In this article, we introduce how a company (name withheld) that runs mail-order and consulting businesses has put Kanal-WEB to work.
Centered on online sales involving imports and exports, the company runs a wide range of businesses, including system development and consulting, and delivers added value in each field. Particularly notable is its initiative to develop a proprietary system that lets sales partners manage every step of import sales in one place and offer it to them.
To further strengthen this proprietary system and help sales partners work more efficiently, the company introduced Kanal-WEB, a kintone integration plugin. It built a dedicated My Page for each partner, creating a mechanism for efficiently providing the information and tools partners need. Through this My Page, it provides a variety of information and features that support partners' businesses.
We spoke with the person responsible for building in-house systems and driving digital transformation (DX) at the company. In the interview, we heard in detail about the challenges the company faced before adoption, the background that led it to Kanal-WEB, why it chose Kanal-WEB from among many options, and the results it has achieved since.
Through this case study, we'll show how Kanal-WEB can help companies solve their challenges.
Challenge: Rising Costs and Feature Limits as Membership Grew
Reaching the Limits of the Existing System as New Challenges Emerged
The company introduced kintone in July 2021, linking it to its member site. From the start, it used a My Page plugin built for kintone integration, but as operations progressed, several challenges became apparent. The existing system was struggling to keep up with the growing number of My Page members and the features they required.
First, system fees that rose with the number of members became a heavy burden. While membership growth was a welcome result, looking ahead to further growth, the company became increasingly concerned about costs that would rise in proportion.
Another problem was that the existing system was difficult to customize flexibly, and a growing number of requirements could not be met. As operations progressed, demand for more advanced features grew, yet the company frequently had to give up on them because of the system's constraints and complexity.
To solve these challenges, the company reviewed its My Page plugin about two and a half years after adopting kintone.
In the review, the top-priority requirements were "cost" and "the flexibility and extensibility to keep pace with a growing My Page".
Why Kanal-WEB: Flat-Rate Pricing and Flexible Extensibility
"A Flat Rate Regardless of Membership" and "Flexible Customization and Extensibility"
The company chose bitRiver's Kanal-WEB, which it found through an online search. The decision to switch to this plugin came down to two main points.
Flat-Rate Pricing That Eliminates Rising Costs as Membership Grows
The company currently has about 2,000 members and expects that number to keep growing, but with Kanal-WEB, the cost stays the same regardless of the number of members.
Because Kanal-WEB sets no upper limit on the number of members, the company can operate stably while keeping costs down even as its member base keeps growing. This was a very attractive point for a company focused on long-term growth.
Easy Customization and High Extensibility
Kanal-WEB also allows flexible design customization and offers a wide range of integrations with other tools and services. In particular, the ability to connect a custom domain, offer a chat service to customers, and extend functionality with JavaScript met requirements that had been difficult to meet with the existing system and greatly increased operational freedom.
This greatly widened the range of possible system designs, bringing the company closer to the "ideal system" it had previously given up on because of constraints. By leveraging JavaScript, it can build a finely tuned system that attends to every detail.
For these reasons, the company decided to switch to Kanal-WEB, and operations are now running smoothly, taking full advantage of its high flexibility and stable cost structure.
System Architecture
kintone Inquiry Management App
Inquiry Management Connected to kintone Customer Management
The administrative office manages all inquiries centrally in kintone through the inquiry management app.
Users submit inquiries through Kanal-WEB, and each exchange with the office is managed in its own thread per inquiry.
Results: Lower Costs and Stronger Customer Support Through Behavior Log Analysis
Monthly Costs Cut by More Than 50%
By introducing the new system, the company significantly reduced the monthly costs that had been weighing on it, bringing them down to less than half of what they were before.
Thanks to Kanal-WEB's fixed cost structure, monthly fees will not change no matter how much membership grows, so the company can expect stable operating costs over the long term. This has dispelled concerns about rising costs and allowed the company to focus on running and enriching its My Page with peace of mind.
