Persol Business Process Design Begins Business Partnership with Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank to Support SMEs in Gifu Prefecture

Persol Business Process Design Co., Ltd. (headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and Representative Director: Kazuyuki Ichimura; hereinafter 'Persol Business Process Design'), part of the Persol Group with the vision of 'Work and Smile,' has begun a business partnership (hereinafter 'the Partnership') with Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank (head office: Ogaki City, Gifu Prefecture; President: Keiji Hayashi) aimed at supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Gifu Prefecture. Through this partnership, the company will provide BPO support centered on the online BPO service 'StepBase' to SMEs in the prefecture.

In Gifu Prefecture, population decline is steadily progressing, with the population of approximately 1.979 million in 2020 expected to continue shrinking. According to future estimates by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, the population is projected to decrease by approximately 25.8% from 2020 to around 1.47 million by 2050. This demographic change is exacerbating labor shortages, and local companies are increasingly recognizing the need to review business processes and promote digitalization.

In particular, back-office functions such as general affairs, accounting, and human resources face difficulties in securing specialized personnel, leading to issues such as task dependency and the inability to concentrate management resources on core businesses.

These challenges pose major obstacles to business continuity for companies across the prefecture. It is urgent to eliminate task dependency through visualization and standardization of operations, establishing a system that anyone can perform. Regional financial institutions are also expected to accurately understand customer companies' issues and provide support from solution proposal to implementation, highlighting the growing importance of collaboration to maintain and strengthen the industrial base.

Overview of the Partnership

Persol Business Process Design and Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank have signed a customer referral agreement and will jointly propose the use of online BPO services to companies that are customers of Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank. Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank will handle company interviews, issue identification, and proposals, while the company will promote understanding of online BPO utilization by providing case studies and be responsible for overall design and service provision for actual operations.

The target issues cover a wide range, including labor shortages, productivity improvement, IT tool utilization, and recruitment support. The two organizations will jointly work to reduce the operational burden on local companies and build a foundation for growth.

Outlook

Through this partnership, Persol Business Process Design will contribute to improving operational efficiency and productivity of SMEs in Gifu Prefecture. Centered on Gifu Prefecture, the company will create a model that contributes to business continuity and productivity improvement for local companies, establishing a framework for highly replicable implementation and operation. Furthermore, it will expand the collaboration model with financial institutions horizontally, contributing to solving social issues such as regional labor shortages and digitalization delays.

About the Online BPO Service 'StepBase' <https://www.persol-bd.co.jp/service/bpo/stepbase/>

'StepBase' is a service in which assistants directly employed by Persol Business Process Design with extensive practical experience efficiently perform back-office and other tasks online. Since the company owns over 7,000 business flow patterns for back-office operations, there is no need to prepare procedure manuals, which are often a barrier to outsourcing. Support is available for a wide range of tasks including recruitment, accounting, labor management, general affairs, secretarial work, sales, web production, and clerical work. By entrusting tasks only when needed and in the required amount, it is possible not only to reduce recruitment and personnel costs but also to create an environment where employees can focus on important tasks.

About Persol Business Process Design Co., Ltd. <https://www.persol-bd.co.jp/>

Persol Business Process Design Co., Ltd. provides BPO services tailored to customer challenges by combining process design capabilities, organizational and human resource management skills, and human resource development capabilities with technologies such as AI. With the mission of 'Innovating all work and organizations to create a society full of better working environments,' the company contributes to realizing the future that organizations aim for and creating a society where workers can thrive. The Persol Group, with its group vision of 'Work and Smile,' contributes to achieving a sustainable society and the SDGs through diverse businesses related to people and organizations.