Your Project Delivery Partner in Japan.

A fractional PM is a senior project manager who works with your team on a part-time or retainer basis — giving you senior-level delivery capability without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. In Japan, where stakeholder management, cross-cultural communication, and bilingual execution are critical, having an embedded bilingual PM significantly reduces the risk of projects stalling or going over scope.

An AI Operations Audit is a 2–4 week engagement where we map your existing workflows, identify where AI tools can save time and reduce cost, and deliver a prioritised roadmap with clear ROI estimates. It is designed for small businesses and startups in Japan looking to adopt AI practically and confidently — not just experiment with tools.

It depends on scope. An initial audit is 2–4 weeks. An implementation sprint is typically 4–8 weeks. Ongoing AI implementation partnerships run on a monthly retainer. We scope every engagement based on your team size, tooling, and goals before committing to a timeline.

Both. We work with Japanese domestic companies (SMEs and startups) and gaishikei — foreign companies with a Japan office. Our bilingual capability means we operate across both environments: holding meetings in Japanese, delivering reports in English, and managing the cultural nuance that makes Japan projects succeed.

Traditional IT consultancies in Japan are typically large, slow to engage, and expensive. Seranova is a lean, AI-native firm that embeds directly into your team. We work at the speed of a startup, bring bilingual PM expertise, and focus on delivering real outcomes — not slide decks. We also help you adopt AI in your operations, which most legacy consultancies do not.

Fractional PM/PdM engagements run as a monthly retainer, typically starting around ¥500,000/month depending on scope. The AI Operations Audit is project-based. Start with a free 30-minute discovery call and we'll scope a proposal tailored to your team and goals.

We work across the major AI platforms — Claude (Anthropic), GPT-4 (OpenAI), Gemini, and purpose-built tools for project management, documentation, and workflow automation. We are tool-agnostic and select based on your team's needs and budget. Our goal is not to introduce AI for its own sake, but to find where it genuinely compresses time and cost in your operations.

Both. We offer scoped, project-based engagements for one-off challenges — a delivery sprint, an AI audit, a specific implementation. We also offer ongoing fractional PM retainers for teams that need embedded senior PM capacity over the long term. There is no minimum commitment required to start a conversation.

Clients who have completed AI Implementation and have enough delivery complexity — multiple teams, multiple ongoing projects — can move to Delivery OS. This is ongoing stewardship of the AI system Seranova built: monthly health checks, quarterly re-audits, Command Center upkeep, and executive KPI reviews. Your team owns day-to-day operation; Seranova keeps the system healthy and current. Delivery OS runs on a 12-month minimum term with quarterly renewal checkpoints.

Generally no. Delivery OS is designed to steward a live, working AI system — one that was built through the Implementation stage on the foundation of an Audit. The exception is if you already have an equivalent live Command Center running from a Fractional PM engagement. In that case, starting a Delivery OS conversation makes sense. If you're unsure whether your current setup qualifies, the best first step is a free discovery call.