Why Edamame Inc. Is the Kintone Partner
Philippine Businesses Trust Most

Kintone is a platform — powerful, flexible, and trusted by 37,000+ companies worldwide. But the platform alone doesn't deploy itself. The partner you choose determines whether your Kintone investment becomes a transformative business system or an expensive subscription nobody uses.

Edamame Inc. is the official Kintone partner in the Philippines, the 2024 Cybozu Global Partner of the Year, and the only Kintone consultancy in the country with a Japanese-native CEO. This page explains exactly what makes us different — from other Kintone partners, from generic IT consultancies, and from the "just buy Salesforce" approach that costs Philippine businesses millions of pesos and months of implementation time.

1. 2024 Global Partner of the Year — Not Regional, Global

Every year, Cybozu (the company behind Kintone) recognizes one partner out of their entire worldwide network for exceptional performance. In 2024, that partner was Edamame Inc. — a three-person firm in Pasig City, Philippines.

This isn't a participation trophy. It means our implementation quality, client satisfaction, and business impact were measured against partners in Japan, the US, Australia, Southeast Asia, and China — and we came out on top. Companies like Japan Airlines, Shiseido, Nissan, Volvo, and NASA use Kintone. The partner ecosystem supporting those companies is the benchmark we were judged against.

What does this mean for you? It means when you work with Edamame, you're getting the partner that Cybozu themselves considers their best. Not the biggest. The best.

2. The Only Japanese-Native Kintone Partner in the Philippines

CEO Tom Arai is Japanese. Every consultation, every requirements meeting, every status update can be conducted in native-level Japanese — no interpreters, no miscommunication, no lost nuance.

This matters enormously for Japanese companies deploying Kintone to their Philippine branches. The decision-maker in Tokyo can communicate directly with the implementation partner in Manila in their own language. Requirements are captured accurately the first time. Cultural expectations around quality, documentation, and project management are shared, not explained.

At the same time, Edamame trains local Philippine staff in English and Filipino. Your Japanese management communicates with us in Japanese; your Filipino team uses the same system in English. One partner handles both sides — no coordination overhead between a Japanese consultant and a separate local IT vendor. For more details, see our guide to building a custom CRM in the Philippines.

3. JavaScript Customization — Not Just No-Code

Most Kintone partners are "drag-and-drop only." They can build standard apps, but when you need something beyond the defaults — a custom calculation, an API integration with your ERP, a complex approval matrix that Kintone's standard workflow can't handle — they hit a wall.

Edamame doesn't hit that wall. We write production-grade JavaScript customizations that run directly on Kintone. Our code ships to enterprise clients in financial services and manufacturing — environments where accuracy is non-negotiable. We build REST API integrations, custom plugins, automated data pipelines, and complex business logic that extends Kintone far beyond what no-code alone can do.

This means you never outgrow your partner. Start with no-code apps on day one. Six months later, when your business needs something more sophisticated, the same partner who built your initial system can extend it with code — without migrating to a new platform or hiring a new vendor. For more details, see our guide to no-code app development in the Philippines.

4. CEO-Level Attention, Not Junior Consultant Rotation

When you hire a large IT consultancy, you meet the senior partner during the sales pitch. Then the actual work gets handed to a junior consultant who's been at the company for six months. When that consultant leaves — and in the Philippines, turnover is high — a new one picks up your project and asks you to re-explain everything.

At Edamame, your primary point of contact is the CEO. Tom Arai personally architects your system, reviews your requirements, and oversees your implementation. This isn't because we're too small to hire — it's because we believe enterprise-grade systems require senior-level judgment at every decision point.

The same person who understands Kintone's JavaScript API at a code level is the same person who understands your business requirements at a strategic level. That combination — deep technical skill plus business understanding — is rare in any market, and essentially nonexistent among Philippine IT vendors.

5. Enterprise Clients Who Stay

Our client list isn't a collection of logos. It's a roster of companies that started with one Kintone app and expanded because the first one worked. Among our 50+ active clients:

• ORIX Metro Leasing and Finance Corporation — One of the Philippines' largest leasing and financing companies. Multiple departments run their core operations on Kintone systems we built and maintain.
• Daikin Philippines — The Philippine subsidiary of the world's largest air conditioning manufacturer. Production tracking, quality management, and internal operations digitized through Kintone.
• Guhring Philippines — A German precision cutting tool manufacturer. A single non-IT employee built 20+ apps on Kintone with our guidance, eliminating virtually all paper processes from their factory floor.

21 of our clients are Japanese companies. 25+ are local Philippine businesses. We're not a niche "Japan-only" partner — we serve any company that wants better business systems, regardless of nationality.

6. Edamame vs. Other Approaches

For a deeper comparison against specific platforms, see our guides: Kintone vs Salesforce, Kintone vs Odoo, SAP alternatives in the Philippines.

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