2020.02.20
New Functions Released April 2020
"follow(R)" A Cloud-based Work Management Service to Support Diverse Work Styles to Cope with Work Style Reform Laws of Japan
NTT COMWARE CORPORATION (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Satoshi Kurishima; hereinafter NTT COMWARE) releases the new version of a cloud-based work management service "follow(R)" (hereinafter "follow") on February 23, 2020 with new functions in compliance with the work style reform laws and to deal with various working patterns and ways of working regardless of time or place.
With the revision of Japan's Work Style Reform Laws in April 2020 that apply to small and medium-sized enterprises, companies are required to strictly manage work styles of their employees without exception. NTT COMWARE's "follow" is well regarded by small to large corporate customers because of its usability to allow customers to quickly start its service and the affordable price. About 400 companies including NTT Group companies are currently using the service as well as the manufacturing and logistics industries.The new version of the system has additional functions to cope with "new laws and regulations", "various working patterns", and "multi-language and time zones" to the current functions: management of "working hours, vacation leave, man-hours, travel expenses, and punching in smart devices. It also correlates with NTT DATA Sekisui Systems "KAIKAI! SHIFUTO-KUN (Shift)", which is used in the medical and nursing care industry to further strengthen shift work management. "follow" enables companies to properly comply with the Work Style Reform Law as well as to achieve further efficiencies to apply a wide range of work styles, such as field work outside the office, working from home, and satellite offices.
See the overview of "follow" as attached.
NTT COMWARE will continue to support working style reforms in Japan by enhancing the functions of "follow", focusing on ICT solutions to support work style reforms such as "Microsoft Office 365".
Comment from Microsoft Japan
Microsoft Japan welcomes the enhancement of the features of NTT COMWARE's "follow". In today's business environment in which digital transformation is accelerating, work management services are required to respond to laws relating to work style reforms and to respond to various work styles, are not limited by time or place. In addition to the enhancement of the "follow" functions, we believe that the work style reforms will be further advanced for many companies of any business size by collaborating with Office 365. Microsoft Japan will strengthen cooperation with NTT COMWARE and support further promotion of work style reforms utilizing cloud services.
NTT Data Sekisui Systems Comments
NTT DATA Sekisui Systems welcomes the enhancement of the "follow" functions. With diversity of work styles accelerating, it is important for companies that have adopted a work shift system to manage their schedules and work performance management in order to prevent long working hours and secure intervals between working hours. Companies can not only manage workers' achievements/performances by combining our "KAIKETSU! SHIFT-KUN" and "follow", but they can also expect digital transformation through the work style reforms, such as functions to apply to their business forms for medical and nursing care industries. We will continue to strengthen cooperation with NTT COMWARE and further support our corporate customers to reform the working styles.
Attachment
1. Outline
"follow" provides a series of functions such as "work management, vacation/leave management, man-hour management, and travel expense management" which supports corporate labor management tasks in a cloud environment. Although workers' time was managed from their personal PCs and shared terminals in offices and the items to be managed were limited, the revision of the Work Style Reform Law requires strict labor management even for small and medium-sized businesses as well as their employees' working hours out of their offices. Penalties may be imposed for breaches of the law.
"follow" provides an environment that quickly and accurately realizes these responses thanks to the new features of its cloud-based services. In addition, the GPS-assisted work place logs and visualization of work records (option: man-hour management) will support further promotion of work style reforms of each company more effectively, such as remote work.
2. Functions Available
| Service Menu | Outline | New Functions |
| Work hour management/vacation request |
For any business types or scale: - Request and approval of regular work/overtime/vacation leave - Management of PC startup/shutdown time log and punching in - Management of attendance and leave time by punching in using IC card |
Enhancement of flextime system - Visualization of working hours on a weekly basis in addition to the conventional monthly basis - Applicable to settlement phases of flextime from 1 to 3 months Work interval system - Sound alert is issued if the time from leaving the office to start of work is less than the predetermined interval time. Work management for professionals - Various work patterns, discretionary work and split working patterns for professionals such as researchers and workers with specific duties - Enhancement of shift work management by the linkage of "KAIKETSU! SHIFT-KUN", which has strength in medical care and nursing care industries and "follow". Multilingual and time zone support - New English notation and support for foreign time zones |
| Option: man-hour |
Registration of tasks according to the working hours applied in advance and visualization of man-hours for each task |
Multilingual and time zone - English translation and foreign time zone available |
| Option: travel expense | Request and approval of travel expense requests |
Multilingual and time zone - English translation and foreign time zone available |
| Option: mobile | Users can manage time stamps from App/IC Card (e.g., FeliCa) in their or shared smart devices Location information can be managed by using GPS |
Man-hour management - New function: man-hour management from smart devices Multilingual and time zone - English translation and foreign time zone available |
Image: "follow" working hours management page
Image: "follow" English version
Various scenarios in which the new version of follow is expected to be used
3. Price
Initial fee: none
Monthly fee: 200JPY/ID (excluding tax)
4. Service starts of the new functions
February 23, 2020 (Sun)
5. Product
https://www.nttcom.co.jp/follow_s/follow_lp.html
* "follow" is a registered trademark of NTT COMWARE.
* Microsoft and Office 365 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.
* "Kyousei! Shift-Kun" is a registered trademark of NTT DATA Sekisui Systems Corporation.
* "FeliCa" is a registered trademark of Sony Corporation.
* Other company names, product names and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of each company.
