A New Mitsue-Links – Going Forward with DENTSU SOKEN Inc.

In April 2024, Mitsue-Links entered its 35th year since foundation. Now, after becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of DENTSU SOKEN Inc. on April 26, our company is moving forward as a renewed Mitsue-Links. As DENTSU SOKEN is a publicly listed company, we were not able release such news in advance. I would like to take this opportunity to express our deepest apologies.

The mainstay of our business has been UI/UX development for the web. After obtaining ISO9001 certification, the first for a web development company, we became a member of W3C in 2004 – since then, such a commitment to web standards activities has clarified Mitsue-Links’ position in the industry. I believe the progress that our company has made in cultivating its organizational strengths while consolidating the processes for deploying technology and quality is the consequence of our founder Masashi Takahashi's continued desire for Mitsue-Links to be a socially responsible corporate entity. I believe that Mitsue-Links, as an innovator in the web industry, has, to some extent, positively contributed to society.

Innovation in the realm of web-related technologies is further accelerating. About 10 years ago, with the advent of HTML5 and the advancement of browsers, responsive design emerged, furthermore, compatible JavaScript frameworks have enabled richer and more versatile expression. However, as a byproduct of this trend, it’s now common to require components that are both design-oriented and functional. In the midst of this trend, design systems have emerged as a way to address the desires of site stakeholders. Nowadays, while the term "design system" is increasingly recognized by creators, it’s also being included RFP documents drafted by site owners.

To enable a more sophisticated, useful and diverse web, there is also much continuing innovation. Container technologies such as Docker have enabled engineers to quickly develop a wide variety of applications. Additionally, IaC (Infrastructure as Code) streamlines infrastructure development, and, through DevOps, automation combined with CI/CD facilitates the measurement of technical quality and productivity improvement. Services and tools, such as those owned by Adobe, are now able to generate and modify images, audio, and video content using AI, and their quality is rapidly improving. Furthermore, AI is becoming indispensable in system development, operation, and maintenance.

Such “innovations” are also being deployed in system development outside of the web industry, and many of the above keywords can be seen on the DENTSU SOKEN tech blog (in Japanese) . Furthermore, recently, DENTSU SOKEN shared with us their current quality initiatives, which was very helpful. Going forward, we hope to increase such exchanges while further advancing Mitsue-Links' commitments to pioneering technologies and delivering high quality solutions.

Furthermore, as terms such as “design system” and “accessibility” do not appear as often as they perhaps could in posts on the above-mentioned blog, I, therefore, feel that this will advance the expansion of Mitsue-Links' UI/UX design and development activities and know-how into new areas at DENTSU SOKEN.

During my interactions with DENTSU SOKEN, I feel that there is a strong focus on “people.” DENTSU SOKEN's vision is "HUMANOLOGY for the future – Bringing people and technology together to shape the future.” I strongly feel that this slogan which emphasizes the importance of people, even in short period of time since late-April, is already increasingly being implemented. In addition, the initial letters of DENTSU SOKEN's Action Principles are used to create the abbreviation “AHEAD - Be a Pioneer.” The principles are:

Going forward, while combining the above values with our own , we hope to deliver even more services and added-value to our many customers. Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to working with you in the future.