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. Nishizak：

I take part in managing the medical policies and disaster medical treatment. Specifically, my responsibilities include implementing measures for the emergency medical system and preventing cancer and suicide. Therefore, I communicate with medical, dental, pharmaceutical, and other related associations regularly.

Currently, I oversee comprehensive disaster prevention and medical drills and act as a key medical aid liaison by improving the means of information exchange and strengthening collaboration among several medical institutions and organizations. Moreover, I monitor Nankai megathrust earthquakes activities in case a tsunami rushes in. Hamamatsu city covers extensive coastal and mountainous areas; therefore, we review the medical aid system based on such regional characteristics.

Mr. Nishizaki：

Our city was equipped with fax machines, emergency wireless communications, and satellite mobile phones as a means of delivering information to medical institutions, and emergency aid centers in the event of a disaster. Unfortunately, we became well aware after Tohoku and Kumamoto earthquakes that the existing communication methods could not provide seamless and immediate information exchange that we need.

When the Tohoku Earthquake occurred, our city also sent the support team but experienced unstable connections due to consecutive aftershocks and had difficulty communicating with them. During the Kumamoto Earthquake, we tried using radio and e-mails, in both PC and mobile settings, but nothing seemed to work.

Mr. Yoshino：

All of the contact systems of medical institutions that we knew in our city were fixed-line phones. Thus, in September 2018, it was challenging to get the disaster information after a typhoon disconnected the entire phone line. We did have an alternative – to use a satellite mobile phone. However, the method requires considerable skills to operate and have critical disadvantages: it only has one line, and redialing is exceptionally complicated. In this sense, we might not be able to deliver the essential missing details from the first call. Furthermore, there are also issues with misunderstanding with audio delivery and time, as the information can only be provided to people on the phone.

Mr. Nishizaki：

When the Great Hanshin earthquake took place, there was a significant discrepancy in the accommodation capacity of medical institutions. Indeed, some had plenty of room for accommodating patients while the others were full up to the limit; the unfortunate situation happened due to the lack of interconnected communication platform. In times of Kumamoto earthquake, the hospitals suffered physical damage and also the chaotic condition of not knowing where to transfer hospitalized patients. Based on these experiences, I felt a strong need to interconnect medical institutions.

We reviewed the establishment and empowerment of the network to save as many citizens as possible amid large scale disasters. At first, we decided to establish the disaster medical information network within medical institutions that may have a critical impact on patients’ life in times of power outage: emergency hospitals, dialysis, and perinatal systems.

Why and how did you introduce LINE WORKS?

Could you explain in detail about how you use LINE WORKS?

Mr. Yoshino：

We were glad to achieve responsive communication through LINE WORKS and prevent the worst scenario of not knowing the damage information properly. Notably, it was beneficial to seamlessly collect the damage information from gynecology, dialysis, and psychiatry facilities; such institutions were vulnerable to the adverse effects of a blackout on patients. Furthermore, we would provide each medical institution of the information about power outage situations and priority plans collected by the Shizuoka Prefectural Government. Simultaneously, medical facilities would share their condition and availability to take patients. Thanks to LINE WORKS, we could quickly identify and make lists of medical institutions experiencing a power outage and request early power restoration to the Hamamatsu City Office Crisis Management Division. Also, the electric power company could start the immediate restoration process with the given lists.

What has changed since the introduction of LINE WORKS?

How do you plan to use LINE WORKS in the future?

Mr. Nishizaki：

We want to fortify the close ties among Hamamatsu City Office and medical facilities for the city’s mission: preventing the dispersion of contagious diseases during a disaster. Also, with LINE WORKS, we believe that the Hamamatsu City Health Environment Research Center can deliver recent epidemic disease reports or carry out training against infectious diseases. The research center already publishes the report on the epidemic diseases study. Lastly, we look forward to promoting the engagement within the network further as well.

 

 

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

Mr. Yoshida：

I am in charge of systems-related works, and also general affairs.

Ms. Takakura：

I am in charge of office works at the Headquarters.

Mr. Tanaka：

I am in charge of truck management at the Headquarters.

Mr. Yoshida：

In our company, it is daily routine for drivers, who move across the country, report to the headquarters, and headquarters sends a map to the driver the next destination. We mostly used phone calls or SMS to do so. It is very important for us to keep track of moving route and behavior of each driver since the moving situation changes on a daily basis. It took a great amount of time when contacting with the drivers through phone calls since we have about 50 drivers working everyday.

On delivery day, if our customer calls us either to confirm the delivery time or change the delivery time, we have to send information about such issue to the driver in a prompt manner. At times, however, we could not reach out to the driver promptly, and we had to feel nervous as if the time takes too long.

