Case Study: Moving Nearly All Email with About 20 Manufacturers and 100+ Contacts into the Business System "J-Client+"

Overview

The Japan Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration Testing Laboratory is an organization that carries out third-party performance testing and certification of air conditioning and refrigeration equipment. It dealt daily with about 20 manufacturers and more than 100 contacts, but everything, from requesting and submitting documents to registering models and communicating inspection results, relied on email and phone. Just tracking how far each case had progressed and which documents were the latest took up a lot of time.

We developed "J-Client+," a business system that brings together all the work that arises after a contract with a manufacturer. Both the testing and certification body and the manufacturers handle chat, document submission management, model registration and approval, and deadline management on the same screens.

Challenges

• Communication with about 20 companies and more than 100 people was scattered across email, making it impossible to see the progress of each case across the board
• It was hard to keep accurate track of which documents attached to emails were the latest and what had not yet been submitted
• With the risk of missed responses and overdue deadlines hanging over them, staff lost time on checking work

What We Did

• Chat for each product and work group, so that everyone involved shares the conversation, files included
• A flow for requesting, submitting and returning documents, with automatic reminders before and after deadlines
• An approval flow from model registration through review to publication for four types of equipment
• Annual to-do management that centralizes each manufacturer's action items and deadlines

Results

• Nearly 100% of business communication with manufacturers moved into the system
• Document submission status, deadlines and approval progress can now be checked in the system right away
• The client says it is "extremely well made and easy to use," and manufacturer users also rate it highly

Starting with the Most Pressing Work, in Six Months

All the required features were clear, but building them all at once was expected to take 9 months to a year of development. During that time, the most pressing work would have been left untouched. So we proposed building first only for the review work, where communication is most frequent and mistakes most likely. Meetings are held online once or twice a week as a rule, with contracts and important decisions handled in person, and everyone involved takes part in the chat to prevent misunderstandings.

By not building everything at once and starting with the most burdensome work, the client was able to begin operating the system in about six months. After that, in response to feedback from manufacturers, we added to-do management, model registration and the approval flow in turn, growing the system to fit the work on the ground as it is used. We have continued development as a co-creation partner after the release.

Our Role

• Organizing business processes and requirements definition
• Screen design
• Design, development and testing
• Infrastructure setup
• Feature expansion after release

Client

Company Name

Japan Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration Testing Laboratory

Business Overview

• Third-party performance testing and certification of air conditioning and refrigeration equipment

Frequently Asked Questions

We have many business partners, and the information each one needs differs by role. Can you handle that? Yes. In this case, we separated the information visible to, and the operations available to, testing and certification body staff, manufacturers' lead contacts, and general contacts, organizing complex work into easy-to-understand screens.

Do we have to wait until every feature is ready? No. You can choose to start using the system for the most burdensome work first and add the rest while using it. In this case, operation began in about six months.

Will our business partners' staff actually use it? In this case, the response from manufacturers has been generally positive, and adoption has progressed without major problems. The requests we received have been reflected in later feature additions.

Related

• Digitizing work that relies on email and phone → DX promotion support
• Developing business systems that external partners also use → System development

Related news

• Release of "J-Client+," a system for business DX
• Starting a co-creation project to make industry-specific work more efficient and improve communication

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