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. Sato:

As the Director of Work Style Reform Division in the Civil Engineering Headquarters, I support boosting work efficiency and reforming the way we work in construction sites across Japan.

 

Mr. Miyaji:

I am the Operation Manager of the Yokohama Branch, and I’m in charge of project management on site for the road shield tunnel construction.

Mr. Miyaji:

In constructing a shield tunnel that easily covers several kilometers in length, about 20 employees are stationed on site, and about 50 other contractors work on a site-by-site basis. As the operation manager, I am in charge of overall management—I check up with the people in charge to grasp the progress in field. However, I felt it quite cumbersome to check up on each individual through a phone call or an email, and again deliver the information to other employees. I thought we needed a safe and more convenient tool for communication.

 

Mr. Sato:

With the number of employees decreasing due to a shortage of workers, and with the recent situation of reducing overtime work and providing holiday leaves, the construction industry is striving to reform the way we work. In order to drive for the same results as before, we need to increase work efficiency to improve the overall productivity.

Do you have any tips for using LINE WORKS in construction sites?

How exactly is LINE WORKS being used?

As we can now deliver information through group message rooms at once, I can deliver the project’s progress to the employees or relevant personnel much faster than before. Thankfully, I no longer need to explain the project’s progress in detail during morning and evening assemblies when everyone gets together. Now day time workers transfer their duties to night time workers through LINE WORKS, instead of paper transition documents. LINE WORKS is easier to read than the paper document, and we can also check for the ‘read‘ notification. This has enabled employees to be clearer in the transition process. Furthermore, another big strength of LINE WORKS is that you can gather members and create message rooms to share information with only members who need them. Sparing the cost of delivering information to irrelevant workforce has contributed to improving work efficiency.

 

At sites where various companies work together, each company has to share where and what they are doing everyday with blueprints and progress schedules. Before, these documents were delivered in paper during morning assemblies; yet now, even employees who missed an assembly can access the information because we deliver them to everyone through attached files. It has even become possible to distinguish who has checked the information and who has not, so there is much less anxiety about whether the information is being delivered.

Mr. Sato:

Before, evening assemblies usually took around an hour, but now it only takes five to ten minutes. We estimated that this would enable each employee shorten about one working hour each day. Since one out of eight working hours can now be redistributed to the project, this led to an improvement in construction speed and quality, and a decrease in overtime costs. I believe that this is contributing greatly to the overall improvement in productivity.

 

Mr. Miyaji:

Sometimes scheduled projects suddenly undergo changes due to various circumstances. In these kinds of situations, an unexpected accident might occur if relevant information is not shared to every relevant employee fast and accurately. As we can now make immediate announcements about project schedule changes through LINE WORKS, it also helps strengthening safety measures in the field.

Mr. Miyaji:

Up until now, we have announced the field schedule like safety inspections and meeting dates by writing them on a whiteboard, but now anyone can share their schedule anytime on their phone with the Calendar feature.

 

In addition, we are utilizing Form when nominating a candidate for safety awards or when checking attendance for social gatherings. We just send the information at once to everyone in the field (around 70 people), and in the blink of an eye we get replies back—it’s so convenient.

Mr. Miyaji:

I would like to try its various features and further streamline the entire field communication, improving work efficiency and productivity.

 

Mr. Sato:

In order to utilize LINE WORKS more effectively, I believe that it is important for the headquarters to regularly exchange feedback with each work station, and listen to actual use cases and feedback. After hearing feedback, we will encourage employees to utilize LINE WORKS according to the size and characteristics of each field.

Mr. Okada :

Our group deals with various businesses related to self-realization and self-investment. However, we focus on operating a private gym called RIZAP, created mainly for healthy body make-up. RIZAP is an exclusive customer service that helps customers design a concrete plan and reach out to their own dreams. As director of the Business Infra. Headquarters, I am in charge of utilizing technology or IT for business efficiency enhancement, and construct EC or distribution systems in order to increase the synergy of the group.

 

Mr. Arai :

As a supervisor of RIZAP, I am in charge of improving customer satisfaction within the region, distributing the success stories of each store nationwide, and universalizing successful business performance across the country. Because I am in charge of store environment as well as employee counselling, I am overwhelmingly working more on-site than those from headquarters.

