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. 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. 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. 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.

Mr. Yamamoto :

Our company is a Holdings company, and our business covers from housing wholesale to manufacturing and sales. Main business is the wholesale business which mainly covered by Japan Construction Materials Corporation. However, we also have interoffice in which doing housing construction business. I am a member from Finance Accounting Department, Business administration Headquarters, but also as a member of Office Rationalization Committee, I was in charge of introducing LINE WORKS to our company this time.

Mr. Yamamoto  :

A purpose of Office Rationalization Committee is to introduce systems or tool which enables efficient working environment. We had a mission to find a communication tool that is suitable to use, since we did not have such tool. We used to use a groupware as a communication tool. However, there are limitations such as it can only be used inside the office and if the employees were to use outside the office, they had to connect VPN every time.

Moreover, not all the employees had the accounts to the groupware. Therefore, we had to use phone calls obligatorily in order to connect with other employees. Phone calls, fax, and groupware communication has been continued for decades.

Mr. Yamamoto :

Under such circumstance, important information such as announcements on personnel as well as medical checkup cannot be delivered to the all the employees. Especially, ‘Japan Construction Materials Corporation’ is consisted mostly with salesperson, and therefore, the administration department considered about not being able to share various information to them. In order to make sure the information is delivered successfully to each employee, some of the branches print out the written mail and receive the paper with the employees’ signatures on it. Still, it costed a lot of efforts.

Company provided cellphones were mostly 2G phone, which only provide calling feature. For this reason, we often use personal smart phones to communicate with the employees from both working inside and outside the office. Notably, the number of employees who are using LINE as a communication tool was increasing. It is unavoidable if the customer wants to communication through LINE, but this was still not perfectly suitable. Although we wanted to prevent our employees from use LINE as a business communication tool, we had no other option to replace it.

Mr. Yamamoto :

We compared various communication tools to find the most suitable option. But, with the purpose of regulating the contacts held between the salesperson and the customers through LINE, we paid attention to LINE WORKS. For other applications, we had to install a certain program in order to communicate with the customers. However, LINE is already well being used by the people, including our customers. The most decisive factor for LINE WORKS introduction was that it is easily connected with LINE.

Also, LINE WORKS is cost-effective, when compared with other tools. We wanted all the employees to use LINE WORKS, instead of the current groupware that only certain portion of employees are using.

Mr. Ishizawa :

We were thankful about that there is no need for manual or education needed for LINE WORKS introduction. Because most of the people were already using LINE, we believed that the employees would soon be able to get used to LINE WORKS. We were not sure about the other tools since they had different user interface to LINE.

Mr. Yamamoto :

In 2017, we started a project to reform our working style, and 10 participants from the project started using trial version of LINE WORKS. And, soon we received positive feedbacks from the participants such as, ‘Response time gets faster’, ‘I can definitely contact everyone inside the company’, ‘Read notification feature is comfortable’. It took less than a month to actually introduce LINE WORKS to our company.

Mr. Yamamoto :

Employees from administration department to part-time workers, we are able to communicate everyone working in the company without feeling difficulties to it. This definitely has broadened our communication. One of the great features of the LINE WORKS is that we can easily reach out to the people whom did not know their contact information. We are encouraging our employees to record their duties at the LINE WORKS profile. And when we have questions like ‘Who is in charge of this agenda?’, we can easily check the profiles of the employees and reach out the right person.

We can work time effectively as we reduced unnecessary time we spent in the past, such as waiting for omitted emails to be checked or waiting for a call to be connected. We believe that overtime working at night time will soon be eliminated. By sending photos about the question we want to ask, it is now possible to share thoughts and opinion in depth.

Mr. Oshio :

As one of the employees from Human Resource department, dramatic increase in survey response rate and active communication with prospective employees are the two key accomplishments. It is cost-effective to use LINE WORKS because we did not have make individual tool for each agenda. Also, we curtailed expenditures by changing the tool from the SNS tool that we previously used to LINE WORKS.

Mr. Ishizawa :

We would like to implement auto-answering chatting bot based on AI near in the future using LINE WORKS. Setting aside from the working style that we have continued for decades using phone calls and fax, we expect that the introduction of innovative tool called LINE WORKS would bring us big impacts to our company.

Mr. Inuta :

I am in charge of overall systems-related works, including fixing the employees’ computers, maintaining and repairing the company servers.

Mr. Noguchi :

I am mainly responsible for rear support from the Sales Headquarters, such as preparation of sales support system and data preparation.

Mr. Noguchi :

We can now send MR staffs the same information on urgent contacts related to medicine and medical supplies simultaneously. We are also feeling that the employees’ message checking rate has also increased when sending the information through SMS. Not long ago, we sent out the information to the employees and checked their checking time. We found out that 80% of those employees read the message within 30 minutes. In the past, it was almost impossible to check whether the employees read the message or not. With LINE WORKS ‘Read’ notification, however, it is much convenient to actually see how many of those employees read the message.

