Tokyo Kiramyoshi Financial Group, Inc.

Building a CRM system using Salesforce's solutions for financial services
by consolidating customer information and immediately visualizing sales information
Improving operational efficiency and productivity of the entire group

Background of Introduction

For group-wide customer support

Tokyo Kiramboshi Financial Group is a comprehensive financial group centered on Kiramboshi Bank, which was formed in May 2018 through the merger of three banks based in the Tokyo metropolitan area. In addition to Kiramoboshi Bank, the Group has more than 20 Group companies, including UI Bank, which provides application banking, consulting companies, and securities companies, and is working to resolve various issues from the standpoint of customers and communities by leveraging the Group’s collective strengths.

In order to realize customer-oriented sales activities, it is necessary to realize group-wide customer support, and there was an urgent need to expand and upgrade the systems that hold customer data, but there were a number of challenges, recalls Mr. Tateno, who is in charge of the group-wide digital strategy.

In particular, the information was scattered across multiple systems due to the inheritance of systems from the old bank, making it difficult to utilize the accumulated data to create synergies in the future. There were also issues in terms of sales efficiency, such as the fact that sales activities were analog and humanized, and sales information was not properly accumulated.”

In addition to these issues, the company also faced the problem of not being able to quickly visualize sales performance information necessary for management decision-making.

Aiming to expand and build systems in a short period of time

On the other hand, there was also the hurdle of the implementation period.
At the time the study began, there were several other digital projects in progress simultaneously, and it was not possible to allocate a large portion of the bank’s resources to new measures.
Salesforce was adopted after overcoming these challenges.

Naturally, we compared other systems, but after confirming the richness of functions and scalability through demonstrations, the most decisive factors in our decision were the ease of in-house production and the high scalability that allowed us to run multiple systems on the same platform. In addition, due to the project timeframe, we could only entrust the project to a vendor that would be able to meet our bank’s intentions and timeline.”

Mr. Okabe of Kiramboshi Bank’s Sales Planning Department, who was in charge of the project, explains how the project was implemented.

Effects of Introduction

Efforts to counter load and avoid delays

During development, various problems arose regarding operability and differences from the current system, but since the release of the system was an urgent issue, we needed to solve the problems and avoid development delays at the same time.

In order to implement the CRM system without placing a heavy burden on the multiple subsystems, TDC SOFT Inc. was stationed at our head office, allowing us to meet face-to-face at any time to discuss the project, which made it possible to implement the system in a short period of time. (Mr. Okabe)

The smooth response was made possible by constant communication not only with the Sales Planning Department, but also with various related departments, building consensus and making adjustments over time.

Mr. Ida of TDC SOFT Inc., who managed the development site, recalls that this development project had two major implementation issues: development and coordination.

We thought that delaying the development process would be fatal, so we worked to reduce the risk of delays by deploying a separate team from the requirements definition stage. We also had to deal with the busy schedule of bank staff and the large number of coordinating departments. We worked to reduce the risk of precipitations by securing a dedicated workspace at Kiriboshi Bank and stationing key personnel there from the basic design stage onward.

Realization of information sharing and streamlining of sales administration

There are two major concrete effects of the introduction of the Salesforce package.

The first is the sharing of information. However, the CRM system allows information to be shared between headquarters and all sales branches, and has made it possible to visualize customer and sales information.

The CRM system has made it possible to visualize customer and sales information. “By sharing sales information on successes and failures and utilizing the data, we are now able to make more sophisticated proposals to our customers and consider their options. It should also help improve the sales skills of our employees.” Mr. Okabe hopes.

The second benefit is that the introduction of the CRM has consolidated the registration process and improved the efficiency of sales administration, whereas in the past information was recorded in multiple systems and on paper.

The CRM has made it possible to visualize actual and projected results in real time, and has also improved the time-consuming logbook approval process by taking into account the needs of sales branch staff and making it more efficient,” says Okabe.

Future Outlook

Aiming to improve operational efficiency and productivity

Currently, the CRM system is being penetrated and established in the field, and Mr. Okabe is looking ahead to the phase in which the sales data accumulated through activities will be utilized.

We believe that the data can be used to improve time allocation and identify tasks that can be made more efficient. At the same time as improving operational efficiency, we would also like to increase sales productivity by having each employee review his or her own activities.”

Another major goal is to generate synergies through horizontal expansion to group companies. Although there are some barriers, such as confirmation of regulations, the company aims to expand the system with a view to having each company consolidate and utilize customer information.

Mr. Tateno of the Digital Strategy Department also has another goal: to bring system maintenance and development in-house.

We have a few people working in-house, but without TDC SOFT’s cooperation, we would not be able to transfer know-how and skills and raise the level of technology, so we have high expectations for the future.

Leveraging the synergy of Salesforce’s high scalability and TDC SOFT’s support, the Financial Group’s unified customer support is about to take the next step forward.

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Company Information

• This article is based on interviews conducted in February 2024. The data, organization names, and positions in the article are current at the time of the interview.

• All company and service names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.