Mr. Umezawa :

Under the mission of “seeking the blossoming of new culture by promoting the convergence of Eastern and Western cultures,” Daito Bunka Institute operates three schools: Daito Bunka University, Daito Bunka University Daiichi High School, and Daito Bunka University Aogiri Kindergarten. As an Executive Director, Secretary General and Planning Director, I assist the chairman of the board and I am in charge of general management and operation of the institute, including corporate decision-making procedures, financial and office organizations, human resources affairs etc.

 

As the Chief of Staff in the Institute’s General Information Center Office, I am in charge of information systems including network, server, backbone network and client PC, and I also take care of adoption of IT devices, maintenance, and operation management.

 

Ms. Maekawa:

In the Faculty Course Center located in Daito Bunka University, we support acquirement of teacher’s licenses and finding career paths as a teacher. As a member of the center, I am in charge of gathering and delivering information related to job and volunteer opportunities in schools for students who wish to become teachers.

Mr. Watanebe :

PCs used by office workers who handle students’ personal information can only be accessed through intranet for safety purposes, and in principle, taking them outside of school is prohibited. Nevertheless, this factor has been impeding work efficiency, and we felt the need to create an environment where information can be accessed from the outside, and promote communication among employees.

 

Ms. Maekawa :

For students who aim to become teachers, we post information about teacher recruitment in the school portal and also on the bulletin board. However, as it is difficult to catch students’ attention with the bulletin board in the faculty course center, we were searching for an alternative means to share information that could substitute the paper notices, which were quite cumbersome to make and replace.

 

Mr. Watanabe :

After comparing and reviewing various tools, we came to notice LINE WORKS, which has the same interface with LINE many young employees use. We decided to introduce the service because there was no special training needed before the introduction, and because operating and managing the service didn’t seem burdensome.

Mr. Watanabe :

We made a regulation prohibiting employees from describing information related to students’ personal information, and informed the employees through orientations, LINE WORKS’ ‘Home,’ school intranet and etc. But we tried to stay away from unduly detailed regulations as much as possible, in order to bring about the active use of LINE WORKS.

 

Moreover, this coincided with the time when we provided iPads to all employees to pursue paperless work environment, so we kitted and distributed the LINE WORKS app.

 

For office workers who were not provided with iPads, we allowed using LINE WORKS through personal devices like mobile phones. But since we also ban taking iPads outside of school in principle, we allowed BYOD (Bring your own device) for all employees, creating an environment where information and work-related contacts can be shared, regardless of time and place.

Mr. Umezawa :

Prior to the implementation of the “Work Style Reform Act,” we organized employees into groups so that they could voluntarily start projects on how to change the way they work. About 70 out of 200 employees took part in the project, even though it was a voluntary activity outside of working hours. There were also many people who wanted to know about the project’s progress but could not participate, so for them I uploaded a video explaining the project’s guidelines in the LINE WORKS message room as a kickoff. Afterwards, we conducted a survey with LINE WORKS’ ‘Form’ (which has just been introduced) on pending issues, and we could collect so many responses compared to the surveys conducted in the past. Based on the responses, we established six subcommittees, and they are utilizing LINE WORKS along with discussions and face-to-face meetings.

It wasn’t easy for employees to participate in the existing project while juggling with daily work, but LINE WORKS has enabled them to exchange ideas anywhere, anytime—message rooms almost serve the role of group study rooms. Although young employees find it quite challenging to speak out in a typical face-to-face meeting, ‘Message Room’ enables everyone to participate in the discussion regardless of age or rank, and also to check previous conversations and review the flow of discussions. I think this is a big strength of LINE WORKS. Although these groups are a place for voluntary learning for employees, without particularly aiming to make proposals to reform policies, we plan to combine the results achieved in each subcommittee and use them as a reference for establishing policies to change the way we work.

Mr. Watanabe :

The Institute’s General Information Center frequently gets inquiries from other departments regarding the backbone network and client PC. After adopting LINE WORKS, we get most of the inquiries through LINE WORKS, not calls. When we received calls, we often had to stop what we were doing to respond to the inquiry right away; but when we receive them through message rooms, we can judge whether we can respond when we have time, so there is less psychological burden for response.

Ms. Maekawa :

I consulted Watanabe from the Institute’s General Information Center about how we can efficiently deliver information related to teachers’ recruitment. He recommended creating the center’s LINE WORKS account and sending information to students’ LINE accounts just like [LINE@.] Based on his counseling, we built an environment where we can connect with students’ LINE accounts through external conversations, and send information about recruitment and volunteer opportunities in message rooms through PDF files.

 

After recruiting applicants who had wished to receive a LINE alarm among students, most of the students who had completed the teacher training course have registered. Students can additionally fill in information about name, student ID, major, and the kind of local government or school (elementary·middle·high) they wish to apply for through tags; based on this information we use the ‘search’ feature in message rooms to search for tags, and send information customized for each student.

