Tanaka

Within our business strategy, we have established seven core business pillars, including custom homes. This includes not only custom homes that focus on meticulous design but also new businesses such as select homes, where dual-income households that prioritize cost and time performance can choose their preferences online. As we evolve in line with global changes, we believe that developing information infrastructure for employees nationwide—especially tools and data environments for the sales department—is a crucial theme that directly impacts customer satisfaction. We think daily about what DX that leads to business transformation and results should look like, while providing the necessary environment for each business division, corporate sales team, and branch office sales representative.

Tanaka

Our sales department uses Salesforce as our core system. I have a long history with Salesforce, having been involved in its implementation during the early 2010s while in the Corporate Planning Department. Later, I also managed it from a sales operations perspective. As data accumulated within Salesforce, corporate data duplication became an issue that hindered effective utilization, which led me to my current role in restructuring our operational environment.

Tanaka

When operating internally, data issues such as inconsistent naming conventions and missed updates are inevitable during data entry. After learning about the LBC code from uSonar, which can reconcile any variations in notation and consolidate them into unique data, we began integrating it. This allowed us to see a path toward restructuring our operations, and the issues with Salesforce have largely been resolved. I hold the LBC code in very high regard.

Tanaka

Beyond BtoC scenarios like attracting visitors to housing exhibitions, we also engage in BtoB sales, such as selling lumber and building materials to construction firms, where the client is a corporate entity. Furthermore, we have a BtoBtoC business flow where we capture demand from land and building owners through financial institutions, tax accountants, and real estate agents in each branch area. Since owners looking to utilize their land or buildings effectively often consult with financial institutions or tax accountants first, our local branches place great importance on maintaining strong relationships with these partners and real estate agents.

Tanaka

To understand our relationships with the "B" clients and visualize the differences in activity levels across individual store locations, we utilize Salesforce and perform data normalization and updates using LBC codes. Since we became able to integrate with LBC codes, accurate data is linked even for small-scale business operators, which has significantly reduced the operational burden of manual entry for each individual. Conversely, before this, it was difficult to enforce strict data entry rules, which led to data duplication.

Tanaka

I believe everyone was using it with the mindset that it was merely an "electronic business card file." Although it was a free business card management app that could integrate with Salesforce, we did not feel that we were gaining any specific benefits from the data integration. When we learned that this service would be discontinued in the spring of 2024, we began looking for other free apps. That was when uSonar proposed that we consider mSonar, which, while a paid service, comes equipped with LBC.

Tanaka

The deciding factor was that I could envision the convenience of a business card app that integrates with LBC codes, which cover even the smallest business locations nationwide. Previously, even when we scanned business card information using a management app, we were not able to effectively utilize it in conjunction with Salesforce. As I mentioned earlier, our company already manages customer data on the Salesforce side using LBC codes. With mSonar, LBC codes are linked the moment a business card is scanned, so Salesforce data and business card data are linked instantly. I felt that this dramatic level of convenience would provide value to our field sales team that no other app could achieve.

Tanaka

We compared the features and costs of three to four well-known business card management applications.

Tanaka

In the lumber and building materials business, we have many transactions with local builders and contractors. It is extremely convenient that when we exchange business cards, the data is immediately linked to the corporate information in uSonar, which is organized by small and medium-sized enterprises and sole proprietorships. We basically want all departments and group companies that exchange a high volume of business cards to use mSonar.

Ashida

I have heard that the field sales team finds the registration of customer information (input burden) to be much easier. Previously, entering visit activity and meeting records into Salesforce, creating related corporate data, and logging interactions took an average of about 15 minutes per person per task. With the introduction of uSonar, input suggestions are now provided. This has not only improved the accuracy of input values and suppressed variations in notation, but it has also reduced the time per task to less than 3 minutes. In other words, I believe we have compressed our operational efficiency by a factor of five, effectively increasing our productivity fivefold. While end-user customer information is entered daily by each sales team, the registration of corporate entities—such as the B-tier companies in the distribution chain or the financial institutions mentioned earlier—is inherently burdensome and prone to inconsistent notation. The elimination of the hassle of manual entry from scratch has been a major change and has been very well received by the field teams. The same applies to business card data.

Kamiya

Regarding the registration of personal sales activity history in Salesforce, users previously had to enter it manually before the LBC integration. However, I have heard that since the LBC integration, the data is pre-populated, making it much easier to register activity history.

Ashida

By introducing the uSonar LBC code, we were able to eliminate approximately 20% of duplicate corporate data that originally existed within Salesforce. Since then, we have been able to centralize our data, enabling sales and marketing activities based on accurate corporate information. For example, we are now able to accurately generate reports on the number of business cards, sales negotiations, and opportunities for each branch office using the Salesforce dashboard. From there, we can identify which branches are receiving sufficient referrals from financial institutions and which branches have room for improvement. Furthermore, based on the data visualized on the dashboard, we are now able to discuss how to formulate strategies to achieve our KPIs.

Tanaka

Looking back, our data used to be siloed, and creating reports using spreadsheets for meetings was a cumbersome task. Now, with the dashboard, the need for unnecessary manual report creation has been eliminated. We can say that sales productivity has increased significantly.

Kamiya

Since we were switching business card management services, the secure migration of business card image data was a major hurdle, but they handled it with great attention to detail. We are constantly responding to inquiries regarding operation methods, and we plan to further increase adoption by holding training sessions in collaboration with uSonar.

Tanaka

One example is handling personnel transfers. In every sales field, including real estate and financial institutions, business is largely built on human connections. While we naturally perform handovers to ensure these connections are not lost during transfers, being able to see on the data that a predecessor had a specific relationship with a client makes the transition smoother and serves as a benchmark for the successor's activities.

Ashida

We could also identify local builders within a branch's area that we do not yet have a relationship with and approach them.

Kamiya

We have already received numerous inquiries from the field, such as, 'The rating for this company we are considering doing business with is at this level in mSonar; is it safe to proceed with the contract?' The ability to easily check a counterparty's creditworthiness on your smartphone is a major advantage of mSonar, so we would like to ensure this is well-communicated to our staff.

Tanaka

For example, if we can quickly identify that a customer works for a group company in a corporate-dominated town, we might be able to tailor our communication or proposals accordingly. I have high expectations for the potential of mSonar and LBC.