Ms. Takigawa :

Noevir Group encompasses cosmetics, health food, and OTC pharmaceuticals businesses. Group companies include Noevir Corporation (hereinafter referred to as “Noevir”) that manufactures and sells cosmetics and OTC pharmaceuticals, TOKIWA Pharmaceutical Corporation, and TOKIWA Medical Service in which operates a placement medicine sale, a unique pharmaceuticals sales system in Japan. As an Information System Department Director, I oversee all affiliated companies’ information systems.

 

Ms. Munezane :

My responsibilities as the manager of the Information System Department include management of all affiliated companies’ ID, server, and network. Also, I take charge of the selection and operation of systems and applications.

 

Mr. Murakami :

I work with my manager, Ms. Munezane, on server operation, and network management. I am also responsible for implementing various services, including LINE WORKS and its operational practices.

Ms. Takigawa :

Noevir’s products reach customers via corporate authorized selling agencies or housewife staff’s individual sales activities. Thus, Noevir’s sales representatives would oversee several distributors per branch and conduct sales support activities with phone calls and e-mails. However, the communication between distributors and sales representatives was often ineffective; many sales representatives were in dire need of a way to deliver information to several distributors at once. As a result, a request asking to authorize the use of LINE came to the Information System Department.

 

Sales staff provides the distributors with information on new product launch, training sessions, delivery dates, and inventory data. Conversely, distributors must report back their daily sales activities. With LINE, I could envision the seamless and more immediate communication. However, the risk of misdirecting messages that may contain confidential or personal information to the outsider was quite concerning.

Ms. Takigawa :

First, it began with a request from the salesperson of TOKIWA Medical Service. The salesperson asked the permission to make use of LINE to contact nationwide placement medicine sales customers. Hence, we adopted LINE WORKS for its chat interface that could safeguard our sensitive corporate data. Since LINE WORKS is easily accessible on PC, we can send long announcements from the head office at once too. Accordingly, TOKIWA Pharmaceuticals’ and Noevir sales employees began using LINE WORKS to contact distributors. Nowadays, more than 1000 people from the Sales, Information System and Management Department of the three aforementioned companies utilize LINE WORKS.

 

I think the advanced security and familiar user interface similar to LINE are the most appealing aspects of LINE WORKS. Indeed, getting rid of the need to train many midway sales team joiners is a great advantage. Moreover, we expected that even the partnered distributors with high age range could benefit from LINE WORKS’ external messenger connection feature. In fact, we believed that the distributors could experience improved communication with our sales representatives since they know how to utilize LINE already.

Ms. Munezane :

Initially, we used to write and distribute manuals or hold a briefing session when introducing a new tool – LINE WORKS never needed them. Even after the implementation, only a few employees had inquiries about usage. LINE WORKS is the first tool to integrate into our company system so seamlessly.

Ms. Takigawa :

We make sure to instruct sales representatives not to leak the personal information and that every conversation that took place via LINE connection will leave log data.

 

Mr. Murakami :

We can guarantee security by preventing employees from sending executable files with the LINE WORKS admin feature.

Ms. Takigawa :

Group chat feature became the inseparable communication tool to Noevir sales representatives. Initially, the function could not be interconnected with LINE, but over time it became available with updates. We are thankful for how it allows a number of our employees to exchange information at any time; this is crucial as sales representatives must interact with various distributors and groups, such as specific event participants. Previously, sales staff had to call or send e-mails to each distributor individually; only after connecting with LINE did LINE WORKS become the primary communication tool to sales representatives. Now sales employees can create group chats based on different purposes and invite the right people without any limitations. Furthermore, they can conveniently handle tasks with flexibility by sending information at once in the group chats.

 

Mr. Murakami :

Sales employees can send Excel, Word, and PDF files with LINE WORKS. Now sending various business data is easily accessible.

 

Ms. Takigawa :

In addition to cosmetics, Noevir runs apparel and underwear businesses. Therefore, we use LINE WORKS to inform new products to distributors and retailers by sending sample images or explanation videos made by sales representatives in group chats.

 

Ms. Munezane :

In the past, the Information Systems Department used to deliver system failure or update notices to all group companies via e-mail. After implementing LINE WORKS, we post such information on home boards. Most of the employees check home postings faster than e-mails; hence, we make announcements that need to be delivered swiftly and surely on home boards.

Ms. Takigawa :

Initially, LINE WORKS was selected primarily as a means for the sales force to communicate closely with customers and distributors. However, now it functions as a convenient platform that bridges communication among all affiliated companies even more so than the existing groupware.

Mr. Murakami

The Information System Department needs to manage all accounts of affiliated companies. We use the LINE WORKS API and ETL tool’s DataSpider※ to acquire HR info in the form of CSV data automatically. The system deletes the LINE WORKS accounts of retirees and members on leave by itself; it also sends issued accounts to new employees through e-mail. As there is no need to manage each account manually, it helps to streamline work procedures effectively.

Ms. Takigawa :

Currently, we are using LINE WORKS in combination with the existing groupware. However, in the future, we plan to use it as the primary communication tool to support busy sales staff by connecting with various systems and better take advantage of its convenience. We are reviewing whether we can communicate and check work-related info immediately and securely only using LINE WORKS all over the group companies.

 

One of the attempts is to implement a Help Desk Chatbot related to PCs utilized in the office. Sales representatives frequently work outside and cannot contact the helpdesk in case of desk absence. As a result, I would like to establish an automatic response Chatbot for simple inquiries. In the future, I want to develop a hub to connect to various applications. If we can consolidate different systems’ UI into LINE WORKS as a single platform, it would boost the productivity of our sales teams.