A 20% Drop in Inquiries Improves Operational Efficiency
Improving the quality of the FAQ feature also delivered major results. Because users can now find solutions more accurately and quickly, the number of inquiries fell by up to 20%.
As a result, fewer staff resources are needed to handle inquiries, and the time and effort saved can now go toward other important work and projects. This is expected to improve overall operational efficiency.
Behavior Log Analysis Enables Outreach to Inactive Users
Capturing behavior logs was not possible with the old system. Advanced support features that make use of user behavior logs have also helped dramatically improve operational efficiency. By analyzing log data, the company can now proactively reach out to inactive users and provide customer support tailored to users' interests and activity.
For example, it can send guidance at the right moment to users who have not completed a particular step, enabling a more personalized approach.
A Refined Design That Improves the User Experience
Another positive impact on operations after adopting Kanal-WEB is that the visual design of the entire system has greatly improved. With Kanal-WEB, the company adopted a refined, visually organized design that has dramatically improved usability and the user experience.
The refined design also makes a good impression on external partners and customers, enhancing the company's image. Another benefit of the more polished look is that it gives users the reassurance that "this system can be trusted".
A Positive Atmosphere and Proactive Initiatives Across the Company
One notable effect since introducing the new system is that requests and ideas such as "I'd like to make this happen" and "Maybe we could do this" now come in actively—not only from the staff directly in charge, but also from employees in other departments and at different levels.
This kind of movement, never seen before, is evidence that a positive attitude of "wanting to try new things" is taking root throughout the company.
The system's high extensibility has played a major role in this positive change. Because the environment allows new features and ideas to be realized flexibly, employees feel that "this might actually be possible" and have begun actively sharing their opinions.
In particular, beyond everyday operational improvements, new proposals and ideas that no one had considered before are now emerging—a sign that the system's extensibility is not just a technical asset but also contributes to higher motivation and stronger teamwork within the company. This proactive atmosphere is also boosting the vitality of the company as a whole and raising expectations for further growth.
What the Company Valued About Working with bitRiver
Fast, Smooth Support
What the company found especially outstanding about working with bitRiver was its speed of response.
"Support for external systems is usually handled by email, which often means waiting for answers. With bitRiver, however, we could communicate with their staff in real time via chat, and this quick response was extremely convenient." (Person in charge)
Chat delivers quick answers to inquiries and often resolves issues on the spot, eliminating the repeated back-and-forth typical of email.
"The lead time to resolve issues has been shortened, which has ultimately sped up our operations as a whole." (Person in charge)
Because the company operates multiple external systems, the speed of support has a major impact on its operational efficiency, so this quick response has been a great help.
Kanal-WEB Support That Grows with You
What the company found especially reassuring when adopting Kanal-WEB was that bitRiver went beyond simply providing a system, offering support that stays by the customer's side throughout the entire project. The process of carefully listening to requests and using them to improve the system and add new features gave the impression that Kanal-WEB itself was growing alongside the company.
In fact, a LINE integration feature was added after the company adopted Kanal-WEB (though the company does not use it), and the company finds it attractive that Kanal-WEB's value keeps increasing over time and its features continue to evolve.
After the Interview
Efficient Operations and Business Growth with Kanal-WEB
This interview reaffirmed for us how much Kanal-WEB contributes to the company's operational efficiency and business growth. We were particularly impressed that its flexible extensibility and attentive support not only keep day-to-day operations running smoothly but also lay the foundation for long-term growth.
The company plans to keep evolving its system with Kanal-WEB to serve its growing member base and increasingly diverse needs. We look forward to its continued success.
As this case shows, Kanal-WEB goes beyond improving efficiency and solving business challenges—it plays an important role as a foundation for corporate growth. Its flexible extensibility and high convenience are put to use across a wide range of industries.
Please feel free to contact us to discuss how Kanal-WEB can help with your business challenges and goals. We will give you our full support.