– Mr. Okada :

I first joined the company in 2016. I was impressed from the very beginning with the fact that communication among employees were happening in a fairly active manner, without holding any barriers within departments. It was natural to see employees freely participating in table discussion. Also, there were a number of joint-events among departments. In spite of such pro-communicative environment, however, there was no tool for communication.

 

The primary means of communication were phone calls and emails. Using emails however, made it difficult for us to contact one another in real-time and response to phone calls during meetings was almost impossible. This motivated us to think about introducing a new tool that helps sustain the current company atmosphere, which employees comfortably communicate with one another.

Mr. Okada :

In order to create an environment which employees could easily gather up, we urgently held inspection on cloud system, and re-inspection on networks. This led us to introduce LINE WORKS to the company. Our first and foremost goal was to create a system that everyone is willing to use, without being stressed out. Since LINE WORKS has an interface that is similar to LINE, a communication tool generally used by the employees, we determined that we could expect a smooth transition in the perspective of operations expansion and stabilization.

 

We had a notion that, once the tool is introduced, it is important that all the employees actually use the tool. At the same time, however, we thought that it is old-fashioned if we have to train each employee with its usage. We figured out that LINE WORKS, a similar tool to popular LINE Messenger, would be a perfect choice for us.

 

Mr. Arai :

I use LINE WORKS when contacting with managers of each store. I believe that sharing information is important in terms of reinforcing the motivation of all employees. We are encouraging all employees to share their success stories or the issues that need to be improved. We are also encouraging store managers to actively share their opinions with another. We used to share information using bulletin board and emails in the past. However, as LINE WORKS allowed all the employees to deliver their message effectively, sharing is now extremely efficiently and conveniently held.

Mr. Okada :

The thing that changed the most is speed. At our company, each employee is in charge of multiple duties at once. For this reason, when employees have idea, they need to quickly share the information and come with a conclusion. And LINE WORKS is incredibly suitable for keeping up with this speed of operation. Neither writing long paragraphs in your emails nor spending additional time forwarding them to other people is necessary. LINE WORKS even allows us to reply with stickers.

 

I hope that all the employees to take each part in projects and produce result. With LINE WORKS Groups feature, which made for each project, allows employees to freely communicate with one another, while reducing the possibilities of omitting information that must be delivered. The group chat function increased the opportunities for employees to share not only the work-related information, but also other information with one another, it has produced positive results in a sense that employees have gained interest in work itself.

Mr. Arai :

With the introduction of LINE WORKS, relationship between employees have improved, which led us to establish a system that enable us to share more information with one another. We must always be on the edge of innovation for our consumers. And the key to this innovative movement can be made through information sharing and flexible communication. Since all the employees carry such mindset, this resulted in natural and equal relationships among the employees in the company. Without doubt, LINE WORKS played a powerful role help making smooth transition to create such atmosphere.

Mr. Okada :

The most important part when introducing a new groupware is to actually use it and increase its efficiency. A communication tool, especially, cannot be used efficiently if there is one person who is not using it. However, LINE WORKS was smooth sailing all the way. Employees began to use LINE WORKS from the very first day of its introduction, and we found it joyful as we are being able to use it all together.

 

The most important thing to consider is that communication become much more important as company grows. Even small issues can hinder productivity of entire company. I feel that preventing such hindrance is something that the business system must aim for in the future.

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. Kurosawa :

After opening the first store called ‘Temomin’, which provides service with an affordable rate system of 1,000 yen per 10 minutes, the company is currently managing about 180 branches nationwide, with 6 different types. I am Director of this company and also General manager at the System Solution Department.

 

Mr. Ishi :

I work for both Financial Accounting Department and System Solution Department. I took part in LINE WORKS introduction this time.

Mr. Ishi :

When asking for support, we first checked the systemically shared reservation list of each branch. After that, we either sent emails or made phone calls to the branches we think available to support our branch. This way, however, was very much inefficient and took a lot of unnecessary time. For this reason, we were all thinking about other option to contact other branches other than this.

 

Mr. Kurosawa :

We have considered using the cloud-like systematic groupware, which headquarters staffs were using at the moment. We soon found out that it is impossible to expand its utilization up to company-wide due to its high cost. Other than groupware, we also considered chatting tools as well as SNS. However, those tools were imperfect in certain ways. Specifically, security as well as admin feature of those tools were unstable to implement it as the group communication tool. Even if we have decided to implement a new tool, we still worried about if it would be too difficult for us to introduce the tool to the employees. That is because we already have went through several experience in failing the introduction of communication tool since we have employees with low IT literacy.

