Okada

The Marketing Department I belong to is responsible for product planning, development, and the planning and promotion of sales strategies. With approximately 30 members, we primarily manage products and markets across the entire domestic region. The department is broadly divided into four sections: Product Planning, Promotion, Digital Strategy, and EC. My team, the Digital Strategy Section, consists of four members responsible for corporate website management, SNS operations, public relations, sales activity promotion, and promoting the utilization of sales systems (kintone, product DB, and BI tools).

Okada

As a premise, our company migrated our SFA/CRM to Cybozu's kintone in July 2022. Our section is responsible for promoting the use of kintone within the sales department. With the previous SFA/CRM, both the sales and marketing teams felt that the burden of inputting customer data was excessive, and it took a significant amount of man-hours to aggregate data, analyze it, and create lists. When we migrated to kintone, we wanted to resolve these data-related issues as well.

Okada

Yes. We knew that to effectively utilize data and achieve results, we had to address the underlying issues with data organization. Specifically, multiple codes existed for the same customer, and they were not linked to each other. As a result, unified codes were not used when inputting or utilizing data for customer records or email distribution, which made the man-hour burden for analysis extremely high. Because customer data was not linked, activity reports (daily reports) were also entered under separate codes, causing data to be scattered. Furthermore, business card management was primarily paper-based and held individually by sales representatives. Additionally, because customer data was newly created through manual entry, we could not unify the formatting rules for addresses, company names, and personal names, leading to inconsistencies in notation. This further complicated the problem.

Okada

At one point, I felt at a loss. First, I explored whether we could solve it internally. We tried to perform data matching based on various criteria, but none of them resulted in a definitive common code, which left us struggling.

Okada

I was already aware from previous research that there are services that sell corporate data and provide master data on a temporary basis. However, I realized that while the data would be cleaned up temporarily, the root cause would remain, leading to the same situation over time as new customers are registered. While searching for a service that offers constant connectivity, automatically maintains data, and assigns common codes, I discovered the uSonar service.

Okada

We compared several companies, but we ultimately chose uSonar because it comprehensively organizes companies nationwide at the branch level and includes a wide variety of attribute information. Additionally, since our company targets educational institutions such as schools, the extensive database of school-related entities, including elementary schools, junior high schools, kindergartens, and nursery schools, was also a major appeal. Furthermore, it was important that we could leverage uSonar services, such as the business card and corporate information app "mSonar," to connect to proactive sales activities, rather than just focusing on the defensive aspect of data maintenance. We considered strengthening our approach by enhancing email utilization and creating lists of similar companies starting from corporate name searches.

Okada

Yes, we were successful. uSonar possesses a corporate database that covers companies across Japan down to the branch level, and manages them using a common code system for companies and branches (LBC Code). We then assign (match) these LBC Codes to our own customer data. Even if the company names or addresses in our customer data vary in notation, the same customer is assigned a common LBC Code. This allowed us to identify duplicate corporate data within the system and duplicates caused by variations in input, enabling the integration and centralization of our corporate data. While I cannot disclose the exact number of customers, after cleaning up the duplicate data, we were able to reduce the total data volume by approximately 40%. We also reduced the number of facility records, which previously numbered over 100,000, to less than half. This data reduction has lowered maintenance and utilization costs, establishing the foundation for effective corporate data utilization.

Okada

We built a corporate master, a customer master, and a business card management application within kintone. By using the LBC Code as a common identifier for all of them, they began to function smoothly. Previously, the task of linking corporate data took about 3 to 4 hours per session (or 1 to 2 days in difficult cases), but now it is completed within a few minutes, or at most 30 minutes, including list creation.

Okada

In addition to managing existing customer data, registering data for new prospects we have engaged with is also significant. By using sideSonar, data is stored within our SFA/CRM with an LBC Code attached, allowing us to link data before and after they become customers. Previously, before registration in the core sales system, each sales representative would manually create customer records for use in daily reports. As a result, we were unable to link that information with the data after registration in the core sales system.

Okada

With the implementation of mSonar, business card information captured via smartphone and digitized is immediately linked to accurate corporate data, facilitating both accumulation and utilization. Previously, we managed email distribution lists for our business partners using Excel. Naturally, maintenance such as adding new business card information was difficult, so we were limited to fewer than 1,000 entries. However, since integrating with mSonar, that number has increased by approximately 5 times. The biggest benefit is that sales representatives no longer need to perform manual data entry as they did with Excel management.

Okada

Regarding results, looking back, this kintone and uSonar implementation project was basically completed by myself, although I did receive some cooperation from our IT department. I was helped by the low barrier to entry for system implementation and integration. I also felt that the sales and implementation support from uSonar was comprehensive, and their response to inquiries was prompt.

Okada

Thanks to your support, the utilization of kintone and uSonar (including mSonar and sideSonar) is progressing smoothly. We have developed approximately 200 applications, ranging from customer master data and business card management to sales activity logs, calendar management, and product master data. Currently, about 120 members of our sales and marketing departments use these as their primary daily information infrastructure tools. To initiate the rollout, we held briefing sessions for every sales department by team to promote understanding, and we also conducted follow-up sessions to drive the transition from initial implementation to expanded usage. While utilization is currently progressing, I feel there is still some disparity in proficiency levels among individual users. Moving forward, I aim to standardize and elevate our usage levels while encouraging more proactive engagement to improve our overall sales and marketing capabilities.