Mr. Tanaka：

Not being able to share photos with the drivers was the most uncomfortable limitation that we faced. If we take photo of the map and send it to the driver, it can deliver information much accurately than call the driver and explain about the next destination for the delivery. It was also uncomfortable to deliver detailed information through phone calls, such as notifying the driver about the road conditions, in which big trucks cannot enter. Moreover, if we find damaged parcel, we need to contact headquarters and they contact the customer. However, there were issues which cannot be explained solely by verbal communication. Therefore, we sometimes had to use personal email and messenger accounts to send customer photos.

Mr. Yoshida：

It is true that we have considered introducing a new business communication tool to our company in the past. But, we could not easily introduce the tool because we thought that company communication tool should easily be used by the employees and should also be sharable. Therefore, we ended up with a conclusion that LINE WORKS, a similar tool to LINE, is the most suitable tool for introduction. We were also positive about LINE WORKS since we can operate the tool in both smart phone app and PC browsers. Available features, including Calendar feature, share information in a group level feature, and most importantly, send photo feature were the decisive factors which led us to turn to LINE WORKS.

Ms. Takakura：

After the introduction decision was made, I took part in actual introduction work for each employee. We were able to reduce the burden in the administration by sending out documents on installation and password setting to the drivers and let them set up the account on their own. Due to its similarities interface with LINE, we found it easy to use. About a week after, all the employees successfully finished their account setting.

Mr. Yoshida：

We archive address information which are yet to be updated, such as a new building site with not street address or a road information in which big trucks cannot pass by. LINE WORKS has made it convenient to send map image to the drivers. Even when we find damage on the material, it is now possible to clearly notify the customer even about the damage that is hard to identify at a glance in detail by sending photos. We also like LINE WORKS in a perspective of we can keep a record of communication in order to prevent problems from occurring in the future.

Mr. Tanaka：

We are sending photos of requested documents that specify which parcel to deliver, and where to deliver. Requested documents, which are sent from the customers, should be delivered to the drivers in real-time. In case of long-distance delivery schedule, there is a case where the loading schedule is not determined when returning from the departure point. In such a case, the driver must contact again after departure. Instead of verbal communication, if we send photographs taken through the messenger, we can communicate more clearly and we can also share information quicker than before by using LINE WORKS.

Mr. Yoshida：

Using LINE WORKS Calendar feature, employees working in the logistics center are sharing information such as customer visit information, parcel arrival condition, vehicle inspection information, and non-usual vacation schedule and so on. Previously, we had to stand in a line in order to copy the vehicle inspection certificate. And it was very analog way of managing the vehicle inspection schedule. After LINE WORKS introduction, however, we can now register which and when the vehicle will be inspected and everyone can share the schedule.

Ms. Takakura：

I am sending out information regarding website updates or medical checkup using LINE WORKS Messenger feature. Read notification is helpful to me since I can figure out whether all the employees read the message or not.

Ms. Takakura：

Up until now, each individual had to call one another even when working together. But today, multiple employees can communicate simultaneously using LINE WORKS group chatting room. Due to this, we feel like our teamwork has become greater than before. With LINE WORKS sticker, communication is becoming more active and therefore, the work progresses smoothly.

Mr. Tanaka：

After LINE WORKS introduction, rate of phone call usage reduced by half. We rarely use SMS thesedays.

Mr. Yoshida：

As we can share information accurately and promptly, the problems such as ‘we did not hear it’ or ‘we did not know’, which we used to have are eliminated. LINE WORKS Calendar feature enables us to send notifications to important information. With this, all the employees gained a habit of checking notifications every morning, endeavoring not to miss any of the schedule. And this definitely is a positive change made to our company.

Overall processing time on customer inquiries has reduced as we introduce LINE WORKS. As we can either directly send photos which received from the drivers to the customers or ask drivers to take photos again if the resolution of the photos is not clear enough, the overall processing time has reduced, while accuracy has increased.

This field is all about ‘deduction’. It is natural to send customers’ items to the place as specified at the designated time. If delayed, the deduction happens. ‘Next level of logistics’ policy, which our representative director promotes includes speed and quality of transport. To do so, information sharing is the most important factor. As we are sharing information in a prompt manner, the possibilities to prevent ourselves from deducting to minus in advance has increased. After LINE WORKS introduction, not only working efficiency has improved, but also quality of the service we provide. We think it is a great evolutionary change at the company level.

Mr. Iwasaki :

Since its foundation in 2008, our company has been manufacturing and delivering company meals in the form of lunch boxes. From areas nearby, to far away, we deliver different meals every day that are focused on variety and nutritional balance to customers throughout a broad region. 75 of our delivery personnel deliver about 18,000 meals each day to more than 2,000 customers. As the one in charge of general affairs and deliveries, I communicate with delivery personnel daily to manage accurate delivery of meals to our customers.