Mr. Kurosawa :

After the introduction of LINE WORKS, we have been able to both receive the responses and coordinate the schedule within 5 minutes. What is noticeable is that the same process required 10 to 20 minutes to process in the past. Requesting for support is the most important for store management, and smoothness of its process is the biggest change made after the introduction of LINE WORKS. Along with the speed, LINE WORKS also broadened our communication range. In the past, the schedule coordination could only be held in between limited number of branches since we had to call each branch asking for the support.

Mr. Ishi :

As we are utilizing LINE WORKS, we could receive more reservations from our customers. As the chances of not getting the reservation have decreased, we believe that LINE WORKS has contributed to our company with regards to increase in customer satisfaction rate as well as increase in company revenue.

 

Mr. Kurosawa :

LINE WORKS is receiving positive opinion from the field staffs such as ‘it is easy to use’ and ‘it does not take as much time as email, and therefore, feeling comfortable using it’.

 

With LINE WORKS, sending ‘Okay’ to the communication partner is enough as a response. Because we can find out whether communication partner read the message or not through ‘Read’ notification, overall LINE WORKS communication can be held in much comfortable manner. We also think that communication within employees became much serious and valuable. After the introduction, we think that the chances of branch managers to communicate one another have also increased. As they can casually discuss about issues such as operational rules of the branches, the revenue goals of each region, or even about their personal condition and staff schedules, active information sharing is possible.

Mr. Kurosawa :

Such flawless introduction of LINE WORKS implies that field staffs were longing for the tool such as LINE WORKS. Although LINE WORKS is activated to only those branch managers for now, but we are planning to provide accounts to those staffs. With this, we are expecting active company communication near in the future.

 

Unlike email, which general communication atmosphere is formal and firm, LINE WORKS enables us to have friendly communication. Up until today, field employees could not raise up their voice for the idea and opinion.

 

Mr. Sogou :

Our company constructs telecommunication facilities, sells electronic equipment and devices, and provide services related. This year is our sixty-ninth anniversary.

 

Ms. Matsuda :

I am member of department in which takes care of IT systems. We work as a company help desk, meaning that we build PC or servers and suggest IT tools, while managing the introduction and answering questions about LINE WORKS.

Ms. Matsuda :

In order to verify LINE WORKS before the introduction, we collected targeted users from each department and division and promoted them to use the tool. During the trial period, we also encouraged the users to use as many features as possible to collect the actual usage experience. Ultimately, we could hear opinion from the users that Read notification at the chatting room and File sharing on the Drive have reinforced the overall working process more efficient than before. After the verification, we decided to introduce the tool earnestly.

 

Mr. Sogou :

In fact, we have also received negative opinion from our employees, such as communication can still be well handled through smartphone SMS. In spite of this, our company could not accept smartphone SMS because SMS cannot be managed by company and becomes shadow IT. To solve this, the company rather to chose promote positives about LINE WORKS features such as Read notification and File sharing through Drive, than telling negatives about shadow IT. We encouraged the employees to voluntarily use LINE WORKS.

Mr. Shimazu :

I am mainly responsible for construction management and maintenance of social infra projects. Also, I am in charge of integration of the company security systems. Thanks to LINE WORKS, constructing the training center project, which is one of the company projects that I am leading, is easily progressed. We used to struggle with getting the responses from the persons concerned since the project participants are chosen from different departments who manage different works. Since we have all different working situations, it was awkward sometimes to even make phone calls to them.

 

After the introduction of LINE WORKS, we are now communicating through messenger, instead of using phone call or email. We are utilizing when sharing product information with other employees, making decisions, notifying the opening of the conference. We now rarely have problem when sharing information, and this increased the response rate. This ultimately, led us to process the project with speed.

 

Ms. Honke :

I am responsible for sales, suggesting IT solutions. Back in the old days, whenever I work at the field and urgently need either schedule or an estimate, I had to come back to office to check it. But today, I can immediately ask my assistant at the office to send such document through LINE WORKS. Response that ‘I had to bring it to the office to solve’ can be processed on the spot. This has quickened the responsiveness of our clients and ultimately enabled to play the sales business which clients satisfy.