 

Ms. Munezane :

Ms. Munezane: We are considering whether it would be possible to replace manual writing of daybook, using existing company groupware, with LINE WORKS voice input system outside the office. Though we are already supporting our employees by giving them access to connect with smartphones, we would like to significantly improve their work efficiency by facilitating more comfortable and faster ways to input info. LINE WORKS is equipped with various functions in addition to voice input, and therefore, we would like to increase the applied uses within all group companies.

 

※DataSpider…ETL tool that connects data between different systems without programming

 

 

※All details, affiliations, and positions specified were gathered at the time of interview.

Mr. Hiroi:

Our company operates ‘Atema Kogen Belnatio’ accommodating a hotel, a golf course, and various nature activities in Tokamachi City, Niigata Prefecture. As a manager of the Management Department, I am in charge of general affairs and human resources, system operation, facility management, etc.

 

Mr. Kanazawa:

As the General Affairs·HR manager of the Management Department, I take care of system -related management such as salary, attendance check, and introduction and maintenance of PC. I am also involved in operating and managing LINE WORKS.

 

Mr. Saiki:

As a manager of the Guest Relations Department, I am in charge of overall customer service for resort facilities including hotel and restaurants.

Mr. Hiroi:

Our resort started getting more spotlight after winning Gold for the ‘Rakuten Travel Award 2017,’ an award given to accommodations with exceptional user reviews. In order to provide and maintain quality service, employees need to communicate closely and share information seamlessly. Nevertheless, the risk of ‘shadow IT’—confidential information being leaked while employees share work-related information through mobile devices— has emerged as an important issue to be solved.

Mr. Kanazawa:

We used groupware technology to announce various kinds of information in the office, but checking them frequently was a challenge since information could only be accessed through a PC in your designated seat. As prompt sharing of information with employees in reception is a must to manage a resort, we had to consider an additional communication tool.

 

Mr. Saiki:

In the Guest Relations Department, we adjust the shift schedule of about 50 employees to match the number of customers each day. In order to do this, we contacted employees through phone or mail, but some staff off-duty could not be reached, and some employees who did not own company-provided mobile phones felt burdened to share their private phone numbers.

Mr. Kanazawa:

After considering various tools, we took note of LINE WORKS, a service that allows users to share real-time information through mobile phones regardless of location, and which is certified with a global security standard of SOC. There were also some customers wanting to use LINE messenger to communicate with the hotel. We were attracted to the fact that it is a tool that can be managed by the company and also be integrated with LINE, and also that it does not require additional training because it has the same interface with the widely-used messenger, LINE. After trial operation with the CEO and the General Manager included, we could feel its convenience and improvement in work speed. Consequently, we decided to officially introduce the service. We opened around 200 accounts including part-time employees to utilize it for managing work shifts. As there were only a few employees provided with mobile phones from the company, we introduced the service as a BYOD (bring your own device), asking employees to download the app in personal mobile phones.

 

Mr. Hiroi:

The Management Department established basic operational regulations, such as restricting file downloads to mobile phones because of security issues, and stipulating that work-related contacts should be made only through LINE WORKS.

Mr. Kanazawa:

We have naturally come to use LINE WORKS when making work-related personal contacts, and groupware when delivering information across the enterprise. It is a rule not to carry a mobile device in reception except for the staff in charge of emergency contacts, so we asked employees to use LINE WORKS in the back yard. As a result, we could feel that information we needed to share with reception employees was being communicated faster than before.

 

Mr. Hiroi:

Unlike groupware where you have to access it to check information, we can receive a LINE WORKS alarm anywhere in the resort. This has significantly reduced the time it takes for sharing information, and in turn sped up the general work process.

Mr. Saiki:

Every day, our resort runs five shuttle busses that connect hotels to various regions such as Tokyo and Niigata, and when the number of passengers increases due to sudden bookings, we also need to increase the number of customer service employees to prevent chaotic situations. After introducing LINE WORKS, it has become easier to ask night-duty personnel to come to work early, on bus arrival time. We can also contact employees with much ease and clarity when we urgently need to change work shifts, due to emergencies like sudden banquet reservations.

 

When we notice any damage in the facility and need to get approval for repair and changes in room layout, we send photos to our supervisor and ask for judgement. Before, we used to print out the photos or send them through groupware, so sometimes it took us two to three days for the supervisor to reply if he was on a business trip. After introducing LINE WORKS, we can get real-time instructions, as supervisors can immediately reply wherever they are.

 

Mr. Hiroi:

With LINE WORKS, you can call someone whom you don’t have the number of. Moreover, I believe that there is more communication now with the use of message rooms, and teamwork improved.

 

Before, employees used to make reports and ask for consultations mostly through phone calls, but after the introduction of LINE WORKS we are using phone calls only in times of emergency—most other issues are delivered through messages. As we receive less and less work-related calls on the holidays, we can sense quality improvement in personal time.

Mr. Saiki:

I think we might utilize the integration feature for external conversations. Then we will be able to use the service for contacting buyers in the beverage sector. At the moment we are making contacts mostly through the phone, but if we could keep such conversations in record, we would be able to manage the order-to-delivery process more efficiently.

 

Mr. Hiroi:

I would like to use ‘Form’ and build a system where we can check employee status in case of emergency.

 

Moreover, every week, the management staff get together to report on what happened during the week— I would like to utilize voice and video call feature so that even employees in the Tokyo branch can take part and share information face-to-face. I believe that the risk of ‘shadow IT’ that has been a big challenge has decreased, but since it hasn’t been long since the introduction of the service, we plan to continue in our efforts to establish regulations to use LINE WORKS more safely, and to utilize its various features.

