Tanaka

Within our business strategy, we have established seven core business pillars, including custom housing. This encompasses not only custom homes that focus on meticulous design but also new business ventures such as select housing, where dual-income households that prioritize cost and time performance can choose their preferences online. As we evolve in line with global changes, we consider the development of information infrastructure for our employees nationwide—particularly the tools and data environment for our sales divisions—to be a vital 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 sales representative at our branch offices.

Tanaka

In our sales division, we use Salesforce as our core system. I have a long history with Salesforce, having been involved in its implementation during the early 2010s while I was in the Corporate Planning Department. Later, I also managed it from the perspective of sales field operations. As data accumulated within Salesforce, corporate data duplication occurred, which hindered its effective use. Consequently, in my current role, I have been involved in restructuring the operational environment.

Tanaka

When operating internally, data issues such as inconsistencies in notation and failure to update records inevitably occur during data entry. Upon learning about the LBC code from uSonar, which can reconcile any notation variations and consolidate data into unique records, 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

In addition to B2C scenarios such as attracting customers to housing exhibitions, our company engages in B2B sales, where we sell lumber and building materials to construction firms and serve corporate clients who are building owners. Furthermore, we have a B2B2C 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 financial institutions and tax accountants are often the first point of contact for owners looking to effectively utilize their land or buildings, we place great importance on our relationships with these partners and real estate agents in every branch area.

Tanaka

We utilize Salesforce to grasp our relationships with these 'B' entities acting as intermediaries and to visualize differences in activity levels across our branches, while using LBC codes to normalize and update our data. Since we became able to integrate with LBC codes, accurate data is linked even for small-scale businesses, which has made data entry significantly easier for everyone. Conversely, before that, it was difficult to enforce data entry rules, which led to data duplication.

Tanaka

I believe everyone was using it with the mindset of it being just an 'electronic business card file.' It was a free business card management app that could integrate with Salesforce, but we had no real sense of benefit 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 mSonar, which, although a paid service, comes equipped with LBC.

Tanaka

The deciding factor was the ability to envision the convenience of a business card application that integrates with LBC codes, which cover even the smallest business locations nationwide. Previously, even when we scanned business card information using a management application, we could not effectively utilize it in conjunction with Salesforce. As mentioned earlier, our company already manages customer data in Salesforce using LBC codes. With mSonar, LBC codes are linked the moment a business card is scanned, allowing Salesforce data and business card data to be linked instantly. I felt that this dramatic level of convenience provides value to field sales teams that other applications simply cannot achieve.

Tanaka

We compared three to four well-known business card management applications in terms of functionality and cost.

Tanaka

In our 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 information is immediately linked to the corporate data in uSonar, which is maintained at the level of small and medium-sized enterprises and sole proprietorships. I would like departments and group companies that frequently exchange business cards to use mSonar as a standard.

Ashida

Regarding the registration of customer information (input burden), I have heard that it has become much easier for our field sales teams. Previously, recording visit activities or interviews in Salesforce, creating related corporate data, and logging interactions took an average of 15 minutes per person per task. With the introduction of uSonar, input candidates are now suggested. This has not only improved the accuracy of input values and suppressed variations in notation, but also reduced the time per task to less than three 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, registering corporate entities such as the financial institutions mentioned earlier—which act as intermediaries in the distribution channel—has always been a burdensome task prone to inconsistent notation. The elimination of the hassle of entering data from scratch is a major change that has been well-received by our field staff. The same applies to business card data.

Kamiya

Regarding the registration of activity history for my own sales accounts in Salesforce, I have heard that while staff previously had to register everything manually before the LBC integration, the data is now pre-populated, making it much easier to record activity history.

Ashida

By introducing the LBC code from uSonar, we were able to eliminate approximately 20% of the 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 opportunities, and deals per branch using the Salesforce dashboard. This allows us to identify branches that are receiving sufficient referrals from financial institutions and those with further potential. 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 fragmented, and creating reports using spreadsheets for meetings was time-consuming. Now, with the dashboard, the need to create unnecessary numerical tables has been eliminated. We can say that sales productivity has increased significantly.

Kamiya

Since we were switching our business card management service, the secure migration of business card image data was a critical challenge, but they handled it with great attention to detail. We are constantly responding to inquiries regarding operation methods, and we plan to further promote adoption by holding training sessions with the cooperation of uSonar.

Tanaka

One example is managing personnel changes. In any sales environment, including real estate and financial institutions, business is largely built on interpersonal connections. While handovers are standard practice to ensure these connections are not lost during transfers, being able to visualize on data that 'the predecessor had this specific relationship with this client' makes the transition smoother and serves as a benchmark for the successor's activities.

Ashida

We could also identify potential new business opportunities, such as approaching local builders within a branch's territory that we have not yet engaged with.

Kamiya

We have already received numerous inquiries from the field, such as, 'The credit score of the company we are considering doing business with is at this level on mSonar; is it safe to proceed with the contract?' The ability to easily check a counterparty's creditworthiness on a smartphone is a major advantage of mSonar, and we intend to promote this throughout the field.

Tanaka

For example, if we can quickly identify that a prospect works for a group company in an area such as a corporate castle town, we may be able to tailor our communication and proposals accordingly. We have high expectations for the potential of mSonar and LBC.