Okada

The Marketing Department I belong to is responsible for product planning, development, and the formulation and promotion of sales strategies. With a team of approximately 30 members, we primarily oversee 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, social media operations, public relations, sales activity promotion, and the promotion of sales system utilization (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. Consequently, a unified code was 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, and business card management was primarily paper-based and held individually by sales representatives. Furthermore, since customer data was also being created through manual entry, we could not unify the notation rules for addresses, company names, and personal names, leading to inconsistencies that further complicated the problem.

Okada

I was at a loss for a while. 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 were services that sell corporate data and provide master data on a one-time 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 due to new customer registrations. 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 sales targets include 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 attraction. 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 nationwide company data down to the branch level, and they manage data using a common code 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 format, the same customer is assigned a common LBC Code. This allowed us to identify duplicate company 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 managed to reduce our facility information, which consisted of over 100,000 records, by more than half. This data compression reduced 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

Beyond 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 it was registered 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, which limited our list to fewer than 1,000 contacts. However, since integrating with mSonar, that number has increased by approximately fivefold. The fact that sales representatives no longer have to perform manual data entry, as they did with Excel, has been a significant benefit.

Okada

Regarding results, looking back, this kintone and uSonar implementation project was essentially completed by me alone, with only partial assistance from our internal IT department. The low barrier to entry for system implementation and integration was a great help. I was also impressed by the dedicated sales and implementation support from uSonar, as well as their prompt responses to our inquiries.

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 history, 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 each section across all sales departments to promote understanding, and we facilitated the transition from initial implementation to expanded usage by conducting follow-up sessions. While adoption is progressing, I feel there is still some variation in proficiency levels among individual users. Moving forward, we aim to standardize and elevate these skill levels while encouraging more proactive usage to improve our overall sales and marketing capabilities.