※ All details, affiliations, and positions specified were gathered at the time of interview.

Mr. Edagawa:

Our company provides Toyota car sales and related services by operating 20 new car, 6 U-Car, and 1 LEXUS sales stores within Tochigi Prefecture. As the General Administration and Human Resources Development team manager, my responsibilities include talent recruitment and training, system selection, and operation maintenance.

Ms. Amagai:

My role in General Administration and Human Resources Development team is to manage personnel affairs and LINE WORKS operations.

 

Ms. Ishikawa:

I am responsible for customer response and new car sales related business at the Yokota store, established within the head office.

 

Ms. Takezawa:

I also work at the Yokota store, mainly responsible for new car sales.

Mr. Edagawa:

There were issues with disseminating information from the head office to sales offices effectively. We used to post notifications via the company’s internal portal. Since not all of the employees had access to the company’s PC or e-mail, the delivery process was often slow or faulted. Therefore, we felt the need to implement a better communication tool to deliver our announcements in a timely and accurate manner to all employees.

 

Recently, sales representatives have been individually responding to customers through LINE to meet the increasing demands. However, I felt uneasy thinking whether LINE would enable our representatives to contact customers without compromising security and going against the company’s management regime.

 

Ms. Hitomi:

Before introducing LINE WORKS, we wasted so much time trying to communicate with just fixed-line phone and fax. As a result, I wanted to add new means of communication to improve the situation and to promote Paperless ways.

Mr. Edagawa :

We paid attention to LINE WORKS as a tool that facilitates much-needed communications for work and connects to customers’ LINE securely. Thus, we began by conducting an employee survey and free testing at head quarter’s Management Department and Yokota store. The result indicated that LINE WORKS was easy-to-use and can solve various problems that we were experiencing at the time.

 

Ms. Hitomi:

After selecting LINE WORKS, we distributed user manuals suitable for potential work situations to the head office and all sales stores. We were able to roll out LINE WORKS promptly and effortlessly, even more so than our expectation, as it has a similar user interface with LINE. The employees welcomed the concept of ‘Business version of LINE.’ After the employees adapted to using LINE WORKS, we actively utilized surveys and suggested use examples to promote the use further.

Ms. Ishikawa:

Before LINE WORKS, sales representatives out on the field could not be informed immediately about the information from the clients or head office that came in during their desk absence. People who were briefed on behalf would leave the memo on the desk, and the sales representatives can only access them once they return to the office.

 

Fortunately, with LINE WORKS, employees can dispatch information immediately and reliably through chat features. Moreover, employees do not have to worry about whether the person in absence got the info with the message acknowledgment feature.

 Ms. Takezawa:

Customers who wish to contact me via LINE can add me by using the QR code on my business card. With the external messenger connection feature, I can communicate with customers in a digitally secure environment. Also, customer support became more convenient since the majority of relatively young working-age generation prefers to communicate with LINE. For instance, I could not specify the address that the customer designated and asked for more information with LINE. Then the customer immediately sent me a map with the exact location. It is one of the examples of how a seamless response happens without waiting for the other person to call or wasting customer time.

Mr. Edagawa:

Instant messaging, e-mail and home features allow us to deliver the information from head office real-time and accurately. In-house portal, which was not available to all employees, was replaced by LINE WORKS home, and LINE WORKS mail integrated internal and external e-mail systems into one. In conclusion, the overall burden of managing software diminished significantly as previously dispersed calendar, facility reservation, and e-mail features have merged into one application: LINE WORKS.

 

One of our primary considerations was finding reliable software to confirm our employees’ safety in case of an emergency. However, the LINE WORKS survey feature enabled us to achieve the desired outcome without an additional fee – we can now check on our employees’ safety at ease.

 

Ms. Hitomi:

Form is a very convenient feature; we use it to manage in-house event attendances and various internal polls. It is also used for the company’s unique operations by connecting the pay system with data and managerial positions with non-managerial employees, who are unlikely to face each other on a regular basis.

 

Prior to introducing LINE WORKS, the much-needed process of collecting and sending all employees’ responses included using in-house mail delivery and fax. In this sense, the time spent and the workload was quite considerable. LINE WORKS Form promoted Paperless ways and gave a positive impact on response rate and speed: the Form can be delivered directly to each employee and answered using smartphones. The Form system also shows answer results, which allows us to check the progress rate; this then minimized the need to collect and count answers separately. With LINE WORKS, we could optimize workflows, automate simple procedures, and thus experience a noticeable improvement in work efficiency.

 

We are currently blooming with ideas and therefore researching ways to improve work efficiency thanks to the various features of LINE WORKS. Improvements in work efficiency are quite visible and already yielding practical outcomes. We would like to continue incorporating the use of LINE WORKS features into daily business operations.

Mr. Edagawa:

We are considering whether we can utilize the PC version of a group call feature for manager meetings. I am aware that the feature is currently at a beta stage, but it is a great advantage to have video conferences without introducing any additional software.

 

Ms. Hitomi:

LINE WORKS enable employees to get work done regardless of the location. Therefore, we will consider using it as a backbone to Teleworking in the future.

 

 

※ All details, affiliations, and positions specified were gathered at the time of interview.

LINE Corporation is broadening its scope by starting Fintech business like LINE Pay, as well as starting AI business using intelligent assistant ‘Clova’. According to this, the role of our Enterprise IT center has become growing. As a chief of the IT Support department from Enterprise IT Center, I am responsible for works related to help desk. Implementation of the communication tool is also our work. Lastly, I am also in charge of supporting systems to not only Japan, but also all global hubs including South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Thailand.