Mr. Inuta :

For those field employees who cannot visit the office often, we believe that it has become more convenient to communicate with others due to LINE WORKS since it enables seamless communication through the tool. For example, once the field employee finds a defect from the product at the customer’s place, the employee can now be able to take the photo of the product and send it to the Product Management department at the headquarters immediately. What changed the most is that it is now possible to make immediate response for the requests from headquarter. The speed of sales activities has definitely changed.

Let’s hear from Mr. Nouta and Ms. Date, who are actually using LINE WORKS.

Mr. Nouta :

We are sharing information such as reactions of the doctors when making business-related contact, introducing our products, or even sharing the trends of the competitor companies through LINE WORKS. Also, when we need certain information, we use LINE WORKS to find the employee who knows about the information.

Ms. Date :

We are mainly using LINE WORKS as a means of delivering the customer contact history or the request to the MR, who is mostly working outside the office. For example, when we receive a contact from our customer asking for more supplies, we notify MR and ask him or her to make response accordingly to the contact.

Mr. Nouta :

Because our conventional means of communication was telephone or company’s computer e-mail, there were only a limited number of people who could communicate with each other. Further, for some employees, they could not reach out to the computer all day. For this reason, we often experienced time difference during information sharing. Today, however, speed of information sharing became much faster than before. Also, because we can find out whether the employees read the message or not through ‘Read’ notification, our overall workflow became much smarter and faster.

By frequently sharing information and the news regarding trends of competitor companies, our company can now place future foreseeing sales activities. As we can freely share information by oneself as well as instantly hear from other employees about their idea and opinion, we can proactively place various activities.

Ms. Date :

Up until today, we felt that SMS communication is more like one-sided communication since we could not find out whether the communication participant has checked the message or not. However, ‘Read’ notification from LINE WORKS helps us a lot, enabling both sender and receiver to find out who read the message. Specifically, younger employees are sending more responses to the massage than the past. As we can communicate with others only using the LINE WORKS stickers, the communication are actively held and this helps us a lot.

In fact, I have never used LINE even for personal purpose. Due to this, when I first heard about the introduction, I felt worrisome and also thought ‘Oh well, I do not know how to use the tool’. After actually using the tool, however, I felt that LINE WORKS was easy-to-use tool. I cannot imagine myself going back to those old days. I would be very much embarrassing if there is no LINE WORKS.

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.

There were 3 missions which all the employees at out company were experiencing with regards to their working style. First problem was that communication, including emergency contacts, between headquarters, stores, and individuals did not work well. It was challenging for all of us to contact 1,800 employees including part-time job workers, share information on customer service, and communicate one another. Until the introduction of LINE WORKS, there was also a problem of shadow IT since employees sometimes used their personal LINE accounts for communication.

Second problem was that store telephone line was used often for in-company communication. Since each store has only one telephone line, if it was used as in-company communication, no other phone call can be received It is not a good idea to miss the phone calls from the customers due to the in-company communication. For this reason, we decided that it would be better to have a separate channel for communication with headquarters and leave the phone available for any possible incoming calls.

Last problem which we encountered was that we were lacking of communication tool that is ‘more than phone, but less than email’. In other words, we did not have enough means to communicate on the issue that is neither urgent nor sensitive. From globalization perspective, we have been thinking about how to realize such communication. For example, we even need a strategy when displaying glasses. If we want to check whether the display has been standardized for entire stores or not, we can simply take photos showing the condition of the display and share them through LINE WORKS.

I will tell you about the decisive factor which made us to turn to LINE WORKS under such circumstances.

Photo on a left side is a specific use case of LINE WORKS. Since contacts are displayed according to organization of the group, if admin from the headquarters manages the organization properly, LINE WORKS automatically reflects it. It is convenient to make group chatting room based on the groups made on either department or team basis. Even when the new employee joins our company, it is easy to find out the department assigned. Also, there is no need to hesitatingly ask for the contact information. With the smartphone notification, we can quickly notified and understand about the situation.

Photo on the right side is the example of LINE WORKS chatting. Almost same as LINE. While two participants were communicating through chatting, one participant called the other for urgent issue. The urgent issues was actually more like casual. Sometimes such communication, which seems to be so much obvious at the first glance, cannot be realized depending on the tool. Based its simplicity as well as short period of time required to get accustomed to the tool, the information sharing inside the store can now be smoothly made through LINE WORKS. For example, store staffs take photos of store displays and simply share the photos to the chatting room. Not having such situation like ‘Not knowing about the LINE WORKS usage’ is biggest contribution made to our company.