Sawada

I am responsible for driving and leading DX and AX initiatives. I have gained hands-on experience across various departments, including Sales, Logistics, Product Development, and Customer Support. From this, I strongly believe that internal DX will not take root unless it is approached from the perspective of the frontline staff. Our company has attempted to implement SFA twice in the past, but it failed to resonate with the team and did not succeed. Now that I am in a position to lead these efforts, I have given significant thought to how we can ensure the sales team actually utilizes the system.

Sawada

At that time, we brought in consultants to assist with the implementation, but the frontline staff found it difficult to feel that the system was tailored to their daily tasks, and it did not become established as a tool that sales representatives would use on a daily basis. Our company culture is defined by "conveying excitement through food," so for this third attempt, we chose kintone, which allows the frontline staff to build their own applications, solve problems through teamwork, and maintain a sense of excitement.

Sawada

The biggest issue was that we were unable to consolidate client information. At the time, our customer database had ballooned to 100,000 records. The food service industry is characterized by frequent store turnover, changes in business models, group company mergers, and relocations. A significant amount of information changes even within a single month. We were unable to keep up with these updates, and registering new clients was also a challenge.
For example, while hotels are important clients for us, a single hotel location might have multiple business entities such as banquet halls, restaurants, and cafes, leading to fragmented invoice management. Since our sales representatives would register new entries and input sales information every time they made a new contact, there were cases where a single client was split into 20 separate records. A significant percentage of our total data was duplicated.
In our logistics department, because delivery address data contained a mix of full-width and half-width characters, we were unable to display data correctly even after implementing mapping software, which caused significant issues.
Consequently, it became extremely time-consuming to grasp data essential to our sales strategy, such as total sales per group company or identifying white space opportunities, not just for hotels but across the board.

Sawada

Of course, we considered it. We thought about creating our own proprietary codes and linking them to our clients. However, maintaining them on an ongoing basis would have been extremely difficult. As mentioned earlier, changes in the food service industry—such as mergers, acquisitions, and business model shifts—happen rapidly, requiring constant manual updates.
If we wanted to ensure the adoption of our SFA, we had to solve this data consolidation problem first. Otherwise, even if we input sales information, we would not be able to utilize it at the corporate or group level. That had been a major concern for a long time.

Sawada

Yes. I believe that this time, the third time was the charm, as we succeeded by combining Kintone as our SFA with the information consolidation capabilities provided by uSonar.

Sawada

It started when a team member suggested, "Could we achieve this by linking it with uSonar's corporate information?" I recall receiving a proposal previously, and that comment really resonated with me. We immediately arranged a meeting and learned about the concept of the LBC corporate code. "Instead of continuously organizing our own corporate master data, we should simply link it to an already maintained external corporate database." This was a major paradigm shift for us.

Sawada

I believe it was. We heard the specific details around November 2024 and achieved rapid implementation by April 2025. It simply means that we saw a clear path to solving the issues our company had been struggling with. It felt as if a light had shone into the darkness where we had been struggling for so long. We immediately began the data consolidation process, and we are now operating with accurate client information.

Sawada

Yes. We were able to link and organize approximately 40,000 business cards with LBC. Business card information is a critical customer touchpoint for the entire company. By integrating corporate information with business card data and organizing it, I believe we have established a solid foundation for managing customer information as a company.

Sawada

Since we use kintone as our SFA, we have configured it so that users can view uSonar's corporate information, contact details, affiliated companies, and branch information directly on the deal entry screen. It is not just for sales representatives entering data; anyone viewing the deal can see the full picture of the customer, such as their contacts, related companies, and group information, all on one screen. This has created a highly user-friendly interface for our sales team. We can also incorporate feedback from the field, such as toggling input fields based on whether the user is in field sales or office-based roles. This level of flexibility is a major factor in ensuring adoption across the team.

