[Manager Interview] What is Beyond GTA, which is responsible for server operations in Canada?

Winter is the camping season! I'm a public relations representative who spends time at camping on a wood stove for a bliss.

Recruitment season is finally here! This is the fourth manager interview project that anyone interested in or wants to know more about Beyond should definitely read.

This time, we interviewed Mr. Saint from Beyond GTA (Canadian office). Please see below for articles on previous manager interview projects!

◆[Director Interview] Directors talk about their thinking in their company and work

[Director Interview] Directors talk about their thoughts on the company and work

More interview articles here

What is the appeal of Beyond?

Seiken : Despite its size, we are taking on new initiatives such as overseas bases. There are not many companies of this size that have two overseas bases, and from an outside perspective, Beyond may seem like a company with a strong presence, but I believe that the true essence of Beyond is the attitude of challenging things that other companies do not do. I like the part where there is an environment where I can be challenged, and I feel like I've always had the challenge of doing things other companies don't do.

Even in our main service, the 24-hour operational monitoring of servers, we are constantly concerned about the trends of other companies in the industry, but we feel that in the end it is meaningless unless we do what we can. We may not be the first to operate a 24-hour server that we currently run in Japan and Canada, taking advantage of the time difference, but there are few companies working on this scale. Rather than imitating it because it is done by other companies, Beyond has always had the vision of using overseas digital services and having an office overseas while working 24 hours a day.

In this context, around 2017 I had the opportunity to connect with people in Ontario, Canada, and decided to visit the site. Although we didn't do any detailed plans or calculations, after going there several times, I felt that it could be realized.

The content of the work is originally based on, so I feel that all the members are basically serious, but I think that the perfect balance between seriousness and good spirits is a unique feature and appeal of Beyond.

Do you feel like it's different from when you were in Japan?

Seiken : I feel that there have been various changes in Japan as the number of people has increased, but I don't think the essential aspects have changed much. This job is also a job where you can finish the day without having to say a word with customers or internal members, but I feel that everyone places importance on valuing communication, especially as "communication hospitality speed" is advocated as part of their core values. As a result, it feels like everyone is getting along well, which is rare for an engineer-centric IT company.

Please tell us the atmosphere of the Beyond GTA team.

Seiken: There are currently seven people in Beyond GTA, including me and Morita. When I joined Beyond, there were just over 10 employees. It's like a high school class, and communication is more important because it's a small group. I think GTA has a high proportion of female members and is like the old Beyond.

Basically, most of the GTA members are Japanese, so it feels like a Japanese company. Ideological has partners , often feels like an overseas company because when someone has achieved results on a project, they ring something like a bell and they all get together and get excited.

Furthermore, when building a Canadian office, you will be given a private room once your position rises to a certain extent. In Beyond, everyone works on the same floor and is basically in the same space. Many of the members are Japanese and our customers are Japanese, so we work in a Japanese style that places emphasis on teamwork rather than each individual becoming independent. I would like to work with them where everyone works, even if the GTA grows. (Please stop doing that, I would like to work in the same space until they say I'll be in a different room...)

Currently, we have members taking three months of shifts from Japan to Canada, but in the future, I think it would be fine to have the opposite pattern, such as an exchange study abroad program. There are various aspects, including the number of people, situations, and environment, but I think it would be interesting if we could achieve that kind of thing one day. In the future, there will be an increase in English-speaking customers, and there will be times when local staff will mainly be hired in English, but for those people, being able to go to Japan will be valuable.

The role of work in Japan and Canada in server operation

Seiken: The original purpose of establishing an office in Canada was to handle Japanese night shifts in Canada. Beyond operates in an irregular three-shift shift, with Canada covering the situation from 11pm to 8am in Japan time. The job content is the same as in Japan, but I can handle the same quality as in the daytime even at night in Japan , is what makes us feel like daytime, and the quality of Beyond's services is different from others. In that sense, I believe that one of the purposes of creating an office in Canada has been achieved.

At night, alerts are less likely to sound when monitoring servers than during the day, and customers are not active, so inquiries are relatively few. Therefore, Canada will take over the amount that could not be fully investigated during daytime inquiries and conduct the investigation. It is often difficult to take time to conduct deeper investigations to customer alerts during the day, so we use the time to thoroughly investigate deeper areas at night.

In addition, there are a certain number of requests from customers who want to work at night because they cannot stop service during the day. In the past, night service could be accommodated, but we had to pay extra. Currently, additional costs may be incurred depending on the task, but we believe that Canada will handle the situation within a certain range, making it possible to respond more flexibly in line with the customer's requests.

Are there any things you need to be careful about when working in Canada?

Seiken: Basically, when you exchange questions, answers, or inquiries, you will probably get a fairly real-time format by repeatedly repeating short answers and reaching the correct answer. If that were the case, the tempo would be good and you could make an immediate correction if something happened, but in Canada, I'm basically a one-shot match. Even if we contact customers, we don't get a reply when we are at home because it's late at night in Japan. If we respond to something that is wrong with the customer's intentions, it could actually increase the burden on Japan during the day.

Therefore, if you want customers to take action on something or make a decision, we try to provide proper materials that can be used to make decisions by taking into consideration the customer's decisions into consideration . As a customer's answer, we strive to provide questions and answers as easy to understand as possible, with content that can be answered in two ways, such as YES or NO.

