Tohoku Copy Hanbai Co., Ltd. ("Tohoku Copy Hanbai") is a multifunction printer dealer based in Fukushima Prefecture. Prompted by the digitization of its customer information management, the company has been transforming its own operations while pursuing innovative cloud-based initiatives aimed at building a new kind of relationship with its customers.
At the Japan Workstyle Transformation Awards 2024 (Kanto & Shinetsu Regional Round), which recognize companies and organizations—mainly in the Kanto and Shinetsu regions—that practice advanced workstyle transformation using digital tools, the company received the Encouragement Award. It was highly praised for using digital tools effectively to streamline operations and create new value.
Guided by this fiscal year's slogan, "The Customer's Perspective: Seeing the Same View as Our Customers," the company continues to pursue improvement and reform. We spoke with Tsuyoshi Takahashi, President and Representative Director of Tohoku Copy Hanbai Co., Ltd., about the improvements and reforms achieved with its Kanal-WEB-based system.
Tsuyoshi Takahashi, President and Representative Director
Challenge: Inconsistent Quality of Information Provided to Customers
Entering a Phase of Workstyle Transformation That Evolves with Customers
The company has carried out numerous business improvement and reform initiatives. Having moved through stages such as "graduating from a paper-based culture" and "understanding customers in higher resolution," it has now entered a new phase: "transforming workstyles together with customers."
This transformation began with solving specific problems that surfaced in conversations with customers.
The company frequently heard concerns about "understanding current costs" and "asset management (IT equipment, vehicles, and so on)," and came to feel that the challenges customers faced shared common roots: "cumbersome management" and "a lack of visibility."
For example, the company saw a number of issues that directly affected operational efficiency, such as customers not knowing exactly where their assets were or how many they had, or equipment being left as is without anyone knowing when it was due for renewal.
Meanwhile, the company itself was facing the challenge of "providing consistent information." As a hardware dealer, it relies mainly on in-person sales, and a persistent concern was that the way information was conveyed—and its nuance—varied from one sales representative to another.
Even when explaining the same product or service, the content of the explanation could differ by representative, and the information customers received could vary from one customer to the next.
Especially during customers' busy seasons, information sometimes failed to get through, depending on how busy customers were or how much they had on their minds. Reflecting on those situations, Takahashi says: "I was always thinking about whether we could build a system that provides accurate information at the same level at any time, regardless of the circumstances of our sales reps or our customers."
Consistently providing the information customers need, when they need it, unaffected by the circumstances or feelings of either the representative or the customer—this has become a major pillar of the company's current workstyle transformation.
Solution: A My Page That Centralizes Customer Asset Information
Solving Customer and Company Challenges at Once with a Dedicated Customer My Page
In the course of its business, the company had keenly felt the need for a system that could efficiently solve not only its own challenges but also those of its customers. Around that time, at an information-sharing event among Cybozu partners, it had the opportunity to hear bitRiver explain Kanal-WEB. After the explanation, the company came to think, "With Kanal-WEB, we might be able to solve both our own challenges and our customers' challenges with a single system."
That idea led to what it has today: "a dedicated customer My Page that handles both asset management and information delivery in a single system."
"The first thing I noticed was that we already had all the information our customers wanted to manage—installation dates, contract renewal dates, contract documents, and so on. I thought that if we provided this through an easy-to-understand system, our customers could manage their costs and assets much more efficiently." (Takahashi)
"Consistent Information" Through My Page
In addition, by delivering information to customers on the same platform, the company could create a system that lets customers access the information they need online, whenever they need it. The company expected this to improve the speed and accuracy of information delivery and make "consistent information" possible at all times.
"We believed that once this system was complete, it would do more than cut costs and streamline asset management—it would draw out our customers' creativity and ideas and contribute to the growth of their businesses." (Takahashi)
The company also hoped these efforts would help promote digitalization across the entire region.
Why Kanal-WEB: Flat-Rate Pricing and a Flexible Customer-Facing Information Platform
Peace of Mind with Flat-Rate Pricing
Because the company had been using kintone internally since 2015, its system review focused on services that could integrate with kintone. To solve its challenges, it compared several vendors' services in search of the best system. When it first began considering a new system, its specific requirements had not yet been defined, so it researched a wide range of systems with similar features.
The first reason the company gave for ultimately choosing Kanal-WEB was the cost peace of mind that comes with "flat-rate pricing."
The company currently has about 500 customers registered as members, but many customers have yet to register, and membership is expected to keep growing. In this situation, there was a concern that, with a usage-based service, costs would swell with every new member.
By contrast, Kanal-WEB places no limit on the number of members, and the price stays the same no matter how many there are, which makes stable operation possible over the long term. The company found this flexible pricing structure very attractive.
bitRiver's Attentive Support Was a Major Deciding Factor
Takahashi says that bitRiver's support system was a major factor in the company's decision to adopt Kanal-WEB.
The company does not have staff with specialized programming knowledge and builds its systems mainly with kintone's standard features. Technical support was therefore essential, and bitRiver's attentive, thorough assistance was very reassuring.
Fast Response Times
What stood out most was the "speed of response." Because inquiries were answered promptly, problems could be resolved without wasting time. Takahashi particularly valued that bitRiver responds quickly even to specialized questions about kintone.
