Mamezou increased new ideas within a team of many consultants

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The previous name of Cosense was Scrapbox, and that was used at the time of this interview.

They provide four main services: enterprise services, embedded services, AI / RPA / DX related services, and human resource development. Among them, enterprise services have been the core of their business since the company's founding. They aim to realize the ideal form of an information system through appropriate consulting that achieves the client's goals.

In order to continuously respond to the needs of clients in changing times, it is important to smoothly share information within the company and constantly stay on top of the latest technology. Their consulting department introduced Scrapbox in October 2018 to help solve organizational challenges.

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Yoshihisa Muta, Deputy General Manager

Mamezo Technology Consulting Division

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I want to share know-how and connect lone-wolf team members.

Can you tell us why you introduced Scrapbox?

Muta: We have currently 63 consultants in the second consulting division I oversee, and the person in charge manages all projects. Since there are multiple projects in a large team, interaction between members can have challenges, and each person tends to become a “lone wolf.” It does not mean that they are not in close contact with each other, but when I thought about it as an organization, I thought, “What kind of project is moving, what tools and middleware are in it? It is necessary to share know-how such as "Which proposal do you use?" And know-who who knows what kind of knowledge you have, what you are good at, and what kind of project you are involved in. I thought there was.

What tools did you use before Scrapbox?

Muta: I had been using project management tools from another company, but the information was siloed on a project-by-project basis. As a means of sharing information beyond projects, there was only a weekly report sent by a consultant by email once a week. Unlike information that is received in real time, the freshness of this information was low, and the history couldn't be known without searching through email. With awareness of this issue, I started to use Scrapbox, which I had always been interested in, in May 2018. I immediately said to myself, "This is good." Soon, 15 of the business department's consultants and sales people started using it on a trial basis, and in October, 95 of the 140 staff in the business departments were using it.

It seems that it has spread quite rapidly, but what efforts did you take to spread Scrapbox in your department?

Muta: In order to let other members quickly notice the "ease of updating" that I felt when using Scrapbox and "the fun of organically connecting information with links", I proactively wrote it up and increased the number of pages. Even when I asked the people at sales department to enter project information on Scrapbox, they said that it was annoying, so I added the information myself.(laughs).I also created a page to introduce good lunch spots and shared some lightweight information about topics not related to our business. To spread Scrapbox in the organization where you can get various information I think it's important to let people think, “I want to update the information myself.” Now, many other members beside me use Scrapbox, and almost 100 new pages are created every week.

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Instead of waiting for a request, I changed my mind to raise my hand. Unexpected effects of introducing Scrapbox.

How do you currently use Scrapbox in your work?

Muta: I use it in various ways, but one of them is as a kind of glossary. Sales staff and consultants continuously input the names and outlines of new services and products. Its pages are useful for accumulating and sharing know-how as a database that not only shows the latest information as you add or link it, but it also lets you understand the history of the industry, etc.

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Muta: I also use it as a communication tool for sales staff and consultants. As a business flow, sales will first interview the client and write the results on a new page. After that, when the consultant in charge is decided, Scrapbox A discussion will be held above to create a proposal, and information will be added even after receiving an order.Everyone on the page can easily read the page, so that everyone in the team can always grasp the current situation of internal projects. In addition, before the business department manager collected information on new projects from sales and distributed them to consultants, after introducing Scrapbox, consultants actively browse the page of the project, I want to do it ”and the atmosphere changed to raise my hands. It's a change.I think the consultant has become able to do the work he wants to do, and the sales mindset has changed since he heard the consultant's intention. , "What customers want" and "What you should do as an organization", you may be able to correctly grasp these three and build the basis for connecting to new businesses and services.

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Lively communication is also active. The fun of knowing others with Scrapbox

You mentioned earlier that there is a page where you introduce delicious lunch spots in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Is there any other Scrapbox pages that are outside of business topics?

Muta: The typical case for us is the personal page of each employee. I have written about myself exactly like this. I was excited because I noticed a surprising connection with a person due to a new link. In this way Scrapbox is really very exciting. The amount of real communication we have has increased as well as the range of what can be shared. Also, there are many consultants who aren't present in the department, so it was difficult to share information within the company effectively. In one case participants immediately updated a page with the content of a study session held in-house and were able to inform members who couldn't participate in person.

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It seems that it is used for a wide range of purposes inside and outside of business topics. Do you have any rules for using Scrapbox?

Muta: I don't think there is anything in particular, or rather I think it's better not to tighten the rules. One of the big attractions of Scrapbox is the “low threshold for updates.” The content you write is immediate without pressing the update button, etc. I think it would be better to update as freely as possible in line with such a development philosophy, and there are only three rules that have been established:

- Only employees can view and edit.

- Pay attention to the surrounding environment when browsing and editing.

- Do not write content that criticizes employees.

After that, I and the core users of Scrapbox, which I started using at the time of introduction, voluntarily watch and correct the usage of other people, add links, and play an editorial role. Instead of deciding the rules and binding them from the top, support them from the bottom. "

I want to use it for analyzing past projects and find new ways to spread Scrapbox.

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Finally, please tell us about your future plans for using Scrapbox.

Muta: In the future, I would like to add more detail, not only the information on projects that have been started, but also the information on the projects that couldn't be started. Saving this history would be useful for later analysis. It is used by 95 Mamezou employees now, but in the future I would like to use Scrapbox not only at Mamezou consulting but also at Mamezou Holdings as a whole. Conversations such as "Have you seen Scrapbox?" are happening on a daily basis. With the aim of achieving such a situation, we will continue doing our best to spread the word.

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This is a translation from the original interview in Japanese with writing and photos by Shingo Shimojo on January 9, 2019

About Scrapbox

Scrapbox lets you instantly capture and find knowhow at any scale, both solo and with a team.

You can quickly capture things like notes, manuals, tasks, code, meeting minutes, and research results. All pages are automatically connected with bi-directional links, allowing you to seamlessly work across thousands of pages.