 

Mr. Edagawa:

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

Ms. Amagai:

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

 

Ms. Ishikawa:

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

 

Ms. Takezawa:

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

Mr. Edagawa:

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

 

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

 

Ms. Hitomi:

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

Mr. Edagawa :

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

 

Ms. Hitomi:

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

Ms. Ishikawa:

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

 

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

 Ms. Takezawa:

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

Mr. Edagawa:

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

 

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

 

Ms. Hitomi:

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

 

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

 

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

Mr. Edagawa:

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

 

Ms. Hitomi:

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

 

 

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

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. Maruyama：

Our company raise milk cow and deliver 13 to 15 tons of milk daily. Myself, as a leader of the farm, I am taking leading roles in financial and production management.

 

Mr. Okada：

I am in charge of overall management of the farm, including taking care of the calves and cows, as well as the employees working on site.

 

Ms. Hasegawa：

I am in charge of managing feedstuffs for milk cows.

Mr. Maruyama：

Since the average age of the employees is about 25-26, which is comparatively younger generation, we previously used LINE as a company communication tool. What was the most problematic at that time was sending the wrong messages. In the past, because we were using the LINE for both private and business purpose, there was problem like sending the message to the colleagues, instead of sending it to the friends. It was risky and unstable in security perspective since we often share confidential information through messenger.

 

Also, in order to notify the symptom of the diseased milk cow in detail as well as to share professional information about the machine and facilities, we often share photos and videos through LINE. However, what we found problematic with LINE was that it was impossible to archive those attachments. For this reason, we hoped to use the business version of LINE if launched.

Mr. Maruyama：

Our company is planning to expand the business, and in the same sense, we are planning to increase the number of employees up to 100 near in the future. To build an organization and make improvements to the communication tool, we have been thinking that an IT tool should be introduced to our company.

 

While searching for a business communication tool that is similar to LINE, we found LINE WORKS on the internet. Because LINE WORKS enables us to manage all the employees based on their positions, we believed that this would help us constructing organization. Also, as a ‘business version of LINE’, it sounded interesting to us. Those who are working at the farm are not all IT intelligent, and therefore, maybe a few employees who are having hard time memorizing the usage of the new tool. If it were LINE WORKS, however, we believed that employees soon be able to get accustomed to the tool due to its similarities of LINE.

Ms. Hasegawa：

Honestly, I was a bit nervous about having another application since I am not good at using machines and internet. But, as I start to use LINE WORKS, I realized that it was easy-to-use. Also, it was not having group chatting rooms inside LINE, but having them inside the LINE WORKS. This enabled us to share information much easier. Because we are using two different applications, it was good to have different notifications, since it allows us to find out whether the message is for private or business purpose.

Mr. Maruyama：

Our company encourages not only the employees but also mechanics and vets to make LINE WORKS accounts. If one of our machines is broken, we can directly send messages to the chatting room, in which mechanics as well as related people are also participating. This way, everyone can figure out the issue immediately, and does not forget to order pieces for repair. In addition, as all the employees share both symptoms and medical record of diseased cow through LINE WORKS, even with those who were not at the office could respond promptly to such issue. This has also contributed to maintain the health of the cow.

Mr. Okada：

We share information about milk cows’ childbirth as well as daily issues through messenger. We also upload meeting logs to the board. Previously, if we had a meeting with specific employees or project members, we used to print out the computer-written meeting logs and told the employees to write names on the paper if they read the log. With LINE WORKS board, however, it allows us to read the meeting log whenever we want and we can also find out whether every employee has read the log or not.

 

Ms. Hasegawa：

I am sharing information with all the employees with regards to feeding the milk cows. We decide the amount of the feed to give to the milk cow next day, based on how much did the milk cows eat their feeds on the day. And bad conditioned feed is one of the reasons to consider. We constantly share information in order to track what are the ingredients are included in the feed and act accordingly to it.

After the introduction of LINE WORKS, various changes are made to our company, and it helped us with efficient working as well as human resource management.

 

Because it is a tool that we use on a daily basis, we can follow the rules regularly

In order to keep the resting place for cows as clean as possible, we put sawdust on the cow bed. Before using LINE WORKS, random employees, who thought about changing the sawdust did the cleaning once in two years. But, after the introduction, we started to write the cleaning schedule on the Calendar to do the cleaning once every three months. As a result, we could sustain the beddings for the cows clean and ultimately, we could also reduce the possibilities of cows getting diseases.

 

 

We can save unnecessary time for travel since we are able to check about 200 manuals using smartphone

We have about 200 manuals on the works needed in the farm, such as milking and coping method for cow disease. Before the introduction, all the manuals are saved on the computers located inside the office. For this reason, we had to go to the office to check the manual. After introduction, however, it became much comfortable for us since we can save all the manuals at the drive and download them on my smartphone whenever wanted.

