ShareWis, a B2B and B2C learning platform provider, uses VoicePing to solve language barrier communication issues between their multinational team members from Vietnam and Taiwan, while improving work management through activity logging.
ShareWis is providing B2B and B2C learning platforms called WisdomBase and ShareWis. Mr. Tanimoto, from the Human Resources department, shares with us how everyone in the company is using VoicePing in their daily work to solve language-barrier communication issues as well as improve work management. After using VoicePing, their foreign employees can comfortably use English with Japanese ones, and the HR members can use VoicePing’s log to determine the work efficiency of each member easily.
Company Introduction
Mr. Tanimoto: At ShareWis, we are providing 2 services. Firstly, we are providing an extended Enterprise Learning Management System (EE-LMS) called WisdomBase. Secondly, we also have a B2C online learning platform called ShareWis.
WisdomBase is our main service and it is supporting many Human Resources departments in onboarding newcomers. The current issue of the onboarding process in Japanese systems is that it takes a lot of effort to help new members get used to their work or use new tools by having lectures, seminars, or assigning senior staff with them. For example, if you are doing a business that relies on other complicated tools or services (like Salesforce), it is critical for you to educate your newcomers to understand those tools so that they can help support the customers or understand all the workflow from top to bottom. So to do this, it costs a lot of human effort to educate the newcomers. However, WisdomBase can solve those issues by providing a system that provides learning content and determines whether the learners understand the content.
Regarding ShareWis, with the learning materials that we developed internally and from our partners, we provide educational video content on various topics like accounting, Japanese language, or information technology.
How Did You Discover VoicePing? What Problems Did You Want VoicePing to Solve?
Mr. Tanimoto: In January 2021, since our company’s working style changed to remote, we started thinking of using a virtual office. At that time, because VoicePing hadn’t been published, we used a tool that looks like a game that allows us to do things like make office rooms, voice communication, and so on. We were thinking that instead of chat-based communication, it is better to feel that your members are there for you, and it becomes a crucial part of our daily communication.
Although we started to use that tool sometimes and it showed some improvement in our work performance, there were several issues that couldn’t be solved. Firstly, we had many foreign members who are not fluent in Japanese and were uncomfortable using voice communication. Secondly, that tool could not help us do work management and it is quite difficult for our Human Resource department to solve that issue. Therefore, after I read VoicePing’s press release, I believed that VoicePing could solve those issues and tried to use it since then.
Can You Elaborate on the Work Management Issue?
Mr. Tanimoto: In terms of work management, our most needed feature of VoicePing is the away-from-keyboard status. From a human resource perspective, it is very convenient for us to determine whether the workers are actually working on their computers or they just went somewhere for a while. We don’t have to waste our effort to check on that member’s work situation or worry about their efficiency. Also, we can use the log report to see the time that the users log in, log out, or away from the keyboard, and it is very convenient for us.
How Did VoicePing Solve Your Language Issue?
Mr. Tanimoto: Our members come from many countries like Vietnam and Taiwan and they use English as their main communication language. Thanks to VoicePing’s high-quality translation, now we can comfortably talk in either English or Japanese and the communication process is getting much much better. Also, we will try to use the Vietnamese and Chinese translation features soon.
How Did Your Members Feel After Using VoicePing?
Mr. Tanimoto: As you know, we have been using a virtual office for around 2 years so we were familiar with the concept of VoicePing. But our newcomers feel that VoicePing is impressive and very easy to use. We received much good feedback from them.
Additionally, most of the time we are working remotely, so VoicePing, as our virtual office, became very critical in our company. In particular, because we focus on the work performance of individuals and teams, our working style is very flexible. Many people don’t come to the office often, maybe twice per month, but even if they do they must also use VoicePing to communicate with others. When we start our work, we must log in to VoicePing and set our status properly so that other members can easily catch up and understand the team’s working situation. Although we made this one of our rules, it seems that no one feels stressed about it.
How Does Your Company Use VoicePing in Daily Work?
Mr. Tanimoto: We are thinking of using VoicePing as an actual office, especially when it comes to quick catch-ups. For example, in a real office, we can ask other members to have a quick chat at the round table and casually communicate. Although we also use other chat-based tools and conference tools, VoicePing is considered the center of our workflow.
What Improvements Would You Like to See in VoicePing?
Mr. Tanimoto: Because VoicePing is a desktop application, when the users finish their work and let the computer sleep, it still shows on the application that this person is still in the virtual office but away from the keyboard. Therefore, it would be great if VoicePing can have a feature to force the user to leave the virtual office.
Additionally, because we also use VoicePing when we go to the real office, it would be great if VoicePing can have the feature to show the status that this user is in the office or working remotely. Also, although the busy/available status of VoicePing is integrated with the online calendar, it can be improved by showing what time the user will be available again.
Company Vision for the Future
Mr. Tanimoto: In the future, because there are some U.S. companies in this industry that went public, we believe that this Enterprise Learning Management System industry is a blue ocean in the Japan market, or maybe the market hasn’t realized its potential. Therefore, we believe our service will expand and contribute to the development of Japan.