Primary company communication tool is definitely LINE, which is the basis of our company. When joining a company, the employees register their LINE ID to LINE WORKS Contacts and use it company-wide. We have organizational level of groups such as Groups for IT support and HR department, as well as other groups made based on its unique characteristics such as nationality or hobbies. Each group actively exchanges information and contributes to the activation of communication. LINE WORKS is the communication tool used all across our affiliates. We assign ID to all the employees who have joined us, and basic tasks such as chatting, mail, calendar, bulletin board and file sharing are done through LINE WORKS. Slack is also used by employees who have a lot of contact with engineering teams and engineers.

Slack is a tool introduced in response to the era of “communication tool for engineers = Slack”. Not only Tokyo, Fukuoka and Kyoto, but also engineers working in development centers in Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia are also using it. If a question is posted on a public channel someone in the public domain replies to the question. It is a very convenient tool for engineers who are used to open source development.

 

On the other hand, office workers beside engineers are using LINE WORKS as their primary tool. When there is a need to search for employees, LINE WORKS, which allows all the employees to register their face photos and real names on the contacts when entering the company, is more convenient. Many employees love and feel friendly about LINE WORKS because they can use stickers like LINE.

 

Of course, we do not choose which tools to use solely depending on the job, but who we work with. That means, service planner working together with engineers also use Slack. While Slack feels like we are having a comfortable meeting with a lot of people in an open space, LINE WORKS feels like one-on-one meeting in a conference room. We are distinguishing the use of two different tools and use them in this way. We assign LINE WORKS accounts to all of our employees, including work consignment or dispatched employees and guide them to use the tool separately according to their work.

We communicate with our customers by email, but we sometimes use LINE to contact some of our clients who have established a trust relationship with us. However, in order to prevent us from exchanging company confidential information with personally used LINE account, the auditing division, in which dealing with personal information, clearly prohibits use of LINE in the company and encourage to use LINE WORKS instead. Of course, when the disaster occurs, we check make sure that each employee is safe using LINE. If our communication partner does not check LINE WORKS or Slack, we use LINE in order not to lose the communication.

Since we are working as a team of multinational members, we share information regardless of time period. For this reason, we would like to appreciate the LINE WORKS for enabling multinational members to share information in the same environment, can be used both PC and mobile, and have the high security level. We can check work and schedule at anytime anywhere. We can also communicate and share documents with other employees, which boost overall working speed. Multilingual translation is one of the features that we find very convenient.

 

In order to establish communication with the employees whom entered the company at the same period, we have created a group in LINE WORKS. Because personnel staffs from HR department are also joined the group, employees can easily ask questions or concerns, even if they have newly joined to the company. Of course, after a few months, we will leave our personnel in the chat rooms and run them independently. Since our company has a hiring date twice a month, we are trying to communicate with the newly joined company through such utilization.

Since LINE WORKS has a lot of external public APIs, we would like to make more use of it in the future. For example, we do not have a reception desk in offices other than our head office, so we are considering introducing an automatic reception system. ACALL (Acol), an RPA service for visitors, has recently announced linkage with LINE WORKS *. In the future, I would like to make it possible to connect directly with the department that I want to visit by linking with LINE WORKS. It is said that we are one of the companies who provide demanding and meticulous suggestions on LINE WORKS improvements.

 

We are proud that we have been improving LINE WORKS through dog pudding ※, as we became users from the early stages of its development.

 

 

※ ACALL : providing a RPA (Robotic Process Automation) service that automates the response of visitors.
※ Dog pudding : To check the usefulness of testing or improving the beta version of the product and find out the problem for the improvement, while employees use their products or services on a daily basis.

※ All details, affiliations, and positions specified were gathered at the time of interview.

Mr. Utsugi：

I am in charge of the company information system and IT infrastructure and oversee the planning and development of business systems, as well as management and operations.

 

Ms. Omiya：

As a buyer in charge of new projects and goods, I am in charge of inviting businesses and brands, as well as distribution strategies in new stores.

 

Ms. Kashima：

I am the buyer in charge of confectionery and development and design policy for store operation improvement, floor remodeling, and the two largest events of the confectionery market: Christmas and Valentine’s Day. I spend a lot of time outside the office to meet with business partners and inspect other store locations as well as competing stores.

Mr. Utsugi：

Some stores used the SNS bulletin function, but mainly, stores used emails and phone calls for communication. However, it took a significant amount of time replying to emails because some employees would be out of the office and would have to return to the office in order to reply. Furthermore, when we wanted to share photos, we needed to move the photos from the digital camera to the computer, which was very time consuming.

 

 

_{* Shadow IT : Use of devices or services by an employee, in addition to the company’s IT system.}

Ms. Omiya：

We mainly used emails to contact one another. Sometimes we waited until there was a meeting where all employees would attend to share information with one another. However, there was always the inconvenience including delay or omission of information.

Mr. Utsugi：

There are currently twenty-five employees of the Food Management Department, nine employees of the Information Systems Department and a total of fifty-seven employees are using LINE WORKS. Buyers also use LINE WORKS to share information in real-time. Specifically, they share new goods they found at the exhibits, conditions of retail stores while on business trips overseas, and display techniques of other company stores as future reference as well. The buyers also use the tool to share inspection results from business partner workshops.

 

The Information Systems Department use LINE WORKS for video conferences with stores in Sapporo, overseas, or other locations in distance. LINE WORKS is convenient because it allows us to have meetings without requiring any travel expenses.

 

Ms. Omiya：

I visit every new store that opens, but I also receive immediate customer visit reports from employees through LINE WORKS. Because it is important to acknowledge the number of customers visiting the store on the opening day, the employees share photos through LINE WORKS to report condition of the store. Like this, prompt information exchange plays a crucial role in terms of establishing company strategies.

