Flexibly reflects customer requests! Updated HENNGE de-PPAP functionality

My name is Ariura, and I joined HENNGE One in mid-career in 2014, and I am in charge of HENNGE One’s email security products, including HENNGE Secure Download, in the Product Planning & Research Division.
My job is to gather customer requests from Mr. Watanabe and other internal members and reflect them in our products.

I joined HENNGE in 2016 as a new graduate, and I am the manager of the Account Sales Section, which is the existing sales department, and I am in charge of a team that conducts “retention measures” to encourage customers who have already installed HENNGE One to continue using the product.
I also work on sales of new products and market entry strategies for HENNGE’s funded services.

Yes, the government’s declaration of the abolition of PPAP in 2020 has increased the momentum for de-PPAP, and “HENNGE Secure Download” was like a long-awaited de-PPAP solution.
All the sender has to do is send a file attachment to the e-mail as before, and the file will be automatically uploaded to cloud storage, and the recipient will receive a PDF file with the body text and the URL to download the file. If the recipient requests authentication of his/her email address, he/she will receive an authentication code through a separate channel.

I feel that we are now in a transitional period when companies are moving away from PPAP. There are various circumstances depending on the culture, size, and type of business of the company, and the situation varies from “we have already done away with PPAP,” “we want to stop using PPAP, but we can’t work without it,” or “to be frank, we are still using PPAP without taking any measures.
However, due in part to the impact of the growing damage caused by Emotet (*), more and more companies are banning the receipt of files via PPAP, and I feel that the need for a de-PPAP solution is increasing when interacting with our customers.
Emotet is a malware (malicious program) that uses e-mail as an infection route, and PPAP-encrypted zip attachments are difficult to scan for viruses, making it easier for Emotet to infiltrate.

We have updated two main functions in response to customer requests.
The first is the addition of an option to send the download URL of a file. We have made it possible to choose the sending method depending on the company, sender, and recipient.
We also made it possible to customize the language display of the notification PDF sent to recipients.
Because we are in a transitional period of “de-PPAP,” we have provided flexible options to suit customers in various phases of their business.

Until now, attached file download URLs could only be sent as PDF files, but we have made it possible to automatically insert the URL into the body of the e-mail instead of the PDF file.
All the sender has to do is simply attach the file to the e-mail as before, and the URL will be automatically inserted into the body of the e-mail.

Recently, security rules for companies receiving attachments have become stricter, and in some cases, “attachments themselves, including PDF files, are not accepted. Also, there are a certain number of recipients who are not used to receiving URLs in PDF format.
If the URL is inserted in the body of the e-mail, it is almost the same situation as if the sender himself had written the URL in the body of the e-mail, so the recipient can receive the e-mail without any confusion.

HENNGE has introduced a dedicated tool to centrally manage customer requests. Members of our sales, support, and implementation support teams register the requests they receive from customers in this tool to efficiently gather opinions.

We received about 100 requests.
In recent years, the damage caused by Emotet infection has increased, especially in the manufacturing industry, and I remember receiving a request from a customer in the manufacturing industry that he wanted to send files using a different method because recipients are wary of PDFs and other attachments.

The number one advantage of PDF is “the ability to search for attachments by file existence or file name in the e-mail inbox. On the other hand, the disadvantage of PDF is that “the receipt of attached files such as PDF may be rejected.
On the other hand, the advantage of inserting body text is that it “can be delivered to recipients who refuse to receive all attachments, including PDFs. The disadvantage is that “it is difficult to find the attachment in the mail inbox like PDF.
I think it is better to use different methods depending on the customer’s situation.

When using HENNGE Secure Download to send a file download URL in the conventional PDF format, we have made it possible to flexibly customize the language display of the notification PDF that is delivered to the recipient.

Yes, we did. In order to support various languages, the first PDF was in Japanese, the second in English, the third in Simplified Chinese, and the fourth in Traditional Chinese with the download URL.
This time, we have made it possible to customize the order of the PDFs and to send only PDFs in specific languages. PDF file names can also be customized.

We received a total of about 50 requests from customers in Japan who said “Japanese is enough” and “I want to reduce the number of PDFs,” and from customers with overseas clients and users who said “I only need English” and “I feel uncomfortable having Japanese as the first page.

I think we incorporate requests very flexibly.
In the past, some of our in-house members felt that registering requests in the dedicated tool was a hassle and that nothing would change even if we told them what we wanted, so only a few requests were accepted.
Recently, in order to lower the hurdle for registering requests, we have been sharing the status of requests with members who have submitted requests and informing them that we will implement a function when it is implemented, and the number of requests submitted has increased dramatically. Although the number of requests is not the only factor in making decisions, we prioritize the implementation of the most frequently requested features as much as possible.

There have been cases where requests I have registered have been adopted.
From the customers we visit and from customer surveys, we receive comments such as “HENNGE is very flexible in incorporating our requests. As for the recent “HENNGE Secure Download” update, I was happy to hear from a customer who requested the insertion of text, saying, “Thank you very much for implementing what I requested.

The sending method is simple, just sending an e-mail attachment as usual, and you can flexibly use different ways of sending attachments depending on the recipients.
For recipients who can receive attachments, you can send PDF files, and for those who cannot receive attachments, you can send URLs in the body of the message. Download for Box” can be used for organizations that want to manage files centrally in Box. I think this solution can meet the needs of both recipients and senders.

The ability to set the sending method in detail is a strong point, isn’t it?
In addition to this, I believe that HENNGE’s core value is the ability to prevent the delivery of information that should not be delivered. Even if an e-mail is mistakenly sent, the sender can check the download status of the recipient and disable the file download URL, which I believe is a very effective means of preventing information leaks.

Currently, we are working on strengthening measures against erroneous transmissions, which is the core value of our product. We will continue to listen to our customers and aim for a world where safe e-mail communication is possible.

Now that we have even more options to propose to our customers, we would like to deliver them well, and we would like to take the feedback from our customers back to Mr. Ariura’s team and use it to create a better product.