Sawada

Initially, kintone was used primarily by the Customer Department with about 20 users, as it was easier to demonstrate improvements in operational efficiency there. After introducing it to the Sales Department, usage expanded rapidly. We started with about 80 accounts, including sales administration, and that number grew by another 100. Today, we have approximately 220 users, including the Product, Customer, and Logistics departments. We realized that once the SFA is successfully adopted by the Sales Department, it naturally spreads to surrounding departments. This is largely because our customer data has been accurately organized through our integration with uSonar.

Sawada

In the sales department, we review not only project information but also corporate data, business card information, and credit data (such as credit scores and risk flags). For instance, staff members responsible for monitoring payment status and cash flow check credit-related information on a daily basis.
Furthermore, business card information is utilized not only by the sales team but also by the logistics and product departments. Being able to see who has established contact with which client leads to a better understanding of our customers across the entire company.

Sawada

Address information has been extremely helpful. Since data such as prefectures, cities, towns, and street numbers are managed separately, it is easy to use for logistics and location-based analysis. The mapping issues we were struggling with have been resolved, and we can now accurately see how many of our customers are in the same building or at the same delivery location, and which locations are generating sales. For companies involved in the food service and logistics industries, having properly organized address information is of immense significance.
It can be used not only as sales intelligence but also for logistics and location strategies. This is one of the benefits I realized after implementing uSonar.

Sawada

By selecting a department or sales office and clicking a button, a current status report is generated instantly based on project information. Large-scale projects, high-probability deals, and projects requiring attention due to low credit scores are automatically extracted.
For example, if a project has a high value but a low credit score, the system provides suggestions such as, "A supervisor should accompany the sales representative due to collection risks." It is precisely because uSonar's corporate and credit information is accurately integrated with our project data that we can utilize it for such AI-driven analysis.

Sawada

It has been highly effective. Previously, managers and team members had to create materials for meetings. Now, they can review reports generated by AI.
Since pressing a button to generate reports every time is cumbersome, the administrative office schedules specific days to pre-generate reports for each sales office. As a result, the time required for meeting preparation has been significantly reduced. The volume of materials created by team members has also decreased.
In the past, there were many instances where supervisors had to tell subordinates to report properly, but now that members are accurately entering data into kintone, supervisors are sometimes even pointed out by members if they haven't reviewed the entries (laughs).

Sawada

It is also possible to analyze sales trends by aggregating project reports over multiple weeks. Rather than looking at a single week in isolation, we can identify trends across periods. While there is still significant room for further utilization of AI-driven summarization and analysis, I feel it has the potential to transform the quality of our sales meetings and management.

Sawada

The most significant change is that we are now able to have conversations based on the details of our work. Previously, our sales representatives operated like independent sole proprietors. While managers and senior staff could ask how things were going, the specific challenges of each project remained siloed and difficult to see.
Now, project and customer information is visualized within kintone, allowing colleagues to engage in informed discussions. It has become easier to provide advice, such as, "This customer had this experience before," or "It would be better to proceed with this project in this way." This alignment with Cybozu's emphasis on teamwork—the company behind kintone—matches our corporate culture and is a key reason why we chose kintone.

Sawada

When I listen to conversations between employees in break areas, it is clearly different from before. Instead of just casual chatter, there is an increase in conversations grounded in the details of specific projects. Because we can see where someone has failed or is struggling, managers and senior staff can provide support. I believe this reduces the likelihood of individuals struggling in isolation.
In the past, every company operated with a style where results were achieved through long working hours, but today, we must achieve results within a set timeframe. To do that, we must properly equip our employees with the right tools.
SFA, corporate data, and AI-driven reports are among those tools. Having a system in place to understand customers, share project information, and collaborate with others makes it easier to achieve results. This is a perspective we learned from uSonar, and it is one we strongly resonate with.
Because this has led to improvements in work-style reform, we have even had employees return to us after moving to other companies, and fortunately, we seem to be attracting attention from both within and outside our industry. We have also obtained DX certification from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, for which we highlighted our use of kintone and uSonar.