NRI Process Innovations, Ltd. (“NRI-PI”) has announced that on April 1 this year it will open a new office in Sapporo City in Hokkaido, boasting advanced disaster recovery features to respond to earthquakes and other large-scale disasters that occur in the Tokyo metropolitan area. With the opening of this location, NRI-PI aims to provide more sophisticated BPO (Business Process Outsourcing)(1) services to asset management companies and other client firms.

Sapporo, where this new location is set to open, is said to be a city largely unaffected by Tokyo inland earthquakes or Nankai Trough earthquakes(2), which can strike at any time. In addition, given its advantages in terms of recruiting human resources, the city is ideally suited to facilitating business continuity as regards BPO services.

For many asset management companies, the formulation of business continuity plans that account for the occurrence of earthquakes and other disasters, and the reliable implementation of those plans when disasters do strike, are crucial management challenges. To address these issues, NRI-PI seeks to establish locations outside the Tokyo metropolitan area as a way of providing even safer and more secure BPO services and contributing to regional revitalization.

Expanding BPO Services Using the Sapporo Office

NRI-PI has offices in three locations (as of January 21, 2021), namely the Tokyo metropolitan area (Tokyo and Yokohama) and China (Dalian). Now, in opening the Sapporo office as its fourth location, NRI-PI is looking to augment its facilities and structural framework so that it will be able to provide stable services even in times of emergency.

In the event of a major earthquake or other disaster in the Tokyo metropolitan area that makes it difficult for its client companies or for NRI-PI itself to maintain business operations, NRI-PI’s Sapporo office team and facilities will continue to provide BPO services for those companies. In addition, if NRI-PI’s offices in the Tokyo metropolitan area become unusable, the Sapporo office can be used, and therefore the services will be uninterrupted.

Through its outsourcing services delivering the NRI Group’s unique brand of high added value, NRI-PI will continue making efforts going forward to solve the management challenges of its client companies and thereby contribute to the further development of their respective industries.

Overview of NRI-PI’S Sapporo Office

(1):The practice of outsourcing certain work processes that make up a company’s activities to an external specialized provider, with these services including everything from operational planning and design to implementation.
(2):The Japanese government’s Earthquake Research Committee publishes its calculations each year on January 1 concerning the likelihood of foreseeable earthquakes occurring in the seabed surrounding Japan and in the active fault zones throughout the entire country. The chances of a massive earthquake of a magnitude between 8 and 9 striking sometime in the next 30 years in the Nankai Trough was previously thought to be “around 70%”, but this percentage was raised in a 2019 announcement to “between 70% and 80%”.

Inquiries about NRI PI
Shigefumi Takagi
Business Planning Department
NRI Process Innovations, Ltd.　
E-mail: nripi-info@nri.co.jp