Nitori Co., Ltd.

Matsuo

To improve this situation, a business transformation project was launched within the department in 2019. We began considering the digitization of internal operations and the streamlining of sales activities, which included the renewal of both internal and external systems.

Previously, sales representatives were responsible for manually entering corporate information into the database, which was time-consuming and lacked high accuracy.

The executive in charge of the project at the time also faced challenges, noting that 'too much time is spent on customer research' and 'the opportunity loss caused by individual-dependent sales methods is undeniable, preventing us from securing sufficient time for the customers who truly require our attention.'

Matsuo

We compared uSonar with services from two other companies, but uSonar was the only one that agreed to our essential requirement of 'integration with our proprietary system.'

While uSonar and SideSonar are services with a proven track record of integrating with various SFA platforms, including Salesforce, this project involved integration with a proprietary system rather than an existing SFA. We were very pleased that they were willing to respond with such flexibility.

Matsuo

The business division developed an ideal system concept, which the business transformation team then translated into a concrete project. As we advanced our internal system development, we initiated the integration once the API for uSonar/SideSonar was ready. After repeated testing and about six months of collaborative adjustments between both companies, we successfully achieved the integration.

Matsuo

Sales representatives, in particular, have expressed their satisfaction, noting that the time previously spent on data entry and searching has been significantly reduced and that information is now much easier to find. It appears to be highly effective for gathering information on potential sales targets.

Matsuo

"With the introduction of uSonar/SideSonar, we shifted the responsibility of targeting—which was previously handled by individual sales representatives—to the managers of each zone. These managers have extensive sales experience and possess a deep understanding of the customers who would truly value our unique strengths: our competitive pricing, quality and functionality, and total coordination services.

uSonar/SideSonar is equipped with a wealth of features that allow our managers to fully leverage their expertise and experience, and we feel that it has indeed become easier to achieve success in our targeting efforts."

Matsuo

"By using the 'Story' feature, we can identify customers who have relocation plans—allowing us to propose the office products we specialize in—or customers who own employee dormitories, where we can leverage our strength in total coordination proposals.

Additionally, we use the 'Live Access' feature to narrow down customers who have visited our website or viewed our catalogs. The fact that a customer has shown interest in Nitori on their own is extremely valuable information, so we make it a priority to secure appointments as quickly as possible.

Furthermore, we also pick up and map the companies we have targeted. We have become significantly more efficient in terms of both time and costs.
Moving forward, we aim to build a system that allows us to analyze attributes and develop strategies by matching the data from uSonar's corporate database, 'LBC', with our internal system data."

Matsuo

"The executive in charge at the time held the view that 'In business, there are areas that should be thoroughly streamlined through IT and digitalization, and areas where it is better to take time and use an analog approach.'

Therefore, regarding our sales activity framework, we are committed to thorough efficiency through our internal system integrated with uSonar. At the same time, we want to continue valuing direct interactions with our customers—listening to their voices, developing products they will choose, and making proposals that go beyond mere satisfaction to provide them with a sense of inspiration."