 

‘Listening to opinion’ has become our new culture. And, with this, we could successfully finish our cleaning project!

We had a problem keeping the farm clean and neat for a long time. After the introduction of LINE WORKS, however, we came up with a goal to make a successful story of making our farm clean. We immediately started an organization and cleaning project using the Note feature. The employees first visited and inspected the clean farms as an example, and we shared reports with photos attached to the Note in order to decide which farm to take it as an example. Furthermore, we conducted a survey asking questions like what are the problems at our farm and which part of our farm should be cleaned. Two months later, we could successfully finish our cleaning project and keep our farm clean. In fact, the project was meant to be started 3 years ago, but it did not go well at the time. Because we could gather up all the employees’ ideas and thoughts in one place, there was no detailed idea made regarding the project. With Note and Survey feature, we could share thoughts and ideas and listen to others as well. We believe this motivated all the employees in our company.

 

We were able to create a business credo that reflects the will of the employees

As the number of employees increase, we were constantly thinking about documenting the company’s business credo as well as value of the farm with the aim of keeping our corporate climate strong and tight. To do this, all the employees gathered through the LINE WORKS Survey feature. All the employees answered what they thought about the social significance and responsibility of Asagiri Maple Farm. Before the introduction of LINE WORKS, employee’ comments were received via written memo or verbal communication. Also, we had to fill the excel form to accumulate the survey result. The overall process was burdening for all of us. We also had difficulty communicating opinion with others. LINE WORKS survey, however, was very easy to use. Because collecting and sharing opinion became so easy, the feature has enabled us to create our business credo together with our employees.

By sharing and checking up calves’ birth in real time, the calves’ fatal death rate has been reduced from 10% to 5%.

Our company had a mission to reduce the calves’ fatal death rate since we had a bit higher rate when compared with other farms. For this reason, we started to use LINE WORKS Messenger feature to increase the frequency of observing cows and share the situation in real-time. As all the employees are able to acknowledge about the condition of the cows, we could be more cautious and pay more attention to those cows. About 6 months after the introducing LINE WORKS, we could reduce the fatal death rate from 10% to 5%.

Mr. Maruyama：

As information sharing became smoother, we can process all the projects harmoniously. In corporate perspective, growth rate as well as group gathering force have also increased. Moreover, as we can now manage our work, efficiency of production management has improved, which is positive change made to our company.

Mr. Shou :

Our company is a creative company, centering client works. We are in charge of consulting services such as analysis, strategy design and planning in marketing and communication that companies and administrative organizations, brands and products require. And, we are also in charge of production works, actually produce and deploy works according to the plan. In the marketing or creative field, It is common to divide into two types of companies. There are companies only taking responsible for strategy and planning, while some other companies are dealing with production solely. Unlike this, our company deals with both, and therefore one-stop operation is one of our company’s characteristics.

Mr. Shou :

In the past, there was a lot of communication held via email, SNS messenger, and phone calls. Basically, checking the document and its data has been carried out by attaching to mail or SNS. Except for some projects, schedules were managed in a very analog way, such as checking at the meeting or filling out the whiteboard.

 

First of all, the first problems was that it took significant amount of time when confirming various types of information. To take our company as an example, either the designs or products can be opened to the public only after the president confirmed to be okay.

 

Mr. Kazuo :

Modifying schedules and information sharing has become convenient. Since we now can see the schedules of all the employees, it is very helpful when scheduling. We can simply modify the schedule just by sending ‘Are you available at this time?’. Also, when holding a meeting, we can share the agenda through Home function and make sure all the meeting participants check, bring idea and opinion about the agenda and even think of the result in advance. By doing so, we found that the time we spent on the meeting have decreased than the past.

 

Mr. Shou :

What has changed the most is that we now rarely use email or SNS for company communication. We did not force to quit using such tool. Instead, it vanished naturally, and started to use LINE WORKS as an alternatives. We encouraged employees to make chatting room per each project. This way, we can follow up the overall process of project simply by checking the messages inside the chatting room. This is very efficient way of working. When sharing information or document, we are also attaching the files to the chatting room. It also possible to instantly check the attached files at the chatting room using LINE WORKS viewer.

 

After that, we can either send comments on the documents or just simply send okay sticker to the chatting room when there is no extra issues to be discussed. Like this, remote communication gets faster than before. We no longer have to wait for our president to come back to the office for the confirmation. And, this led all the employees to process and finish their work faster. Similar to this, it was general to make comments like ‘Let’s talk about this after returning to the office’ or ‘Let’s share this agenda at the office’. Just by using chatting room, however, we can immediately have conversation. With this, we rarely hold quick face-to-face meeting, standing in the corner of the office. In fact, in the field of creative works, efficiency and short working time cannot go along with quality. I used to work at the office until late night during peak season. But after the introduction of LINE WORKS, the finishing time has shortened overwhelmingly. I felt that as more spare time the employees have, the better productivity the entire company have.

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.