Graebert and CST Announe Japanese Joint-Venture

October 13, 2016 – reporting further on the Graebert Annual Meeting in Berlin, Germany, Graebert™ GmbH also announced the expansion of their partnership in a joint-venture with Computer System Technology Co. Ltd. (CST). This partnership will be named Graebert Japan.

Graebert Japan

The collaboration between CST and Graebert started three years ago when CST founded a Japanese subsidiary, JDraf Co. Ltd., to distribute and promote an OEM version of ARES Commander rebranded as “JDraf”. JDraf established itself as one of the leading CAD solutions in Japan within only three years. JDraf is now used by thousands of companies in Japan including three of the top five construction groups.

The creating of this alliance demonstrates new ambitions for the Japanese market, which is the second largest for CAD software worldwide. CST’s fully-owned subsidiary JDraf will be renamed as “Graebert Japan” and become the exclusive distributor of the ARES CAD software in Japan while Graebert will acquire a 50% participation in the company. In parallel, the Japanese brand “JDraf” will be replaced by Graebert’s global product line with ARES Commander (Windows, Mac and Linux), ARES Touch (Android and iOS) and ARES Kudo (Cloud).

Yoshiyuki Nagao, Chairman of the Board of CST commented: “Over the last three years, Graebert and our subsidiary JDraf worked intensively to meet the specific demans of the Japanese market and establish itself as the number one alternative for CAD in DWG. We see now a very strong demand for the mobile and cloud versions of the ARES CAD software and expect Graebert will give us a strong competitive advantage to become the market leader in our country. The new joint-venture shows our strong ambition for the ARES CAD Software and Graebert Japan will benefit from an extended support from the CST group, with 141 salespeople that will be involved in the distribution of the ARES CAD software across 21 offices in Japan.”

01 – Yoshiyuki Nagao, Chairman of the Board of CST and Wilfried Graebert, CEO of Graebert seal their partnership. All rights reserved.

Wilfried Graebert, CEO of Graebert added: “CST has shown an outstanding performance in Japan, and we are very proud to see the result of our collaboration after only three years. They were in particular very successful in breaking into the leading construction firms, whose influence in Japan is very strong on the market. Many of these large customers have thousands of iPads and a growing interest for Cloud. We therefore see a strong interest for the synergies offered by the ARES CAD software across desktop, mobile and cloud.”

Earlier Release in Japan

At the Graebert Annual Meeting, Graebert also announced that Japanese customers will benefit from an early access to the iOS version of ARES Touch from end of October 2016 in the Apple Store, while the rest of the world will benefit from a general availability end of November 2016 with the release of the Windows version of (ARES Commander) JDraf. Graebert commented that this early release is also aimed at rewarding the enthusiasm of its Japanese customers and beta testers.

About CST

Computer System Technology Co. Ltd., is a company headquartered in Sendai, Japan, that specialize in the development and distribution of CAD and BIM software for Civil Engineering and Construction. Founded in 1986, CST could establish a wide presence on the Japanese market with nearly 600 employees spread across 21 offices and a strategic distribution alliance with Ricoh. Our mission is to facilitate the transition to the new technologies in the Construction industry and our customers include most of the major construction groups, medium-size builders and contractors in Japan.