Could you tell us about the role of the DX Promotion Office in the ICT Division?
Sato:
The DX Promotion Office in the ICT Division is responsible for digital transformation-related areas within the information systems department. Our scope includes the internal deployment of ovice, development of related applications, and projects related to office smartification.
Can you tell us about the process of linking office smartification with ovice? What was the initial purpose of introducing ovice?
Sato:
Since it was decided that our new headquarters building would be completed in the fall of 2024, we have been exploring various measures to realize the company's policy of a "smart office." This began before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
When the pandemic struck in 2020, we started remote work, highlighting the need to improve online communication. Hence, our division introduced ovice, enabling daily attendance regardless of whether employees were in the office or working remotely.
In a hybrid work style where both office and remote work coexisted, remote members would report "working from home" upon entering ovice to start their workday.
What was your impression of using ovice?
Sato:
It significantly enhanced our sense of unity and presence. As we continued to operate ovice, we felt that it could bring about something interesting and unprecedented in realizing the concept of a smart office.
How did the concrete image of the smart office come about?
Hirabayashi:
One of the projects we were working on in the DX Promotion Office was streaming real-time footage from safety cameras at construction sites to our main office. These videos could also be streamed into ovice spaces. Around that time, we changed the background images in the ovice spaces from virtual designs to ones that mimicked our current temporary office. Seeing these spaces, we realized, "This is a digital twin." This realization led us to design a smart office using ovice-based digital twins.
How has the idea of a smart office using ovice evolved?
Sato:
One of the fundamental issues with implementing a free-address system is the "not knowing who is where" problem. Even though someone is supposed to be in the office, their exact location is unknown. We believe ovice can definitely help solve this issue.
We already have a system that requires knowing "who is where" for our office equipment. It's a system that controls "underfloor air conditioning" based on employees' location information, allowing adjustments to the air conditioning at the chosen seating position.
Hirabayashi:
Traditionally, this underfloor air conditioning system needs to be linked one-to-one with the devices of employees seated in nearby positions. Given our company's scale, this means linking thousands of air conditioning and seating sets manually. The idea we're now considering is to set the coordinates corresponding to where employees sit as objects in ovice and operate from there. While ovice objects have so far only used built-in functions, from 2024, custom development will also be possible.
Using "custom objects" through in-house development, we can link unique employee devices with the underfloor air conditioning they use on ovice. If employees change seats, there's no need to re-register, and if the layout changes, synchronization is complete by moving objects within the ovice space on a computer screen.
Sato:
The building side needs to connect all equipment to the internet and make it controllable via APIs, etc. With such an environment, it would be possible to take actions on equipment and devices directly from ovice. We'll first implement this in our building and hope to eventually sell this as a service to others who wish to use a smart office.
What kind of impact do you expect ovice to have on your company?
Otake:
Internal communication tends to be within departments. Communication with other branches or departments rarely happens.
We hope ovice can change this organizational norm. Being able to "move immediately across floors to communicate" and "know what others are doing" are values we want to realize first in Toda Corporation's smart office.
We aim to leverage ovice customization, including linking with equipment, to provide value not only within our company but to the broader world as well.
Hirabayashi:
Initially, the challenge when introducing ovice was "communication among remote workers," but we now aim to solve further communication issues. We have hundreds of sites nationwide, and communication with them typically involves phone, email, or face-to-face meetings scheduled in advance. For minor issues that can be resolved with a quick chat, we hope to use ovice's "Window" feature. This way, site members can reach out to office staff, or vice versa, leading to a better organizational state.
You’re already using the "Windows" feature in the ICT Division.
Hirabayashi:
Currently, we have it set up to show the presence of department heads. Seeing the presence of senior staff maintains a sense of appropriate tension and reduces the unfairness or resistance felt by site members being "watched."
You also used our “Insight” function, and you were very impressed with it.
Otake:
The "Insight" feature shows how often individuals speak. Visualizing communication data is fascinating and valuable.
Hirabayashi:
"Numerically representing communication" is a highly significant feature.
For example, someone who seems less engaged might be found to communicate a lot based on the data, or someone who appears to be the center of meetings might be quite isolated otherwise.
This feature alone justifies the introduction of ovice.
You plan to roll out ovice company-wide in 2024. How do you plan to start?
Hirabayashi:
Starting from the completion of the new headquarters building in October 2024 with a sudden "use ovice from today" approach would prevent the smart office from reaching its full potential. Therefore, we've begun with departments that naturally align with remote work, having them start using ovice. We've also prepared tutorial floors where employees can learn how to use ovice by coming into the space and using it themselves.
When expanding company-wide, we hope to see the benefits of ovice naturally spread from pilot departments through word-of-mouth. We aim to develop our new office while linking it with our smart office application "T-BuSS*" developed in-house.
* Toda Building Smart System