 

We are also utilizing LINE WORKS on company communication. For example, our employee ID card was renewed few days ago and had to turn paper to check roman characters of each employee. It took a while to check all of the employees’ since there were employees who were working at the field or the employees on consulting at the moment. For this reason, we took a photo of this paper and send it to the team members. With this tactic, what other team took for about a day to finish checking was only taken us about 20 minutes to complete. It is natural for people who use LINE, but there are still a few people who are not accustomed to this. In recent days, we are thinking about introducing IT tools to our customers with the purpose of reforming the work style. In order to process the reformation of the company work style, we would like to provide ideas of utilizing LINE WORKS in the perspective of the young colleagues.

 

Mr. Sogou :

Our company has a lot of architects on telecommunication facility construction and also employees with craftsmanship. For this reason, our company takes some time to introduce something new. However, if we do not change ourselves by introducing new and comfortable tool like LINE WORKS, we would not be able to survive in the future. We have decided that it is important to first introduce the tool and we actually did it. As a result to this, we already found the positive changes from our working style. We are expecting LINE WORKS to be a turning point for improvement of employee consciousness.

Ms. Ito：

‘Nail & Eyelash Syisyu’, a beauty company located in Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, and Hawaii, has a first-class nail artists and a trained eyelash therapists. We offer great technique and design at a reasonable price.

 

Ms. Ezaki：

I am a store manager of SyiSyu Umeda branch and in addition to greeting customers and nail procedures, I am responsible for overall store management like sales management, customer acquisition, and employee training.

Ms. Ito：

Before introducing LINE WORKS, the internal communication methods were mainly e-mail, telephone, and Fax placed on each store. Only limited staff members use their own LINE to communicate when there was an urgent communication needed.

 

We were unable to accept phone calls during working away from the office or greeting customers. If an employee continues to use the phone because of in-house contact, he or she may not be able to answer the customer’s reservation call.

Ms. Ezaki：

I was usually notified by the store’s email about staff members schedule management and new products. However, it was often not delivered properly because miscommunication happens or verbal mistakes occur during delivering messages. We have used FAX many times, but we need to copy what we received from FAX and deliver that message to every staff member or each employee takes a picture of it on their Smartphone and saves it again, which is a waste of both time and paper.

Ms. Ito：

Contacting from headquarters to stores, stores contacting each other, or inside the store etc all internal communication in our corporation is mostly done by using LINE WORKS.

 

Schedule sharing and managing

We check the employee’s desired schedule and upload the confirmed schedule chart to the Home to share. It is very convenient to check or make changes schedule at any time.

Nail design checking

Nails need to be replaced regularly, and trends change so that store staff makes a new commercial design every month. When technical manager sends a new nail design draft, you can check it on a chat room, and you can verify clearly because it is easy to attach photos to the LINE WORKS chatting room.

 

Nail design sharing

The new design, which is decided after the design check, is uploaded from the headquarters to the ‘Drive’ that has file storage feature and shared the link URL at Home. Until now, photos have been sent as zip files to each store via email, but there have been frequent problems such as zip files are not opened and people check only the text, not attachment. Drive is easy to share designs with the ability to view photos at once using Smartphone. I think it is very good to convert into your Smartphone size.

 

And when sharing on Home, we put a nail color number for that specific design in order to check right away when processing procedure.

 

Ms. Ezaki：

If you send a chat, you can tell who read it at a glance. So even if you don’t get a reply, you can assure that the message has been delivered. Information was sent to each employee’s smartphone in batches, which eliminates the need to operate copy machine or shredder; it saves not only FAX paper or trashes but also employee’s time burden. The schedule can be viewed on a smartphone, so you can check it right away even if you are not at the store. An employee just needs to check LINE WORKS, which is very convenient way.

 

Also until now, we did not contact with other store managers, but LINE WORKS’ ‘Store manager chat room’ enables to contact easily and we can share other stores’ information such as sales management and customer acquisition. For example, if weekend sales are not good enough, we listen and refer to how other store’s status or method of attracting customers.

Ms. Ito：

We think the biggest effect is that field staff can notice the contact from headquarters right away. So far, we have failed to check email or missed confirmation. However, now we can directly deliver a message to all of the employees without having middle steps like through a store manager or a mail. Especially, if we showed pictures of a nail in a meeting before, people only who was in a meeting could know it. However, now that we can send files directly, employees who aren’t in a meeting can also see that picture and I think that is the biggest advance.

