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. 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.

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.