Kase

Our Corporate & Premier Strategy Department, Management Support Group, is tasked with the mission of strengthening sales capabilities. In addition to serving corporate clients, we also manage relationships with business owners and high-net-worth individuals. Beyond enhancing traditional face-to-face sales, we have been working on improving sales efficiency, including non-face-to-face approaches, since this fiscal year.

Nakai

We are also responsible for the improvement, maintenance, and management of systems such as SFA/CRM (Sales Force Automation/Customer Relationship Management). In addition to performing ongoing updates, we actively respond to requests for configuration changes or system enhancements from headquarters and branch offices. Furthermore, promoting data utilization—such as supporting data aggregation, data cleansing, and information dissemination to various departments—is also a vital part of our role.

Kase

We first implemented uSonar in 2018. At that time, a major challenge for Resona Bank was the inability to effectively centralize customer information. Although we had implemented Salesforce and were accumulating customer data, there was no common key to identify companies, which led to duplicate corporate records. To resolve this, we introduced LBC, the corporate database from uSonar, and integrated it with Salesforce. This enabled us to manage customers not only at the head office level but also at the corporate group level.

Nakai

Subsequently, our medium-term management plan emphasized "Group Consolidated Operations," requiring us to provide optimal proposals to customers across the entire Resona Group, rather than just through Resona Bank alone. To achieve this, we expanded the data utilization infrastructure—which we had built by integrating uSonar and Salesforce within Resona Bank—to all companies within the Resona Group.

Kase

Indeed. Since there was no common key to identify that different records belonged to the same company, building an integrated infrastructure was extremely challenging. By adopting LBC as our common key, I feel we have finally established the foundation necessary to connect data between the bank and our group companies.

Nakai

At Resona Bank, our corporate sales representatives utilize mSonar; however, we previously faced the challenge of customer information not being properly handed over due to frequent personnel transfers. In the banking sector, there is significant movement of personnel, with both account managers and their supervisors changing frequently. Consequently, relationship data—specifically, who met with which client—was not being effectively transferred, leaving us unable to fully leverage these valuable touchpoints in our sales activities.

Kase

It was certainly the "comprehensiveness." We serve a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises, so the ability to thoroughly cover that segment was crucial. LBC covers a wide range of companies, from large corporations to small and micro-enterprises, and I felt this was a strength that other companies simply do not possess.

Nakai

In addition, the "accuracy of data matching" was also a major factor. To be honest, our internal database was not necessarily clean at the start; it contained inconsistent naming conventions and outdated information entered by various staff members. While accurate matching is difficult under those conditions, utilizing LBC allows us to correctly identify corporate information. This was a key point we expected from uSonar.

Kase

By leveraging LBC, we have been able to seamlessly visualize corporate CIF information and business card data within Salesforce. This allows us to see at a glance which departments are engaging with which clients and identify any past touchpoints, which has significantly improved the precision of our sales activities. Furthermore, by using LBC as a common key, data integration across the entire group has become seamless, making it easy to share information within the group.

Nakai

At the time of implementation, we were just beginning our Salesforce deployment project, so we decided to integrate mSonar as our business card management tool to ensure seamless connectivity. The fact that it expands the scope of utilization by connecting with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and MA (Marketing Automation) systems, rather than being a standalone tool, was also a deciding factor.

Nakai

By using LBC as a common key and integrating information across Resona Group companies, we are now able to grasp transaction statuses across the entire group, rather than just at the individual bank level. It is a significant advantage to be able to see at a glance on Salesforce that a company is doing business with both Resona Bank and other Resona Group companies.

Kase

Furthermore, being able to understand how the entire Resona Group views our customers has broadened the scope of our proposals. I feel we are moving closer to a structure where we can present optimal solutions that include not only Resona Bank products but also the services of various Resona Group companies.

Kase

Currently, mSonar is used by approximately 20 headquarters departments (about 800 people) and 120 corporate branch areas (about 1,500 people) to share business card information. The digitization of business cards and the subsequent sharing of that information have expanded our sales activities.

For example, while our sales representatives frequently meet with accounting and finance personnel, contact with other departments is rare. Furthermore, by sharing business card information exchanged by executives at meetings, we can now view contact information for high-level decision-makers. By recording and sharing this information through mSonar, we can leverage previously invisible connections, allowing our sales representatives to operate more strategically.

We are also utilizing it from a marketing perspective. Based on the business card data collected via mSonar, we conduct email campaigns and have branches approach customers who have shown interest. Contact information that was previously underutilized has now led to new sales approaches and strengthened relationships.

Nakai

First and foremost, I would like to deepen the collaboration among Resona Group companies more than ever before. The ideal scenario is to share even the "records of sales activities" across the entire Resona Group. There are many challenges that cannot be solved by Resona Bank alone, and I believe that by combining solutions from group companies—such as cards, payments, and think tanks—we can visualize who is having what conversations with which customers, thereby enabling us to offer a broader range of proposals. To achieve this, I want to further advance the centralization of data by leveraging uSonar, which covers 12.5 million corporate location records.

Kase

That said, while data sharing within the Resona Group sounds straightforward, it does have its complexities. There are issues regarding information management rules and system investments, so I believe it is crucial to determine how to overcome those hurdles. With compliance and regulatory aspects in mind, we are proceeding step-by-step through trial and error while working to build consensus.

Nakai

We have begun connecting the data consolidated in Salesforce to a data lake for further analysis. By combining corporate attributes and touchpoint information here, I believe we can use AI and BI tools (management analysis tools) to discover similar companies and predict which prospects to approach next.

Kase

That is exactly right. "Group-wide consolidated operations" is highlighted in our medium-term management plan, and driving strategy across the entire Resona Group has become a major theme. By combining information from the sales front lines with uSonar's corporate data, we hope to further enhance the value we provide to our customers.