October 12, 2011: KVH Collaborates with Industries and Universities to Organize the “KVH Application Development Contest”
- Supporting New Business Development and Sustainable Growth with Development IT Environment and Business Support -
Press Release: October 12, 2011
Tokyo, October 12, 2011 – KVH Co., Ltd., Japan’s leading information delivery platform providing integrated cloud and network solutions, today announced that it will hold the “KVH Application Development Contest” for software development companies in Iwate, Miyagi or Fukushima Prefectures, starting from November 1. This contest has been developed in collaboration with various companies and organizations including the University of Aizu, Tohoku Innovation Capital Corporation, and the Globis Graduate School of Management.
As part of KVH’s ongoing support to the Tohoku region following the Great Tohoku Earthquake, this project aims to support the sustainable growth of companies in the areas devastated by the earthquake and assist businesses in refining their business model and services for pursuing new business opportunities.
Since the Great Tohoku Earthquake on March 11, 2011, KVH has conducted various activities to support the affected people and the region’s recovery, including making financial donations, providing cloud services free of charge, and participating in volunteer activities. Through its interactions with companies and organizations in the region, KVH recognizes that supporting the business development and sustainable growth of the companies in the devastated areas is necessary to ensure effective long-term reconstruction assistance. KVH will provide the winners of the contest with free access to its Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform together with individual business support to develop marketing strategies and plans that will help these companies receive maximum public exposure to their target markets. Moreover, all entrants in the contest will receive KVH IaaS free of charge for six months for the development of their application services.
With the cooperation of other companies and organizations supporting this competition, many of which are located in the Tohoku region, entrants in this contest will have access to knowledge and experience spanning a broad range of industries to further refine their ideas. These other participating organizations will also act as judges to the competition and will offer their knowledge and support to the participants.
The outline of “Application Development Contest” is as follows.
| - Host： | KVH Co., Ltd. |
| - Partners： | The University of Aizu, Tohoku Innovation Capital Corporation, Exa Corporation, NST Laboratory Inc., Graduate School of Management, Globis University, ASCII Media Works Inc., ITpro |
Terms and Conditions:
All entries must be:
- Developed and submitted by a system developer or application service vendor that has a head office or local office located in either Iwate, Miyagi, or Fukushima Prefecture
- Application services that are designed for business users and can be delivered using KVH IaaS
- Application user interface, available on at least one of the following PC browsers: IE; Firefox; Chrome; Safari) or supporting iOS and Android mobile applications (ideally supporting the latest version)
Awards and Prizes:
Judging will be based on the service’s contents, business model, and system configuration.
The best three entrants of the KVH Application Development Contest will receive marketing and business planning support to enable the successful launch of their new product to the public.
KVH’s IaaS platform will be provided to winners FREE of charge, allowing the new applications to leverage and benefit from a highly advanced and secure platform. Further, KVH’s team of product and marketing experts will collaborate with each prize winner individually to develop a marketing strategy and plan that will ensure the application receives maximum public exposure to its target market.
In addition to these services, KVH will also provide marketing exposure at relevant tradeshows and events in which KVH participates, as well as monetary prizes.
1st Prize: Gold
- Gift coupon for 500,000 yen
2nd Prize: Silver
- Gift coupon for 250,000 yen
3rd Prize: Bronze
- Gift coupon for 150,000 yen
The above three prizes all include:
- KVH IaaS service free of charge for 36 months (starting from April 1, 2012, this is specifically to support the commercial launch of the awarded service)
- Creation of service introduction materials (includes 1 A4-sized sheet and a 10-page PowerPoint presentation) and a 3-minute service introduction video
- Participation in events (including expositions and seminars) that are organized by KVH and where KVH will exhibit (details TBD)
Contest Schedule:
| October 12, 2011 | Announcement of the contest (KVH booth at ITpro EXPO, Tokyo Big site) |
| November 1, 2011 | Contest commences – Application process opens |
| January 20, 2012 | Contest ends – Application process closes |
| March 16, 2012 | Deadline for application presentation |
| April 20, 2012 | Awards ceremony in Sendai |
About KVH
KVH was established in Tokyo in 1999 by Fidelity Investments as a Japan focused IT/communications service provider. As an information delivery platform that allows enterprise customers to store, process, protect and deliver their vital business information, KVH offers integrated cloud and network solutions that include infrastructure-as-a-service, managed services, data center services, professional services, data networking, internet access, and voice services. KVH operates the lowest latency network in Japan, and with over 450 financial services customers, is the leading provider of ultra low-latency network and proximity hosting solutions to the high-frequency trading community in Tokyo and Osaka. KVH also offers low-latency connectivity services between major financial markets in the Asia/Pacific region and the US including Tokyo, Chicago, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Sydney. More information on KVH can be found at www.kvh.co.jp/en/
