Noritz Corporation (hereinafter, "Noritz") manufactures, sells, and services residential equipment, primarily in the hot water air conditioning field, and boasts a domestic market share of approximately 40%. The company is shifting from its traditional one-time sales model to one that connects with customers safely and securely, aiming to provide high-value-added products and services that help resolve each individual's challenges. Digital transformation is central to this growth strategy. To properly support long-time customers, the company decided to build a CDP (Customer Data Platform) that centralizes customer information. The success of a CDP depends on how data is collected and linked from various existing systems. The company adopted DataSpider as the ETL tool for this data integration, and as a first step, established a platform that aggregates the necessary data. Going forward, the company plans to use this data for marketing activities and to establish a system that enables even more detailed customer support by linking data from different perspectives.
Customer Issues
We want to build a CDP that aggregates scattered data and compiles customer information.
Benefits of implementation
From multiple systems
To CDP
data integration
Smooth realization
Future Systems
Addition, such as
Scalability
High expectations
digital
Marketing
Promote
Realizing the foundation
Promoting digital transformation and aiming for one-to-one support
Many of the residential equipment provided by Noritz, including hot water heaters and kitchen appliances, are intended for long-term use, lasting between 10 and 15 years. The industry is working to ensure the quality of these long-term appliances, and has been encouraging owners to register their appliances since 2009.
Marketing Planning Department, Marketing Headquarters
Brand Marketing Promotion Office
Mr. Tsutomu Matsuzaki
"We started by having customers who purchased our products through construction companies and other parties send us postcards to register as owners," recalls Matsuzaki, who is in charge of marketing. Ten years later, when it was time to start providing information about inspections, they decided to launch "My Page" as a place to communicate with customers.
The system was built using NTT Technocross's CRM "MarketingAuthority," but data integration with existing systems was still in progress, and the information that could be viewed from My Page was limited. "In order to respond smoothly to customer inquiries one-to-one, whether they request inspection or repairs through a construction company or contact the contact center, it would be ideal to be able to view all information on My Page," says Matsuzaki. In order to promote digital transformation across the entire company, a platform that consolidates customer information was needed, and so the company decided to proceed with building a CDP.
DataSpider was adopted to link the CDP built on AWS with existing systems
Introducing a dedicated, multi-functional product to build a CDP would be extremely costly. "As we continued our consideration, the more time passed, the more requirements we had, and it was difficult to settle on anything. Large-scale solutions require a large investment, and there are risks in introducing them when there are so many uncertainties. We decided to start by creating a 'box' environment on AWS and consolidate the data there," says Tsuji, who was in charge of systems and led the infrastructure construction. Scattered information was organized, and the data was stored in the appropriate services, such as Amazon RDS and Amazon S3.
Planning and Management Headquarters IT Promotion Department Promotion G
Mr. Kunihiro Tsuji
What is needed for this is an ETL tool that can collect data in the appropriate format from each system, including MarketingAuthority. When selecting a tool, NTT Technocross proposed DataSpider. Its integration with MarketingAuthority has been verified and it has a proven track record of implementation. It was also compatible with all other target systems. "We could have built a data integration system by combining AWS services, but in that case we would have to ensure that we could handle all failures ourselves. DataSpider is provided as a product with the points of failure reduced in advance. As the cutover was approaching, the fact that it could be built in a short period of time was also appealing (Tsuji)."
Development is progressing smoothly, and operations have begun on schedule
Development took seven months, including testing, with NTT Technocross handling the actual work. In addition to MarketingAuthority, data such as purchase history from the e-commerce site and behavioral history from around 10 websites was linked, but there were no major issues and the project progressed according to schedule. "The CDP construction was carried out in parallel with the development of multiple systems, including the renewal of the e-commerce site. With the spread of COVID-19 infections making face-to-face meetings almost impossible, NTT Technocross proactively adjusted the overall schedule and aligned our understanding of issues, allowing us to proceed without any worries," said Tsuji.
DataSpider comes standard with numerous adapters, covering common products and services, including AWS. It also has high compatibility with MarketingAuthority, enabling stable data integration. The cutover was completed successfully in September 2020.
An environment has been created where data can be used for marketing and service improvement
Since the cutover, the system has been running smoothly, and going forward, they plan to use this data to advance marketing and other activities. "In terms of inspecting and repairing purchased products, the contact point is once every 10 years, but we can understand the web behavior history in real time. This data is important for tracking the behavior of registered customers, and we believe that linking whether a customer actually had a repair or purchased a product as a result of visiting the website will lead to improved services," says Matsuzaki. First, they will take a step beyond traditional targeted emails and begin with one-to-one measures and campaigns. "In the future, we believe that by increasing the number of linked systems and linking data on product usage frequency and condition to data on customers' lifestyles and actual consultations and concerns, we will be able to provide new services. We would like to develop these services in stages, so that long-time users will feel attached to our system," says Matsuzaki.
Noritz Corporation
Founded in 1951, the company manufactures and sells residential equipment such as water heaters, kitchen appliances, and hot water heating equipment, boasting a domestic market share of approximately 40%. With its mission of "Sharing new happiness," the company proactively incorporates cutting-edge technologies such as IoT to provide high-value-added products and services. The company is also expanding globally, aiming to become a globally competitive Noritz Group.
Sales partner: NTT Technocross Corporation
- The content of this case study is current as of the time of the interview. The content of this case study may change without notice.