Mr. Sasaki :

I currently work in the delivery division, in charge of deliveries to customers. It has been 3 years since I began working at the company.

Mr. Iwasaki :

There had been only 1 computer in our company and a few people used it. It was an analog environment in which most of the work was performed on paper, and through phone calls and FAX. For communication, not only between headquarters and delivery personnel, but also among the delivery personnel, phone calls and short text messages were used through basic mobile phones provided by the company.

Every morning, calls or faxes come to headquarters from customers regarding meal orders of the day. For most cases, however, couriers have already started their delivery routes at the time orders are received. So we have been using the method in which a headquarters employee manually writes the details of an order on an order sheet and reads it to a courier via phone. The couriers then deliver the orders after hearing the number of orders for the day.

When conducting work via phone, deliveries are made by mistake from time to time. Also, since couriers leave after the number of orders is finalized, it is often discovered during delivery that the number of meals is insufficient. In such cases, the courier and the general manager individually communicate by phone to adjust the number. I currently manage 35 couriers and often receive too many calls from them, which causes other calls to be missed and on-time responses to be delayed. From 10 to 10:30 AM, in particular, all couriers make interim reports so the phone line during this period is nearly paralyzed. Since the meals must be delivered before lunchtime, the percentage of morning work is overwhelmingly great. We receive about 200 phone calls in the morning alone so we experienced limitations with communication by phone.

One courier is responsible for deliveries to 20 to 30 companies, and there is even one courier who is responsible for 70 companies. We think that couriers have also felt stress when calls do not go through or it takes a while to contact.

Mr. Sasaki :

Because the number of calls I have had to make on the mobile phone has decreased significantly, I can now concentrate on driving and delivering meals in a safer manner. Introduction of LINE WORKS has allowed others to immediately provide assistance if an issue has occurred for a courier and, thus, a strong sense of cooperation has formed among the couriers. I think it has enabled us to take actions on our own instead of waiting for orders from headquarters. I believe it is a remarkably great change that not only our work has become more efficient, but also teamwork has been further strengthened.

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.

Dr. Taka-aki Nakada :

Chiba University Hospital’s Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine serves as the disaster hub hospital of Chiba Prefecture, as well as seriously ill patients within the city. Additionally, it provides immediate response to any events occurred within the institution related to seriously ill patients through a professional team called “MET (Medical Emergency Team).”

Dr. Taka-aki Nakada :

The main reason was our need to share the status before and after a call is made through the doctor assembly request system via chat. We thought of using LINE WORKS to share the latest information with everyone post-call.

Mr. Yamao :

Although the doctor assembly request system had been deemed to be useful, many people were still unaware when emails were sent since they received personal emails in the same inbox. So we came to think, “What if we use LINE WORKS instead of emails?”, which led us to propose a system in which, instead of sending emails, chatroom messages would be sent through LINE WORKS’ bot API and contact even after the call is conducted through the chatroom.

Dr. Shigeto Oda :

I believe that it is innovative. It is incredible how the details, which had previously only been able to be communicated one-on-one by word-of-mouth, could now be shared with everyone at the same time.

There was recently an incident in which about 50 people were injured at the Makuhari Messe convention center. I was on a business trip to a different region for an academic conference, and Chiba’s Fire Department sent me a call for COMET (Chiba Outreach Medical Emergency Team).

Until now, the dispatch of COMET was only determined after identifying a particular situation through a phone call, which was very time-consuming when trying to figure out the current conditions and make the right decisions. This time, however, all pertinent information was shared and exchanged moment by moment through LINE WORKS chat. From details of the conditions shared, we deemed it to be a serious crisis, and thus allowed COMET to be dispatched right away. We could give orders anywhere in the world while continuously checking upon the current situation via LINE WORKS. This allowed us to maintain more situational control. It was remarkable.

Dr. Taka-aki Nakada :

We have been focusing on the research and development of a smart patient data collection, processing and sharing system. So we have coined the Smart119 Project, to achieve fast and accurate emergency medical service through the medical device and system R&D project by Japan’s AMED (Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development) in hopes to realize the future of medical care. We wish to utilize the experiences gained from LINE WORKS to emergency medical sites, to continue to develop an innovative system and accomplish accurate emergency medical care.

Mr. Sato :

Our company mainly designs, manufactures. And sells nail guns and various types of equipment for manufacturing companies. For the nail guns, we are occupying more than 90% of overall domestic demand. With more than 40 years of experience, we have been supplying factory facilities for manufacturing companies.

Mr. Ebi :

I am in charge of planning and supporting sales activities of each department, and making promotion tools. Moreover, I am responsible for managing company infrastructure, website, as well as filming product videos.

Mr. Haneuda :

I am mainly in charge of designing, producing, and installing the factory facilities.