 

We can share information about the new stores which are collected during local and overseas business trips. In addition to this, we can also share daily report of out-of-office duties. Sharing images while holding consultations with business partners has also become more convenient. Actually, there was a buyer who visited a store and found out that one specific product was out of stock. With LINE WORKS, thankfully, he could quickly inform another buyer in the office and solve the issue immediately.

Ms. Kashima：

LINE WORKS is convenient because we can also share information in real time when inspecting stores in local communities. Being able to share photos of progress with cases of remodeling enabled us to send and receive more accurate and detailed information. Furthermore, since I am in charge of confectionery, I made a group with those who are in charge of side dishes and we could share opinions with one another. In the sake of spreading motivation throughout the team members, we either share success stories or improvements that need to be made. At times, store managers even share their own opinions about the store.

Mr. Utsugi：

A buyer must grasp the ever-changing market trends and immediately reflect them in stores, and real-time communication through LINE WORKS has been a great help. Real-time sharing of information, as well, has increased business efficiency, and buyers can now focus better on their duties. Communication has also become much more dynamic as members are contacting one another using softer wordings than emails.

Ms. Kashima：

Compared to the previous times when we shared information with one another at meetings, the speed has grown significantly faster after using LINE WORKS. Real-time information sharing has led us to experience positive changes on-site. Moreover, LINE WORKS stickers also help make communication livelier while creating a brighter atmosphere. LINE WORKS is not only used as a means of contact, but also as a means to establish better communication and motivate one another. The fact that anyone can share opinions and ideas is also a positive change.

 

Mr. Kohara：

Our company mainly deals with remodeling and maintenance of the houses. We had converted into a corporation in 2004, and next year will be our 50th anniversary if we sum up the individual business years. We have total of 14 employees, 10 from sales-construction staffs and 4 from office workers. Since we are remodeling company, in which mainly focuses on construction, it is general that employees who form an estimation are also in charge of construction. Although I am the Representative Director of this company, I am also involved in overall working processes, from Sales to Construction works.

 

Ms. Kunihiro：

I am in charge of Sales business. Specifically, I am in charge of re-writing the estimates, which are initially written by other Sales employees or writing various documents down on PC.

Mr. Kohara：

Starting from one specific period, the core idea of construction within industry has changed from constructing new building to remodeling. Unlike constructing new building, remodeling requires considerable experience. As major companies are also taking part in remodeling industry, it has become impossible to survive from the industry with its similar tactic. In order to survive under such circumstance, it was important mission for us to enhance our work performance by working efficiently while providing quality service.

 

Even within the industry, the response rate has become faster than before. Take construction fee as an example, what used to be changed every five-year is now change each year. This indicates that we cannot survive this year with the same way as last year.

 

Meantime, there were issues with sharing information since the salesperson could not stay in the same construction site all day and could only visit maximum of five construction sites if needed. Customers often had to wait for the salesperson, who were not reachable while working at the construction site. Although the customers make phone calls, they still had to wait quite amount of time to be connected to the salesperson. Even with the note like ‘I want someone to come as soon as possible’, there were times when salesperson could not answer the message in a prompt manner. In order to find the salesperson who is available for immediate contact or the salesperson who can visit the place right away, we had to call each of them whenever needed. Because it was impossible to find out where each salesperson was located, we had to call each individual.

Ms. Kunihiro：

The most used situation is when we make responses to emergencies, such as water leakage and drain clogging. Especially, we receive a lot of inquiries about frozen pipes during winter time. Before introducing LINE WORKS, the employee who answered the customer phone call had to desperately find a Salesperson who can solve the emergency. After the introduction, however, we can now send customer address along with detailed situation explanation to the group chatting room, where entire Salesperson have jointed. Just by sending messages like ‘Can anyone go?’, we can immediately find available Salesperson to handle the situation.

 

Mr. Kohara：

Up until now, we have delivered the information such as customer requests, shipping information, and event information through bylaws. After introducing LINE WORKS, however, it became very convenient to notify all the employees. Also, there are employees whom we get to encounter only once a week, but even in such situation, we can communicate with them in detail.

 

We are utilizing Calendar function when writing daily work log. There is no difference in terms of its function to manage overall schedules by posting construction or customer meeting dates in advance. We, furthermore, use to adjust the schedules, such as change the presumably written schedule hours to the hours that actually took, and add types of works that employees have done.

 

That is, what once was pre-conditioned schedule in the morning transformed into employees’ daily work log at night. It is easy to see the works done on that day and it is also convenient for future reference. Hand-written work log was often omitted within the day. But, it is now possible to check the log whenever and wherever needed.

 

Mr. Kohara：

LINE WORKS is very attractive tool in terms of allowing us to check the schedule everywhere. This applies to all the employees, but as we start utilizing LINE WORKS within our workplace, I believe that we all gained notion of time management. Everyone, including myself, can now use time efficiently. Schedule management function as well as Timer function also prevent works from being left out.

 

Ms. Kunihiro：

Before LINE WORKS was introduced, I wrote employees’ schedule simply on a paper chart in the office. By introducing LINE WORKS, we are also digitalized. It became possible to reduce the cost of ‘writing’ as well as paper. Also, it is possible to make immediate contact to the specific employee, as we can find out the current location of them in detail.

Mr. Kohara：

What I felt particularly effective in terms of communication is when confirming ‘finishing touches’ of the construction sites. Visiting all the construction sites is nearly impossible to do so. However, since site managers send photos through LINE WORKS chatting, it is now possible to acknowledge the details of the construction sites without making actual visits.

