THK establishes customer support service in collaboration with Microsoft and others

THK held a press conference of Omni THK, a web-based customer-support service on September 10, 2019. THK started to provide the service of Omni THK on July 2019. The users can check the inventory and order of THK products, estimates and specifications through Omni THK. Takashi Teramachi, executive director and senior executive officer of THK, said “Omni THK will change the business process.”

Both customers and THK will be less burdened

THK held joint press conference on September 10, 2019 with Microsoft Japan and NIPPON SYSTEMWARE, which cooperated in Omni THK system development and provision. THK aims to improve the efficiency of business with customers by providing Omni THK. Omni THK can aggregate data such as customer information, past orders, and product drawings, and partly analyzes the data using artificial intelligence (AI). It makes it easier for customers to find products that meet their desires on the web and easier for customers to place orders. THK can reduce the burden of face-to-face work. The person in charge previously had to contact each other by meeting, call, or email from inquiry to product selection, estimation, inventory and delivery date confirmation, ordering, and delivery.

Mr. Teramachi said, “Omni THK is not a general electronic commerce (EC) site but a web platform for communication between customers and related companies such as our company and sales agents. It will be possible for Omni THK to expand the functions by adding the applications in near future. Omni THK currently provides the following four functions: 1. Catalog that makes it easy to find products that meet customer requirements such as short delivery times. 2. Download service for required documents such as quotations and specifications. 3. Proposing the components optimized for customers through AI analyze of customer’s drawings. 4. To refer to product inventory which THK and trading companies have and production status of THK.

Microsoft Japan focuses on manufacturing

Omni THK runs on the cloud service “Microsoft Azure” provided by Microsoft Japan. Customers use applications within them. When choosing a cloud service, THK focused on security, taking customer data into account.

Loubser Hennie excutive officer of Microsoft Japan said, “The services for manufacturing are the business field that Microsoft is focusing on. The Japanese manufacturing industry excels in hardware development and technology, and is interested in digital technology. Our head office has looked forward to the Japanese market. ”

In the fusion of manufacturing industry and IT technology, the manufacturing industry such as Hitachi and Siemens in Germany take the lead to propose. The person in charge of Microsoft Japan said, “IT companies, including our company, used to promote the ability of IT technology, but did not explain well how to use it in actual business. We will propose a function that is specialized for a specific business.”

In the manufacturing industry, the number of companies which establishes EC sites has been increasing mainly trading companies. However, many customers prefer face-to-face sales. Omni THK was built in collaboration with THK and Microsoft Japan. Is it possible for customers to accept proposals that are one step ahead of EC sites?