing of knowledge".
ShareFair is looking for new members to join the team as it expands its range of services and rapidly increases the number of clients. The research platform for creating the next era of prosperity take off.