 

There were times when I could not make judgements on the situation and issue the work instructions accordingly if I was not present on the site. But, now I can instantly make judgements on the issue and deliver the instructions. Because I can also issue instructions immediately in case of any emergencies or problems, the overall working process became much favorable than before. It was impossible to do so in the past. As we reduced the amount of time wasted, we can now spend more time focusing on Sales activities, such as prospect customer development, consultation, and post-sales support. We can easily share messages through chatting room, and ‘completed’ message can now be sent after the work has done. We are deeply feeling that the style of work has changed.

 

It may sound exaggerated, but I believe that with the help of LINE WORKS, we could survive from the hardships that we faced at the end of the last year. Starting from the end of the last year, the entire construction industry became relatively busy. Specifically, the work has increased 125% more in December than the last year. Thanks to LINE WORKS, we could successfully handle all the chances given by reducing the wasted time. After the introduction, our achievement record has definitely improved than last year.

Mr. Akimoto：

Our parent company, Daito Kentaku Corp., is offering owners to build a rental apartment using rental consignment management system. Meanwhile, our company is responsible for the overall management and operation of the rental building in exchange for receiving rent in lump-sum of rental buildings from the owners. The buildings in charge of management and operations are 160,000 blocks total, which is more than 1 million rooms.

Mr. Akimoto：

Our company has 179 offices nationwide. Management, office, and rental marketing employees are working everyday in each office.

 

Characteristic of our company is that we contact a lot not only within interoffice but also with our owners, residents and other enterprises. Especially, the number of affiliated companies such as electric, interior design, construction, etc. are more than 10,000. Therefore, it is important that employees should be able to exchange multiple opinions with multiple companies simultaneously.

 

That is, it is an industry in which established based on communication. However, the biggest challenge was that phone and e-mail were very complex and inconvenient when employees contact with other related people. E-mail that can only be seen in office computer was rarely used and verbal contact with company’s mobile phone became center of communication.

 

Mr. Funamoto：

First, we reviewed based on opinion of the field employee and suggested the necessity to the superior office for approval. We also reviewed other tools, but other tools besides LINE WORKS required license fee or needed extra installation process in order to communicate with clients. The most critical reason for adopting LINE WORKS was that individuals are able to contact on his or her usual LINE account. Furthermore, we sometimes deal with personal information and LINE WORKS provides excellent security system. This is also crucial reason why we choose LINE WORKS.

Mr. Kakinuma：

Business Planning and Strategy Office manages introduction of LINE WORKS. However, I, General Affairs Dept., am currently in charge of LINE WORKS. LINE WORKS is easier to understand than other tool’s admin screen, which used in other task. Also it can batch processing the data you want with CSV so it lessens burden on management. When other tools were introduced, employees have inquiry regarding operation method. However, no inquiry was made about LINE WORKS even though we only provided simple manual with log-in process at the earlier stage of introduction.

Mr. Akimoto：

Currently, 2,900 full-time employees are using LINE WORKS with company provided smartphones. Specifically, management and rental marketing employees are using it. Also starting from last quarter, as part of work method reformation, our company changed the operating system from management employee working on individual to a “team system” in which 3 to 4 people are in charge of one specific zone. Because communication within the team is important in ‘team system’, LINE WORKS is very convenient because it allows team members to actively share information and make quick decisions and responses. LINE WORKS’s unique attraction is that it easily allows to exchange information with remote sales offices.

 

Mr. Ushio：

Currently, each sales office creates group chatting room and business contacts are mostly occurred in LINE WORKS chatting room. During the company-wide campaign period, we immediately share contract with LINE WORKS in order to raise morale of entire group. In some cases, in order to raise morale of the field, if someone signs up a contract, the manager of sales office delivers that message to LINE WORKS chatting room. I think fostering motivation field-wide is really important and LINE WORKS makes huge contributions.

Mr. Akimoto：

Field employees praise on LINE WORKS because ‘LINE WORKS made smooth link between our business partners, since we can take photos right out of the field.’ When requesting repair, by using LINE WORKS, it is clearer to send a picture of the area to be repaired than to deliver in words. For example, if you want to exchange a ventilator installed in your room, verbal delivery of color or size may not match with what you prepared for. However, sending a picture of ventilator using ruler can deliver clear depiction of color or size of ventilator.

Mr. Ushio：

In the past, strong winds in one area have caused problems to the buildings we manage, such as falling roofs and fences. We could prevent further incident from happening by immediately sending photos of building condition to the repair company and receiving emergency treatment. I think that the biggest advantage is that we can reduce the unnecessary hassles of having to go through two or three times just by exchanging photos. Even if the number of visits to the site is reduced once, it is still a very large workload savings for the company if we think about the changes made company-wide.

 

Mr. Funamoto：

I think that the time taken for instructing and reporting has shortened. Like we can report the situation and send instruction even in the middle of experiencing natural disaster, the information sharing which aimed at many employees is faster than ever. Originally, this tool was introduced for effective communication with the partner companies outside. But, going beyond our expectation, it is well utilized within the office and therefore, made our work much convenient. There were opinions from the on-site employees, mentioning that group chatting room with LINE has enabled them to have communication much lively.

 

Mr. Akimoto：

Changed from phone-oriented to chatting-oriented style, we can now share and check information regardless of time. And we think that our working style has changed effectively due to this. Generally, our employees and business partners can meet each other once a month. For this, we are planning to use LINE WORKS as a tool which supports our communication.