Mr. Sato :

Even with trivial troubles and issues occurred at the site, it may be regarded as major and important for the company, and eventually become important ‘issue to be solved’. I think that the value of the company is determined by how quickly does the company identify the issue and cope with it accordingly. For this reason, we are countlessly encouraging the site staffs to ‘correct the issues as soon as possible’, and ‘those who are at the site should collect the issue and report to the office’.

In order to do so, we are providing cellphones to every employee. Also, we have been thinking that information sharing and collaboration tool as the most important factor for flawless and fast communication.

I was the member who tried using LINE WORKS during trial period. After figuring out some of the features, we came up with the conclusion that LINE WORKS is the collaboration that we have been looking out for. And, we decided to adopt LINE WORKS to the entire company.

Mr. Ebi :

One of the obstacles for collaborative work was that we could not share information fluently under the environment in which computers cannot be used. For example, when employees are out for either long-term business trips or construction sites, we could not find out if the collaborators checked the email or the information in properly shared until receiving the response from them. For this reason, there were delays in response as well as a number of employees were involved to solve the issue. This was so inefficient in every aspect.

Mr. Haneuda :

Before LINE WORKS integration, we used to contact each other through phone calls or emails. Using email as a communication tool was burdening and ineffective since we could use it only after successfully setting the network. I think this was one of the reasons causing delays in the response.

Mr. Haneuda :

We have created the chat rooms for each construction plan or project, and encouraged the employees to both share information and report the issue there. We are mainly utilizing LINE WORKS when reporting the construction status while working outside the office, or consulting the troubles occurred.

We do collaboratively work with other franchisee offices located in Saitama, Nagoya, and Doyama. Even with the physical distance, LINE WORKS enables us to instantly share the current status of the situation by sending photos or videos on the chatting room. With LINE WORKS, we can also download the structural drawings and continue our work smoothly in real time. Unlike computer, using smartphone version of LINE WORKS allows us to check the message straightaway. Further, we can notify and share information with a number of employees at once just by sending messages on the group chatting room, and we found that pretty efficient.

Mr. Sato :

After LINE WORKS adoption, the approval process on various estimates has become overwhelmingly faster than before. Up until now, employees had to write initial estimate by hands, and attach the copy of the estimate to the email and send it to the people related in order to get approvals. Because the approval was made in order, it took times to get the final approval from the CEO. Also, if CEO is on a business trip, it was inevitable to have delays in receiving the approval, and sometimes, the delay was even last for about a week. After LINE WORKS adoption, we open up a chatting room based on the agenda, invite all the employees related, and upload the estimate file to get approvals. Those who have joined the chat room can sign an approval on the document regardless of the approval order. Once the staff from the General Affairs find the estimate has received the approvals from everybody in the chatting room, the staff send the estimate. Even without turning on the computer but just using LINE WORKS on the smartphone, it allows us to easily make approvals on the document received, and we can also make approvals while on the business trip. With this, the speed of the overall working process has improved. What used to took a few days to process has now only take about a few hours to complete.

Mr. Ebi :

As LINE WORKS is fully aware of enterprise level of security requirements, we feel secured from company assets and data leakage. In the perspective of workflow, we are truly thankful to LINE WORKS with the effects to eliminate reports and contacts missing, and even eliminate the unnecessary work repetitions. As a result of transforming the email communication into LINE WORKS, we now can continue our communication with the same feeling of having conversations with the collaborators. Along with such sense, we feel that the overall communication and collaboration speed has become faster. As it becomes easier for every employee to share the ideas, ask for consultations, and even report easily, we are sure about that there are more chances available to have communication with one another.

Another limitation for using email was that it only allows us to send files with the maximum size of 5MB. For this reason, we had to divide the file and send several times of emails in order to send file that the size bigger than 5MB. After LINE WORKS adoption, what becomes the most comfortable is that we do not have to worry about the file sizes as LINE WORKS covers the size up to 100MB. Workflow has now economically changed by directly sending big sized files like videos, construction maps, and even program data on the LINE WORKS messenger. Employees no longer worry about making mistakes like miss out reference or attachments when writing emails. And this definitely is another advantage we gained from using LINE WORKS messenger.

By allowing us to open up the chatting rooms for each department or project, LINE WORKS assures that necessary information that we send through messenger will be sent to those whom it may concerned. If we use LINE WORKS messenger, we can simply write the core information, even without writing pointless introduction, or just send the file for the urgent matter. Previous communication history can also be comfortably checked and reviewed. Specifically, if one of our clients ask the question that we have discussed before, we can simply check the message by checking the archived conversation history. Since we are currently making the best utilization of LINE WORKS, we cannot even imagine us working without it. Moreover, close in the future, we would like to archive every portion of our company data and asset on LINE WORKS.