 

We can reach each employee one by one, so every contact has been made and no one has been left out. Information that delivered only to the manager level has started to pass on to entry-level workers and this gradually increases employee’s responsibility. We think this is because workers keep in mind that ‘I am also a valuable employee’ and participate in work as a team. Because our industry is sensitive to trends, we think using the latest tools like LINE WORKS will also motivate our employees.

Mr. Shinya：

It is primarily construction. We are a housing construction corporation that guides customers who visit our exhibits, and eventually build ideal houses. In addition, other sub-companies within the group are in businesses fields of housing sales and nursing care as well. We are founded upon the custom home business and we are definitely a one-stop solution company that seeks happiness of people from the perspective of living.

 

Mr. Shigekazu：

I listen to the opinions and wishes from visiting customers and actually guide them through our exhibition. I also offer a variety of suggestions regarding housing.

Mr. Shinya：

In the past, we normally communicated with customers by phone or email. But contacting with customers often preceded in a rigid manner, which evoked feelings of distance with the customers. As communication was delayed due to missed calls, losses in work were also created. That is why we looked out for a new tool. It all started from employees. Employees began to talk about using LINE for its sales business. They added to say LINE enables intuitive reaction and increase the communication speed, which will eventually contribute to speed up management of Hinokiya Group. Following such idea, we implemented LINE’s corporate version, LINE WORKS.

Mr. Shinya：

Many employees stated their opinions on “Connect with LINE” feature on LINE WORKS. They mentioned that it has made customer communication extremely convenient than ever before. Notable comments, such as “The feature enabled us to drive good impressions from the clients by allowing us to quickly reply and respond to clients’ requests”, and “As LINE WORKS is compatible with LINE, we can not only browse and archive all the conversations made in between the two services, but also can easily follow up for the communication histories.” were also mentioned from the employees.

The sales division also gave positive feedback, mentioning that as LINE WORKS became the company’s communication tool, communicating with the clients, those who are using LINE, got much easier.

 

Also, sharing information as well as communicating among employees in the field, including the sales division, on-site supervisors, and members in exhibits, became much more convenient. The “Read Confirmation” feature is also useful whether to find out if others have read messages. The app is actively used for communication among executives in different sub-companies of the group. For phone calls or emails, communication cannot be made if you do not know the contact information of the other party. However, LINE enables you to search all the registered users, meaning that contacts and calls can be conveniently made with members although the contacts have not been available to your mobile devices. LINE WORKS has made communication and information sharing with those outside the company much smoother.

Mr. Shigekazu：

We use LINE WORKS when communicating with customers who visit the exhibition. When the customer visit and begin conversation, we normally ask for their email address. However, there were issues such as having trouble with writing down the email promptly or asking for their email later when the customer don’t know their email at the moment they visited. With LINE WORKS, however, it allows both us and the customers to start communication smoothly. The customer can use his or her own smartphone to scan the QR code and immediately connect and start conversation with us via LINE’s “Add Friends” feature.

For communication afterwards, I believe that loss of opportunities due to time differences must be eliminated. With LINE WORKS, we may read messages and emails and reply in a timely manner. When we communicate via LINE WORKS, we think thoroughly before writing the sentences. When comparing with emails, however, messages can be sent in a more frankly manner and customers can also respond easily to them. Compared to the days when email addresses were exchanged for customer communication, the likelihood of acquiring contacts has doubled, and the amount of conversations after beginning communication has tripled.

 

I think when communication has carried out, quick response to the customer requests will help us build trustworthiness with the clients, and eventually lead us to acquire more chances to work with them.

 

In addition, utilization of LINE WORKS is not limited to the process up to acquisition of deals. Even in housing design and the construction phase after order acquisition, on-site supervisors are connected to customers’ LINE via LINE WORKS to share the current progress and status of the construction sites with photos, which helps in construction completion as well as the after-case process. In case something happens, LINE WORKS allows us to receive a related contact and respond immediately or ask for assistance to other teams. Customers who have eventually selected our company instead of other competitors are primarily satisfied with “quick replies” and “fast responses”. Thanks to the remarkable advantages of LINE WORKS, we believe that we could be different from our competitors in these areas.

 

Also, communication and sharing of information between headquarters and the exhibit halls located far away became much easier. For example, there was a housing event in which I was stationed in headquarters. To proceed a project, we had to communicate with a construction supervisor, employees at other exhibits, in other divisions, as well as other companies. Because it was extremely difficult for everyone involved to gather for a meeting and communicate via email, LINE WORKS came to be perfect solution for such circumstances.