Mr. Akimoto：

It is affiliation of LINE WORKS and the customer management tool. Today, office employees receive phone calls from the customers and submit an itinerary with the building information on the system. Then, the system automatically sends emails to one of the building managers. Using LINE WORKS, however, we are planning to send notifications to all the building managers in order to shorten the response time and ultimately, foster the customer satisfaction rate.

Mr. Ono：

Located in Kanagawa, our company operates the visiting rehabilitation massage business by a masseur who owns national certificate. We also operate stress-relieving salon that lessens daily tiredness or muscle stiffness using five senses and other related business. We are operating 8 visiting rehabilitation massage stores and 5 stress-relieving salon stores.

 

Mr. Takeuchi：

I am part of the General Affairs Department, and responsible for managing the company’s vehicle, PCs, and company borrowed cellular phones.

 

Mr. Hasegawa：

I am in charge of visiting rehabilitation massage business. In addition, I visit customer’s house as a masseur and I manage the schedule of staff members as head of the office, simultaneously.

Mr. Ono：

The number of employees who were only a few at the company’s foundation year in 2000 has now grown up to 130 employees. As the company’s size grew year after year, we believed that the speed of communication would become more important than before. Also, we value people as we put a company’s fundamental policy. Especially, in hopes of improving capacity and becoming outstanding individuals, we actively have been conducting the training workshop for executive staffs.

 

We all felt that, in order to work faster, it is important to make quick responses to the contacts. We think that there are limitations to enhance response rates using communication tools like email or telephone. Until now, the employees have used bulletin boards on the company’s website installed by each Department manager. Field employees, those who have hard time to meet each other due to different work time, used company’s SNS to contact each other. We thought that introducing a convenient communication tool may enhance communication speed than before.

 

Mr. Hasegawa：

It was only morning hours that I can physically meet the employees. For this reason, I basically contacted them through company mobile phone or personal mobile phone. However, I often felt uncomfortable with this due to time limitation.

 

Mr. Takeuchi：

We have used SMS since we rented out 2G phones to our employees up until now. However, I felt that SMS as well as 2G phones were inconvenient to use because contacts need to be re-registered every time when device changes.

Mr. Takeuchi：

In the fall of 2017, the company introduced LINE WORKS as we changed the company rental mobile phone from 2G phone to smartphone. LINE WORKS, an application available both on the PC and smartphone, was very attractive because we wanted to create an environment where office employees can easily communicate with field employees. I looked over several different tools. However, I gave up on introducing them because employees were unable to get used to them in the trial and there was a need for the training session in order to make every employee member be proficient.

 

Mr. Hasegawa：

LINE WORKS provides video call feature, and it has been a crucial factor to introduce it since Mr. Ono wanted to hold a video conference. LINE WORKS, unlike other traditional communication tools, was also very attractive because it provides Read notification feature to find out whether a message has been read or not.

 

Mr. Ono：

When we introduce LINE WORKS, the internal IT Department set up rules such as ‘Messages that arrive after 8 p.m. can be answered the next morning’ or ‘No need to use closing remarks at the end of the message’ to make LINE WORKS usage pleasant. In addition, each business unit came up with different ideas to make a variety of uses of LINE WORKS.

Mr. Ono：

Currently, a total of 32 employees in administrative positions like senior executives, director of each sales office, and store manager are using LINE WORKS. we can send opinions to the executives easily as well as accommodate with executives’ opinion better than before. Also, there are executives who exchange personal information like ‘My baby has born’ or upload company PR videos via LINE WORKS to share information actively. Our company values ‘A well-communicated environment’ as the most important measure and we think that LINE WORKS is making a huge contribution to create such environment. Up until now, we have been hearing from employees through face to face interviews or written survey. However, I think we will be able to take advantage of LINE WORKS Form functions near in the future.

Mr. Hasegawa：

If the customer is in bad condition and cancel the visiting schedule on that day, we need to make contact immediately to field employees, who are assigned to visit the customer’s house. We can make contacts faster through LINE WORKS than by phone or email. Also, if the sent messages are notified as read, we can assure that ‘the recipients have read the message’, even if there is no reply.

 

There are times when we care for customers with a team of external physical therapists or occupational therapists whom are contracted by care managers. And we are mostly using LINE WORKS to make connection to their LINE account and exchange information in real time. Up to this point, the telephone calls have been central to our communication. But, there was a limited amount of time to receive the call and communicate through the phone. Therefore, we often had to call several times to find the most suitable time for communication. After the introduction of LINE WORKS, communication became smoother.Also, we can share customer’s health status and family situations on team’s group chatting room, which enables to achieve care system with better customer satisfaction measurement.

 

Mr. Takeuchi：

Because LINE WORKS enables us to find out whether the message has been read or not, we can make decisions faster than before. If an emergency situation occurs at the field we visit, we have to contact our boss about the issue and ask for the solution. When doing so, if we find out the message is not read by the boss, we can immediately make judgement to contact another boss and ask for the resolution. And this is very convenient.

Mr. Takeuchi：

LINE WORKS made company’s overall communication more active than before because it is easier to express an opinion than email or telephone. In order to confirm each other’s opinion, we use LINE WORKS, which has fast response speed and we can use the appropriate tool for purpose with the contact that needs searching or accumulation can be done by email.

Mr. Hasegawa：

We have discussed various company-level agendas such as new plans and responses through face-to-face meetings. But, now we are actively using LINE WORKS Message function to do so. As a result, face-to-face meetings have turned from a discussion to decision making and final confirmation, allowing more time to spend efficiently. The introduction of LINE WORKS created an atmosphere for the new director to express their opinion freely.

