The crown that I won with all my support for NAKAMA

Appearing in the September issue of UNI SQUARE is Nao Shimamura of UNIVA Fusion (hereafter, Fusion), the second winner of UNIVA AWARDS 2023. Shimamura's reason for winning the award is that she has brilliantly achieved two reforms that have significantly improved the efficiency of internal operations. Shimamura's work style, which supports the growth of NAKAMA and the company from back office work, has given new light to many NAKAMA engaged in back office work within the UNIVA Group.

Congratulations Shimamura-san!

Feeling rewarded in the back office and going to Fusion

Why did Shimamura, who used to work in customer service at ANA, decide to work at Fusion's back office? It was the huge hit product "Kombucha Cleanse" that brought us together.

"In my third year at ANA, I started to be involved in new employee training and back office work in addition to customer service. At that time, I felt more fulfilled in back office work and employee support than in customer service, so I decided to change jobs. I was looking for a company that could do clerical work and produce health foods and beauty products, which are my interests, when I found Fusion. I was surprised to find out that it was the company that made the 'Kombucha Cleanse' that I used to drink (laughs)."

Shimamura says that she could imagine the atmosphere of the company thanks to her love of "Kombucha Cleanse". She also decided to join the company because she wanted to work for her current boss, shinohara, who interviewed her. Before Shimamura joined Fusion, there were no office staff. Each department was responsible for the work that the office staff should have supported. When Shimamura joined the company, she had no idea what kind of administrative support she needed. This is how Shimamura's challenge began as the first clerk for Fusion.

Optimization of management resources

Fusion's main job is to plan and sell beauty and health-related products such as "Kombucha Cleanse". The system and information management that underpins the complex scheduled delivery model is a very important business foundation for Fusion.

"When I grasped the work of each department, I found that there was no information sharing or coordination between departments. We spent time searching for the latest data without even knowing where it was. The system company didn't have a single point of contact, and we had to do the same request twice from different people. In addition, various issues were highlighted, such as the fact that the functions we had added were not well known within the company."

Information sharing and coordination, system optimization. Shimamura is working to solve this problem.

"I started by selecting the best information management tool. To be honest, it was extremely difficult for me to find a tool that was easy to use and efficient for work. Even after finding the tool, I had to understand how it works and how to use it, so I learned a lot. Interviews with the management department and the customer team were very helpful for practical use."

Shimamura ultimately chose the information management tool "NOTION". After the introduction, we implemented three major measures.

"The first is the opening of an in-house Wikipedia. I have created a list of data overviews so that anyone can get to the latest information immediately so that they don't get lost in the storage of data, and the last updater and update date can be seen at a glance. The second is the creation of manuals such as procedures for cancelling subscriptions and resuming subscriptions. By making the know-how that was personal into a manual, we were able to spread the know-how and unify the procedures. This made it possible for anyone without experience to work, and we were able to minimize problems and complaints due to delays in response. Finally, the creation of a bulletin board was very popular. This bulletin board function was a great success. We were able to add 13 functions a year by creating a place where people could easily suggest questions and requests for renovation."

With the introduction of NOTION, there was no need to increase the number of office workers, and the company succeeded in reducing labor costs by 2 million yen per year. The work efficiency of each department has also improved, leading to a second reform, with the addition of new functions to the cart system.

150 minutes reduced to 1/10! New cart system features added

In parallel with the NOTION introduction project, a project team for system reform will be launched and will take action. Shimamura and one person each from the administration department and CRM department were selected, and the team of three aimed to improve operations and realize efficiency.

The cart system Lexica, which started operation last year, is a flexible cart system that allows users to add and customize functions to suit their own scheduled delivery models. However, since there was no coordinator, the work was inefficient and unproductive. Therefore, Shimamura sorted out the requests of each department that were collected through Notion, and directed the addition of functions to Lexica.

"The biggest thing was the addition of a bulk update function for operations. The fact that routine work, which had to be handled one by one, can now be completed in bulk has greatly reduced the work time from 50 cases/150 minutes to 1/10."

In addition, They have added categories of cancellation reasons and introduced information sharing templates both inside and outside the company, contributing to operational efficiency and the reduction of mistakes. Are you starting a new project right now?

"Actually, we are moving to introduce the word-of-mouth generating tool "Kikikomi" from Gyro-n (UNIVA Gyro-n) to fusion. I was able to talk about various things during the incentive tour with Yurika Ono from Gyro-n, who won the UNIVA AWARDS for the development of "Kikikomi", and thanks to you, we are now one step closer to the contract. This is an opportunity for growth unique to the UNIVA Group to collaborate with everyone at our group companies."

In addition to that, we are still working on reforms to make it easier for customers to use and contribute to sales, such as the introduction of LINE integration and Amazon Pay.

What the back office can do

What Shimamura has done this time is to optimize management resources. Shimamura, who understands and follows the work of all departments, has realized the issues and actions that have been taken to solve them, which is the result. What do you value in your work?

"Since I was a child, I've loved playing with Tetris and filling in the gaps (laughs). As an adult, I may be able to do it at work. I didn't think I was good at organizing data, but I'm really worried about things that aren't easy to see or that don't have order. I'd be happy if that helped everyone at the company."

Although Shimamura speaks matter-of-factly, it turns out that she is actually the holder of the "Organizing Advisor"! Isn't she a professional in organizing?

"That's right (laughs). 'Organizing advisor' is an expert who teaches how to enrich your life by reviewing how you interact with things. This qualification may be used in my work in terms of identifying the right place for things."

We asked Shimamura about her future goals.

"I would like to continue to contribute to the growth of our business by tallying and forecasting sales using customers' big data. In addition, I have progressed and challenged myself with the support of my seniors. In the future, I would like to move on to the next stage, where I will voluntarily involve people and succeed by utilizing my experience. In my private life, I would like to travel abroad alone by the age of 30."

We cheer for your future success both in your personal and professional life.
Thank you for your time!