If you can't communicate in real time, if you can't complete it in one go, it will continue lazily. When we receive any enquiries, we try to respond by saying things like, "What do you want to do with something?" rather than saying, "That's ○○, how would you respond?", but rather, "Because it's ○○, there are these options and these options. Which would you like to choose? Or I recommend this." If you could say yes or no, then if it's YES, then we can just proceed with the work ourselves or Japan, and if it's NO, we can think of other options and then proceed with the subsequent discussion on that assumption.

Even if they do the same job, I don't think Japan is that concerned about this part. This is because you can communicate in real time with customers. Tempo and speed are more important, and while the quality of communication can sometimes be poor as the amount of communication increases, I think the amount of communication can sometimes be more important than quality. maintaining this balance between Japan and Canada and the daytime and nighttime , it will be easier for customers to do it.

What kind of work does Seiken do now?

Seiken: I'm an all-you-can-door store. Before Morita came, I was doing all of the work, but thanks to Morita's visit, I was able to help with sales and communication with customers, so the burden on that area has been greatly reduced.

While carrying out the general company's work, we also take action behind the scenes when there is a problem or something that the members don't understand in our main job. He is also responsible for the practical work related to Canadian personnel and management.

Recently, three Japanese companies with offices in Toronto ( CO-Sol Inc. , Ayudante, Inc. , and Beyond GTA Inc. ) have gathered to participate in marketing activities. In order to increase popularity in the North American market, there are some difficulties with just one company, so the three companies work together to work together.

What do you value when working?

Seiken: Rather, I often tell members things like, "I want them to do my job this way" or "I want them to work with this kind of attitude." From that perspective, I think of the chef's mindset I read in a book. The concept is "The Heart of Wasabi," that is, " to focus on supporting roles, read ahead, and work with a sense of beauty." These ideas can also be applied to Beyond's operational operations, and I feel that we are actually doing this.

Basically, our server operations and development work are not something that we do to the forefront. In order to achieve what a customer wants to do, you need to not just react to what the customer is saying, but you need to think about what they are making such statements and what they really want to do. Otherwise, I think it would be difficult to come up with a good answer. As for the final sense of beauty, I believe that by acting with integrity and a willingness to provide appropriate products to our customers, rather than the one-sided sense of beauty among individuals or companies, we can become more acceptable.

Another thing I've been particularly feeling lately -checking the various information that is overflowing in the world, and the ability to properly back up your own self and judge whether the information is correct, are extremely important. Without that power, we will not be able to find the true correct information from the overflowing information.

Servers and programs are things that run even if they have bugs or incomplete. There is a lot of information scattered across the Internet, such as, "If you want to do this, you can do this" and "If you want to write a program like this, you can do this." However, the information there may be the correct answer in the particular situation at the time, but it is not necessarily the correct approach or answer to the problems we are facing right now or the problems our customers are facing.

Of course, we also search on the Internet when we don't know anything, but the ability to accurately identify information and the ability to judge whether it's right or wrong is essential to our work, so we want our members to take that into consideration, not only our own work.

There are now many tools to research, and useful items such as ChatGPT have also appeared. I often ask questions myself and get plausible answers. However, when it comes to the content related to infrastructure, I feel that 50% of the information is misinformation. Even if there are specific advice on parameter setting, even nuances that seem to be correct are often wrong, so I hope everyone is careful.

Is there anything you value when interacting with members?

Seiken: When someone asks you something or asks you questions, we are now in an age where there is a lot of information when we look into it, so we provide answers to our customers, but we think it's important for our members to think a little bit about it, so we ask questions and questions on the other hand. I try to support the process of reaching the answers as much as possible so that I can reach the results I have come up with in my own head. (I sometimes give the answer right away when I'm in a hurry...)

Of course I will give instructions, but I hope that I can guide as much as possible the motivational aspects, such as why it is necessary to do so, while also guiding them well so that they can think of them as something that has come out of me. It is a very valuable time to be able to communicate with your Japanese base in real time, such as mornings and evenings, or at a shorter time of five minutes, but I would like to do everything I can.

What kind of people would you like to create a company in the future?

Seiken: In Beyond Japan, it remains unchanged to create a company with members called managers (department managers). I hope that the members in the current leader and sub-leader positions will grow and become even more beyond. I think that the role of the future is to eventually take on new things, and then take on what they love.

Beyond GTA is still a company that is still in the future, so it is still unclear what kind of talent will be added in the future, but of course there will be an increase in the number of non-Japanese members. On the other hand, I think it's a good opportunity, so I would like to review the true nature of Beyond, think about how to develop it overseas, and clarify the values ​​and corporate culture that Beyond currently holds, and grow it together with people who can sympathize with their values ​​and corporate culture

I believe that my main role on the GTA side is to make Canada stand on its own and take it over to someone else. Currently, GTA mainly focuses on Japanese customers, so we employ members who can speak Japanese, but I hope that the sooner the number of customers who use English will increase and local staff will also become necessary locally employed people, so I will continue to work hard.

The beyond GTA homepage is here
(you will be redirected to an external site)

lastly

Thank you for watching until the end!

In this interview, we were able to learn more about Beyond GTA, which we usually rarely interact with!

In addition to this blog, there is also a lot of content that allows you to learn more about Beyond, including blogs written by other members and social media. We would appreciate your understanding of Beyond at any time, as you can read the various content. And I look forward to seeing you in the future if you think Beyond's corporate culture and values ​​suits me!

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