KOKUYO’s new office, THE CAMPUS, is also open to customers and local residents. We interviewed KOKUYO about the use of Acall in their advanced workplace with the idea of ABW (activity-based working), incorporating hot-desking and meeting space check-ins.
KOKUYO is using many features of Acall, such as the hot-desking function to reserve seats, conference room reservation and check-in, visitor check-in, etc. In addition to the various features of Acall, KOKUYO is using several tools from other companies, which gives us the impression of a smart office.
- What made you decide to choose Acall?
KOKUYO originally had a plan to build an office with co-working functions. However, due to the impact of COVID-19, there was a change in the way people worked. And we changed the plan. As a result, THE CAMPUS became a place to support people’s encounters and co-creation. It also functions as a place to experiment with and practice digital solutions to work-related issues.
In this context, the idea of “smartphone-first” is particularly important to us. We wanted our employees to be able to use seats, reserve meeting rooms, and receive notifications of visitors on their smartphones, and that’s when we learned about Acall.
- What did you pay attention to when selecting a service to introduce, including the use of smartphones?
After the earthquake in 2011, we realized that the way we work in the future would increasingly involve cloud services and smartphones. This led us to believe that creating a system that does not rely solely on PCs and on-premise systems was necessary.
We think the strength of Acall is the convenience of its smartphone application (Acall Mobile) and its ability to integrate with other cloud services, such as Google. We were attracted by the fact that it can be expanded to provide even more convenience than using conference rooms, visitor service, and individual seat reservations as single functions.
In addition, the role of the central office is changing due to changes in work styles caused by digital transformation and the new coronavirus. We believe it is crucial to visualize location information through IoT and reservation systems such as hot-desking. The hot desking system of Acall has a display function, which we think is an essential element for visualization.
- What changes have you seen since you started using Acall?
First of all, regarding hot-desking, many people use it to look for available seats. Even if you don’t make a reservation in advance, you can check the availability of the seats on the screen or iPad in the area. Compared to before introducing the system, it seems that people are more aware of choosing the environment and office space that best suit their work content when working individually. It’s also nice to be able to see which areas are popular.
One of the most popular features of Acall is the meeting room reservation feature. In the past, we used to reserve conference rooms through groupware, so we had to open our PCs every time we wanted to make a reservation. Now, we can book a room from our smartphones, which is much more convenient. I don’t have to go to the front of the meeting room to check the availability, and I can make reservations in my spare time while heading to the meeting room. Even when I want to use a meeting room right away, it’s nice to be able to instantly check-in and reserve a room from Acall Mobile.
We like the conference room reservation feature that automatically releases the reservation if no one is confirmed to be in the room after 15 minutes from the reservation time. This feature allows us to use our internal conference resources more effectively.
- Please tell us about your future plans for using Acall
We are using Acall and another service to log facility usage and behavior in the office. We want to use this information to analyze and find correlations between different factors, such as job types and facilities. Then, we could provide feedback on where to work and promote ABW. We also expect to predict how changes in internal movements, events, and things like emergency declarations could affect how we work.
- Lastly, can you tell us about what you are particular the most in the workplace at THE CAMPUS?
The role of the office is changing as remote work becomes more popular due to COVID-19. It is becoming more and more important in the office to improve creativity, communication, and safety. THE CAMPUS is a place where we can experiment and practice pursuing things that can only be done in an office and appeal to customers.
We believe that extending the experience in four areas is particularly important. To expand the experiences of “WORKING,” “INNOVATING,” “WELL-BEING,” and “LEARNING,” we have adopted ABW with clearly defined functions for each floor. We are working on location analysis using hot-desking and IoT.
Since we have an area attached to the building that our customers and the local community can use, we would like to explore and propose ways to make working and living more fulfilling.
It was great to hear about Kokuyo’s commitment to creating workplaces, proposing ways of working, and promoting innovation in the community. Thank you very much for sharing your story with us.
