Case Studies

Raise the level of the management industry and make the whole apartment building healthy!

First of all, could you tell us about your company's business?

We provide services that enable the condominium management industry to raise the bar so that apartment residents can live comfortably.

Mr. Shimoda.
There are about 6.75 million apartment s in Japan, and assuming that an average of two people live in them, about 13.5 million people live in them.
There are approximately 2,000 companies that manage these apartments, and we are in the very specialized business of providing services to these management companies.

Apartment s themselves have only been around for about 50 years and the way people live in them has not yet matured, so the condominium management industry is still in its infancy.
Bringing them to the next level makes residents richer and happier, and creates a good community.
We are working on our services with the belief that doing so will lead to the creation of a prosperous society.

I understand that it is very important for apartments to be managed. I heard that the management work has become a place for the elderly to work.

The people who signed up as "Apartment Supporters" are working in various apartments as management agents. They cheer up the apartments and residents, and also cheer up themselves.

Mr. Shimoda.
Apartments can be good or bad depending on the management staff.
When you have a good janitor, the building itself gets younger and healthier, and it's always clean and shiny.
We are trying to develop good janitorial staff and to keep the apartment and its residents in good spirits.

We contract this management work with people in their 60s to 80s as "apartment supporters". With the supporters, you can work at your own pace as a sole proprietor.
Going up and down the stairs and doing cleaning work helps to strengthen my legs and back, and communicating with the residents helps me to feel more energetic. I think it's important for elderly people to work while moving their bodies.

It's a wonderful business! What was it that made your company decide to implement our learningBOX?

It was a perfect fit in that anyone in the company could create original questions to learn our unique expertise.

Mr. Shimoda.
While the apartment management industry is not well known to the general public, there is a lot of information and know-how that can only be found within our company.
We thought it would be nice to have a system where any of our employees could create questions, and in some cases, our clients, the management companies, could also create questions.

It just so happened that there was a place called Tatsuno Joho System was doing exactly what we needed, and it was amazing.
So we decided to use it. The full-scale introduction is yet to come, though.

I heard that you are already using the system for in-house training.

We have only just begun. We want to get to a state where all custodians are using the system on a daily basis.

Mr. Shimoda.
Yes, it is. But we want to utilize it more and more to raise the level.
For example, the number of teaching materials is still very small, and we want to increase the number to 100, 1,000, and 10,000 so that we can create a program that people will never get tired of.

Right now, a new issue is updated about once every three months, but I'd like to make it a weekly update.
I want to create a system that feels like a game, that makes you want to play the next game. I want to create a system that makes people excited and want to play the next one as soon as possible, but at the same time they are learning.
At present, there are more than 100,000 janitors nationwide, and we hope to eventually achieve a situation where everyone is using the system at all times.

We'd love to help you!

Validation is yet to come. In addition to the regular training, we were able to use the Corona disaster.

Mr. Shimoda.
It has not been long since the full-scale introduction of the system, so we are still in the process of verifying its effectiveness.
But before the introduction of the catalog, everyone was working very hard with a difficult look on their face.
That's why we've made it possible for each learner to learn on their own smartphone, so the most important thing for learners is that they can do it at any time.

From the company's point of view, with substitute workers located all over Japan, from Sapporo to Okinawa, it has become easier to manage who is working properly and who is lagging behind. We can monitor the situation and provide individual guidance.
However, we would like to raise the bar even higher and develop interesting content that learners will want to engage with on their own.

By enjoying themselves, they become more and more motivated and feel younger. It is precisely because they are elderly people that they are filled with spontaneous energy, wanting to live their lives with care, do better work, and make others more happy.
We want to create such an e-learning system.

Mr. Okiyama.
There was a time when the learningBOX was very helpful in the Corona disaster.
Once a year, supporters in each area get together and have a general training session.
However, the Corona disaster made it difficult to hold the event, so this time we recorded everything on video and used the learningBOX to show it to everyone.

Are there any concerns about the use of smartphones among the elderly people who use them?

You just assume it doesn't work. We have incorporated tools to simplify our operations.

Mr. Shimoda.
All 1,800 of our supporters have smartphones, you know.
The elderly themselves and the people around them all think they can't use it.
You can use as much as you want if you actually try.
Of course, it varies from person to person, but if you enjoy learning this too, you will absorb more and more.

Mr. Okiyama.
On our web app, "My Page", you can check when and which apartment you have work to do, and on work days, you can imprint your work, and many other things can be managed on your phone.

Mr. Shimoda.
There is a lot to do in apartment management work, and the more experience you gain, the thicker you become, which leads to peace of mind for the residents.
But these days, thanks to tools like smartphones, there's no need to cram knowledge down our throats.
Basic knowledge plus the ability to use tools to get information. Even elderly people can work with ease.

Are there any services you plan to develop in the future?

We are planning to release a groundbreaking web application for apartment management. We are also incorporating learningBOX into it.

Mr. Shimoda.
It will be officially announced soon, but we are actually planning to release a web app to raise the level of the apartment management industry.
Okiyama is working on it now, and it's quite a big project, and it has more than 20 different functions, and learningBOX is one of them.
You can use your smartphone to do work that has never been done before, and the work of management companies will be greatly improved. It's a web app that allows you to get more and more information out of headquarters and share the status of the field.

We should be able to speed up our business time considerably, so much so that what used to be a train stop at each station will now be a limited express or bullet train.
This will increase the level and quality of your work many times over.

Mr. Okiyama.
After all, if we want to realize the revitalization of the entire apartment, we need to have enough time to communicate with the residents.
I work hard, but if I get overwhelmed with detailed tasks, it's the end of the world.
We want the web app to take care of what it can, and we want the people who live here to greet us with a smile.

Mr. Shimoda. This is exactly "Mansion DX". I want to spread it to the whole industry.

I'm so excited about that! We'd love to talk to you again after the release! Finally, do you have any opinions about what you expect from learningBOX in the future?

"We hope you will help us to educate people about living.

Mr. Shimoda.
I believe that we can provide services not only to administrators but also to the 13.5 million residents.
There must be a way of living for each of the children, parents' generation, and the elderly.
Study, think, and gather information about how to live in an apartment.
Japanese people have not yet matured to the point where they can live together in a single building, so I would like to use the e-learning system to create an opportunity for them to do so.

This is the so-called education business.
We would like to focus our efforts there as well, so I think we will need your help more and more.

Mr. Okiyama.
You can quickly pull out your phone and work on your learning whenever you want.
I think that's the beauty of e-learning.

Especially in our operation, it is important to make learning a habit and not to evaluate it by grades.
I would like you to explore the direction of "easy learning" with us so that we don't have an atmosphere of "if you make a mistake, you shouldn't."

Afterword.

What did you think of this interview with the introduction case study of Uerunes? I was very interested to get a glimpse of the cutting edge of condominium management using digital technology.
I was also amazed to see how the elderly people were using the system without any difficulty and working vigorously.
The apartment management industry, which Chairman Shimoda says is "not yet mature," is an industry that is expected to develop further in the future.
We were very pleased to see that learningBOX is used as a tool to help apartment residents lead comfortable lives.
We strongly hope that our technology will be useful for the upcoming "Apartment DX".
Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to help us. We sincerely appreciate it.