SAN JOSE, Calif., June 28, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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“In today’s hyper-connected world, gone are the days of stacks of outdated paper reports in the trunks of sales people’s cars, as well as isolated backend systems that may or may not be able to connect to each other -- let alone to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 Apigee
Apigee® (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 Statement
This 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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