How we streamlined Oshiire Sangyo’s self-storage system with the power of automation

Trunk Room Management System Utilization in Japan

The Japanese trunk room industry has been growing rapidly in recent years with many new companies entering the market. This has directly led to a significant increase in the numbers of available stores and units.

The main types of these stores are either building-in type, which consists of a single building or a single floor with storage units installed or the outdoor type, where storage containers are installed on idle land. Stores are being opened quickly through renovation of existing buildings, use of existing warehouses, and effective utilization of available land.

With regards to the trunk room management systems, typically the operators have customized systems that were designed for use in different industries or developed their own in-house solutions.

In many cases, the customized systems or in-house developed solutions have not been able respond quickly or keep up with the pace of change in the industry. Managing these systems also requires significant development costs and running fees. On top of that, we couldn’t let go of system support even during our normal operations, which was also a major challenge.

In the case, where the systems were not specifically developed with trunk room operations in mind, it is not uncommon for the operators to have to create a series of business processes, from the registration of customer information to unit contracts, that require workflow changes spanning multiple systems.

Over the last few years, there has been an increase in the number of valet storage (delivery type) services that support the delivery and unloading of individual storage items in addition to conventional storage services. This type of service also has similar problems and the dedicated system have not been widely adopted.

Oshiire Sangyo Streamlines its Operations by Introducing Storeganise Specifically Developed for Trunk Room Management

Oshiire Sangyo Co., Ltd. (Oshiire Sangyo) which focuses on the Kanto region, including Tokyo and Kanagawa prefectures, but also operates trunk room locations nationwide, deployed “Storeganise”, a cloud-based platform specifically developed for trunk room management, to centrally manage information, develop flexible and simple business processes, and reduce system-related support costs.

Prior to the deployment of Storeganise, the company had spent a lot of time and money on customizing when changes in business processes occurred. At times, historical data also had issues with stored data such as information on past subscriber and contracted units, means that we had to spend a lot of time on data processing for reporting and analysis using such information.

Considering that such problems would become a major issue in the future as the number of stores continued to expand, the company considered replacing the system with one that specializes in trunk room operations, and thus decided to deploy Storeganise.

Storeganise Deployment Benefits

The introduction of Storeganise has brought many benefits to the company. Storeganise’s automatic billing and payment functions have significantly reduced the amount of time spent on payment processing every month.

In addition, Storeganise’s standard automatic emailing function has automated and made paperless certain staff tasks like calling or sending letters for unit reservations and monthly billing notifications. This has also led to a reduction in employee work hours and related costs.

Furthermore, Storeganise has an application available for customers to login by themselves. By using the payment method registration function located on the customer’s My Page, there is no need for staff to register the account and credit card information – the process is paperless. My Page also allows customers to view their payment history, which has greatly reduced the number of inquires to the support center regarding payment amounts and payment status.

There is another major benefit that I would like to mention. This year we had to consider the introduction of telework due to the new corona virus and certain measures we had to take under the state of emergency declaration. However, because Storeganise is a cloud-based platform we can connect from any “location” or “device” for normal operations such as contracts or payment processing. As a result, we were able to smoothly transition to telework without having to consider a new supplementary system.

Future Prospects

As a result of implementing Storeganise, the company has been able to convert more of its operations to technology, which has brought about many benefits in terms of business process improvement and cost reductions, which have exceeded the initial expectations that the company had at the time of implementation. In the future, the company will consider implementing technology in additional operations, such as the customer support center, in order to automate internal operational processes and expand the business further.

Company Website : Oshiire Sangyo Co., Ltd.

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