Support desk staff often lack technical knowledge and, in many cases, answer technical questions only after checking with in-house specialists, which can slow down responses. At bitRiver, however, the founder is an engineer, and that technical expertise extends to the sales and project staff, so even frontline staff have strong technical knowledge. As a result, complex technical questions were often answered accurately on the spot, enabling problems to be resolved quickly.
Flexibility in Responding to Requests
Another point the company values highly is bitRiver's "flexibility in responding to requests."
For example, bitRiver carefully accommodated requests about fine details of the interface's appearance, such as adjusting report layouts and whether to display tables. The result is a system that is visually clear and intuitive to use. This attention to detail further raised the overall quality of the system.
An Asset Management My Page Linked to kintone Customer Management
Dedicated Customer My Page: Top Page
Information in kintone is displayed through Kanal-WEB. Besides changing the color scheme from the basic settings screen, you can customize the site with JavaScript and CSS as needed. *The design shown here uses the basic settings.
Centralized Management and Delivery of Contract Information and Content
Contract information—including equipment details, counter readings, multifunction printer maintenance history, lease contracts, internet-related contracts, and cloud contracts—is compiled into lists and delivered through the My Page alongside DX content.
This lets customers view all the information they need in one place and put it to efficient use.
Results: Stronger Customer Touchpoints Through Continuous Information Delivery
Data Visibility and Operational Efficiency
With Kanal-WEB, data that was previously hidden has become visible, and operations are becoming more efficient. For example, now that customers can view their print volumes in a list, they can analyze why printing increased during certain periods and take steps to cut unnecessary costs. Areas that had previously been dismissed as "unavoidable" are now being examined closely and leading to concrete improvements.
The system includes a feature that lets customers chart their own data and output it as a clear, single-page analysis report. This not only makes information sharing within the customer's organization smoother but, because the data can be presented as a visually organized report, also proves useful in internal meetings and reporting. Summarizing complex data concisely appears to be deepening understanding among everyone involved.
Copy Usage in List Form
Customers Chart Their Own Data
New Information Offerings Lead to More Customer Consultations
By leveraging digital technology, the company can now provide customers with more useful information than ever, and as a result, requests and consultations from customers have increased. Adopting agile and lean startup thinking and building on small improvements, it has accelerated efforts to give customers more natural opportunities to engage with digital tools. Beyond improving efficiency, this approach has also led customers to see Tohoku Copy Hanbai as "a company with fresh perspectives," giving them positive inspiration.
Delivering Value Through Continuous Information Sharing
The company regularly distributes DX-related content and has set things up so that new customers can also access past information.
This extends the useful life of each piece of content, so it continues to serve customers as an ongoing resource.
A New Angle in an Industry Where Differentiation Is Difficult
Especially memorable were these words from a customer:
"There can't be many vendors anywhere in Japan that go this far—probably only Tohoku Copy Hanbai. You've found a fresh approach in an industry where it's hard to stand out."
Looking back on that moment, Takahashi says, "It was the moment I gained confidence in what we were doing." Seeing their efforts reach customers and be recognized as valuable gave the team even more motivation.
Customer Feedback Energizes the Company and Drives New Challenges
Inside the company, these customer reactions have also had a positive effect on employees. Feeling firsthand that their work benefits customers has made it more rewarding, and an atmosphere of actively taking on new challenges has emerged.
Perhaps because people identified with the company's commitment to workstyle transformation, it has also attracted young hires from outside the prefecture, and young employees with fresh perspectives have even launched new businesses on their own—positive energy is flowing throughout the company.
Expanding Business Opportunities Through Collaboration
There has also been an unexpected by-product. Other companies in the same industry began asking how they could launch the same kind of initiative, which led to a SaaS OEM business and new partnerships. The company feels that, beyond simply implementing a system, collaborating with other companies is further expanding its business possibilities. Going forward, it hopes to promote digitalization across the entire industry and deliver new value through such collaboration.
After the Interview
Our Customers' Growth Is Our Growth: A Commitment to Growing Together Drives Transformation
Tohoku Copy Hanbai was recognized at the Japan Workstyle Transformation Awards 2024, and the way Tohoku Copy Hanbai in Fukushima and bitRiver in Hiroshima work together across a great distance is itself seen as part of that workstyle transformation.
Throughout the interview, we could clearly see how Tohoku Copy Hanbai's ideas took shape and led to its next challenges. Initiatives aimed at revitalizing the region are fostering its customers' own growth, which in turn drives the growth of the company as a whole. The idea that "our customers' growth leads to our own growth" seems to point to an important direction for business going forward.
In the same way, bitRiver has improved the quality of Kanal-WEB by listening carefully to customers and turning their requests into reality. We firmly believe that supporting the growth of customers such as Tohoku Copy Hanbai leads to the growth of both our company and Kanal-WEB itself. Our commitment to growing together by supporting our customers' operational efficiency and the expansion of their business opportunities will not change.
This interview renewed our determination to keep giving our full support to customers as they move forward with their communities and open up new possibilities.
See It for Yourself on the Actual Screens
Try every feature free for 30 days.