Q. What kind of operations do you use Questetra for?
HOUSEDO Co Ltd. provides our customers with one-stop residential services by developing a 3-in1 distribution system for activities such as real estate brokerage, brokerage of resale houses plus renovation, brokerage of land plus construction of new houses, renovation and resale.
We did not merely developed a distribution system of brokerage, renovation and buying. We are also providing related services such as mediation of mortgage and insurance, in addition to planning and coordinating design and financial planning at a single agency, aiming to give a new and friendly service for those who buy and sell houses.
In 2006, based on the accumulated know-how at the company’s agencies, we started the franchising of real estate brokerage. The Housedo chain aims to create a safe and convenient contact point for customers by publishing their real estate information, and has grown to 285 stores nationwide (as of end of 2014).
We have introduced Questetra to systematize the internal approval and decision-making process.
Q. What kind of challenges did you face?
Previously, we were using a workflow system which is associated with groupware for approval decisions.
However, in that workflow system applicants needed to set the decision-maker and the approver each time. That is, the system was not a system that facilitated compliance with internal rules. As we entered the period of business expansion the approval formats climbed up to 40 types, so the task of entering the person responsible of decision-making/approval according to the company’s rules was not easy, especially for new employees.
Therefore, we decided to redevelop the approval system by introducing Questetra to solve these problems.
After Questetra was put into operation, no matter who submitted the application it was automatically processed in accordance with the company’s internal rules, which eliminated the need for complicated input and enabled us to build a proper approval process. Thanks to this system HOUSEDO was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers (Market of the high-growth and emerging stocks) in March 2015, and we can now immediately answer “who did what and when?” in the event of an accounting or operational audit.
Q. Please tell us the key aspects that made you chose Questetra.
We were considering reforming many business processes besides decision-making. We compared and reviewed so many so-called workflow and BPM products. Eventually, we chose Questetra because of the three following aspects.
- The capability to systematize and maintain the business with only internal staff who do not have programming knowledge.
- The capability of advanced integration with other systems because the APIs have been well developed.
- The response of the Customer Service was very good.
In particular, we think the ability for in-house staff members to perform system maintenance is a significant feature. In fact, even though some of the company rules have been revised after putting this workflow into operation, we were able to modify the related business processes quickly, so we are very satisfied with it.
Q. Please let us know if you have any demand.
If our business processes are more automated and efficient, we can further accelerate our business expansion.
Our use of Questetra so far has focused on comparatively simple indirect department processes. Now, we are considering increasing the utilization ratio of more complicated direct department processes in the future.
Indeed, Questetra has been enhanced in various ways since we installed it a year and a half ago. However, requests for further enhancement or additions came up from the floor where they are using Questetra. We will continue to provide feedback as user requests, and we hope that the system will be developed as fast as possible to make it more user-friendly.