 

Mr. Ono：

We believe that the adoption of LINE WORKS enabled us to achieve a ‘well-communicated environment = better working environment’ and strengthened the connection between our executives. As more and more employees are now expressing their opinions, I think I can hear about them more when compared with past years. Communication and decision-making procedures are certainly faster than before, and we expect that these changes can lead us to better performance in the future.

Mr. Sawato：

Based on our company philosophy “Walk with the Sun”, we import clothing and goods from nationwide and sell them online. With the aim of making the company atmosphere more actively, we are striving to make changes to our company.

 

Mr. Satoshi：

As a Product Distribution Dept. head of Traditional Goods Headquarters, I am in charge of general management on warehouse, goods, and employees as well as general affairs. The warehouse that I am managing deals with every stock from our company, and it is more than 25,000 SKU(Stock Keeping Unit). Currently, we have about 100 employees. They are divided into Loading and Shipping department. They load and ship a large number of commodities everyday.

 

Mr. Shinya：

As a local manager, I am in charge of branches located in Kanto, Shizouka, and Karuizawa. I spend half a month in stores and the other half at the headquarters.

 

Mr. Masami：

As a member of Information Systems Department, I am in charge of company and branch systems as well as LINE WORKS operation management.

Mr. Sawato：

Before introducing LINE WORKS, we have been utilizing phone calls, emails, and computer messenger software as a means of interoffice communication. Official communication was mainly held with emails. However, because the emails could only be checked with a computer installed at each branch, a lot of employees felt uncomfortable with email communication. For this reason, shadow IT, using personal accounts such as using LINE for business purpose, has become serious problem to us. While searching for a resolution to solve this problem, we found LINE WORKS.

 

Mr. Masami：

It is impossible for System Management Department to manage the communication held through LINE. Also, if retired employee is still remained in the chatting room, there is a high risk of sensitive information leakage. Moreover, it was troublesome to share LINE IDs every single time. LINE was convenient to use for personal use, but inconvenient for business purpose.

Mr. Satoshi：

Previously, we used computers installed on-site and PHS to either deliver instruction or contact the employees outside the office. At that time, if we were to deliver detailed instructions on site, we had to go to the computer or print out the instructions. Thinking back to those times, it was a situation with full of unnecessary steps. For example, if our customer wants to make choices among the goods available in various color or pattern options, we had to actually print the attached photos and deliver it to the site. For this reason, we were finding a solution to reduce such work burden.

Mr. Shinya：

Scheduling with colleagues was very hard. Because we could only check the schedule through computers at the headquarters, I had to communicate with them through LINE.

Mr. Sawato：

Our company culture is to share information regardless of positions and this corresponds with strengths of LINE WORKS. Up to this point, we have been using all different tools such as email, messenger, and schedule. For this reason, we have been also thinking of adopting an all-in-one service tool that can manage everything at once. In this sense, we felt that LINE WORKS is a perfect fit for us. Since employees are already familiar with LINE, we thought that LINE WORKS can also be used without struggling. And eventually, this can lead to an overall communication and business efficiency of our company. We started to utilize LINE WORKS at the moment of the introduction by renting out the smartphones to the employees. We are currently using about 230 IDs for full-time employees.

Mr. Masami：

LINE WORKS is used mostly to contact the leader in the warehouse. I am basically working in the office, so it is crucial to keep in touch with the leader and get an idea of what is going on at the field. Currently, we use a group chatting room to manage what instructions the leader is ordering to each field employee. From loading to shipping, depending on its process, there are about 10 groups have been created with LINE WORKS. Each group includes leader, headquarters sales representative, Store Innovation Department, and product development members as necessary.

Mr. Shinya：

Managing schedule became much comfortable. I often have to closely contact and affiliate with the 9 local managers, managers of each branch, and colleagues from Store Innovation Department as well as from other Departments. While doing so, I also have to implement the business. After the introduction of LINE WORKS, however, it is now possible to check others’ schedules, making it easier for me to figure out their conditions of the working schedule.

Mr. Masami：

The biggest change is that we get more opportunities to make judgements at the field than before. Walking inside the big warehouse means that there is increase in walking time. Therefore, it is important point not to walk as much as possible. When we have to find the goods from the warehouse, we no longer have to go back to our office, in which the computer is located, to find out the location of the goods. Instead, we can now check the location through LINE WORKS installed smartphones. And we think this is the biggest advantage of the tool as well. Furthermore, if problem occurs, we can not only check the result but also the situation as well as the background of the problem through LINE WORKS chatting. This enables us to make decisions for problem resolution faster than before.

 

Mr. Shinya：

I believe that it became comfortable in every aspect. Previously, it was hard to continue communication since I could not find out whether the recipient read the email or not. After the introduction of LINE WORKS, however, it evoked a feeling of speed along with the notion that I can deliver information to the recipient in a prompt manner. Therefore, I feel like as if all the employees are connected through LINE WORKS. Efficiency has also increased throughout the working process. When using emails in the past, if there was an issue which needed to be discussed within all the employees, it took about half a day to come up with the final decision. After the introduction, however, it took only about an hour. We can also handle the work while heading to the branch offices.

Mr. Sawato：

I always thought that the communication which everyone can talk freely about the issues is very important. As office communication has become active than before, both quality and quantity of the communication has also increased. It is because LINE WORKS was well matched with our company culture, which is everyone participates in the communication regardless of the positions.

 

I think it is very important to share their own ideas or meeting logs with others, instead of keeping them on their own. It is also a great advantage that LINE WORKS makes it possible for us to make such information sharing possible. Unlike phone calls, LINE WORKS enables sharing information at preferred time frame. With this, I believe that LINE WORKS will be the main tool, which replaces the phone calls near in the future.