Cashless work with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Waterworks. What are the results of improving business operations and improving convenience for Tokyo residents?

The Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau delivers water services to approximately 13.7 million Tokyo residents.

In October 2022, we released the "Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau App" that allows you to use water-related services in one place. The app has introduced the GMO Payment Gateway (hereinafter referred to as GMO-PG) "PG Multi-Payment Service" and is also promoting cashless for Tokyo residents.

The secret story of the planning and development of the "Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau App", which is attracting attention as a pioneer of DX in water services nationwide. And what quantitative and qualitative results have been obtained by the introduction of "PG Multi-Payment Service"? We spoke with Mr. Taisuke Kikuchi and Mr. Kyohei Mimori of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Service Promotion Department Management Division, Service Strategy Project.
(Positions as of August 2024)

Aiming for the "ideal state" of public infrastructure. Developing highly rated apps in the context of DX

The Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau app project is a project that began as part of Tokyo's structural reform strategy "Shin Tosei" centered on DX (digital transformation).​

Until now, the Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau has been a service on the web.
"Internet reception" where you can start and cancel the use of water supply,
There were two types of "Tokyo Waterworks Mynet" that allowed customers to track their own water usage.
However, there were some areas that needed to be improved for both Tokyo residents and staff.

For example, "Tokyo Waterworks Mynet" did not allow login passwords to be issued on the web, and it was not possible to log in unless you received the password on the postcard that arrived by mail at a later date. In addition, many Tokyo residents expressed their desire to increase the number of procedures that can be done on the web.

"Technology in the world is advancing rapidly, and customers are diversifying, and people who have been born with smartphones are becoming new customers. I felt that we had to seriously face DX as the "ideal state" of public infrastructure," says Taisuke Kikuchi of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Service Promotion Department Acting Manager (in charge of service strategy business).

Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau Service Promotion Department Management Division Acting Manager (in charge of service strategy business) Mr. Taisuke Kikuchi

In response to these challenges, we released the "Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau App" in October 2022. Now, less than two years after its release, the number of app users continues to grow, smoothly connecting Tokyo residents' water procedures with payment.

Mr. Kyohei Mimori, who is in charge of the service strategy business of the same section, commented on the evaluation received for the app.
"As of August 2024, it has a 4.5-star rating on the App Store and a 4.3-star rating on Google Play.
'I'm happy to be able to check the amount of water used and complete all the various procedures with the app,' and 'The UI is nice and easy to read, thank you to the developers.'"

As long as it is a public infrastructure called water, it is necessary to make it available to a wide range of Tokyo residents. The Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau provides the same functions in the web version, and has prepared an environment that can be used by those who are not familiar with smartphone apps or do not want to use smartphone apps.

The staff is exhausted by 4 million reception papers a year. DX also saves overwork in the field

Before you started developing the app, what kind of issues did the Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau apparent? We delved deeper into the issues and divided them into "Tokyo residents' perspectives" and "staff perspectives."

"From the perspective of Tokyo residents, who are customers, we wanted to solve the problem of updating services and making them smarter. We wanted to make the procedures, information confirmation, and payment of Tokyo residents smarter.

Specifically, we will make each procedure online and paperless, and support for cashless payment. In addition, we aimed to make information disseminated more understandable and easy to convey in the current trend of technological development, and to increase customer convenience and satisfaction."

Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau Service Promotion Department Management Division Service Strategy Project Manager Kyohei Mimori

"The challenge within the organization was to improve operational efficiency.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau handled 4 million reception paperwork cases a year, and they were checking the huge number of cases using analog methods. In Tokyo, there is an estimate that the number of customers using water will peak in 2030, but the number of employees is also decreasing due to the aging of the population.
I also felt a sense of crisis that if we continued to operate inefficiently as the burden on the site continued to increase, we would not be able to maintain the quality of service with the same water bill in the near future.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is also planning to fully introduce smart meters. This eliminates the need for meter readers to visit and check the amount of water used. The flow of work may change significantly, and the concept of the app started at the time of the overall internal review, including the system."

We have listened carefully to the voices of Tokyo residents and promoted development and improvement

Against this background, the concept of the "Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau App" was promoted. Tokyo residents are a mixture of people with diverse IT literacy. In order to create an app that is easy for everyone to use without hesitation, requirements design was the key.

"First of all, the philosophy of the Water Works Bureau app is 'I want to create a platform that can provide integrated services related to water supply.' I had the idea. Previously, if you wanted to start the water supply procedure, you could apply from the website of the Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau. However, if you want to apply for credit card payment, you have to register from another system and these integrations have not been possible. This is not a comfortable user experience, so I had a strong desire to overcome this barrier."

Therefore, we discussed what basic functions should be the core of the new app.
・Application function
・Payment function
・Inquiry function
・I decided to narrow it down to four notification functions.

Specifically, the app allows users to check the location and opening information of about 200 facilities in Tokyo that distribute water in the event of a water outage in the event of a disaster. ​​
Water supply is an important infrastructure that can be life-threatening in the event of a disaster. In the event of an actual disaster, we will protect the lives of Tokyo residents by making it possible to check where to go to get water."

GMO-PG has contributed to the integrated implementation of credit card payment and Pay payment (smartphone payment) in terms of payment functions. Many customers use the app's payment function, which also leads to a reduction in paper invoice, which also contributes to the paperless industry.

"Initially, we released it with credit card payments and several types of Pay payment, but since then, we have continued to add payment method through requests from the Water Works Bureau and suggestions from our company to pursue further convenience and satisfaction," says Tatsushi Sotoike, who is in charge of the Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau at GMO-PG.

GMO-PG Tatsushi Sotoike

The "Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau App" was developed on the premise that it will continue to improve in an agile manner while reflecting the real voices of Tokyo residents, because it is from the standpoint of Tokyo residents.

During development, we invited many Tokyo residents as test users and listened to their opinions.

"What we wanted for the app was 'intuitive and easy to understand,' which is why we tried to develop it while listening to the voices of Tokyo residents. Specifically, during the development phase, Tokyo residents participated in user testing about three times. We released the game by reflecting the honest opinions received from more than 100 people in the development of the operation flow, wording, and overall layout."

Even after the app was released, various opinions were received from emails, phone calls, and reviews (word of mouth). At the beginning of its release, the App Store rated it as about 2 stars, but we have continued to make detailed improvements and additional implementations despite harsh opinions.

According to Mr. Kikuchi and Mr. Mimori, the number of improvements after release is well over 100 times, large and small.

Even now, it seems that the staff reads the opinions that come to them by word of mouth and e-mail every day, and their sincere attitude can be seen in the way they politely reply to reviews on the app store.

"I don't think there are many organizations in the private sector that are able to respond so carefully, and I think that responding to the feedback we receive has led to the current evaluation."

(From left) Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau Mr. Mimori and Mr. Kikuchi, GMO-PG Sotoike

Because failure is not allowed, we chose to introduce it to public services Actual a wide range of GMO-PGs.

GMO-PG with a "PG Multi-Payment Service" was selected as a result of the review of the planning proposal for this application. GMO-PG supports the introduction of payment functions through "PG Multi-Payment Service" from the time of app development, and is responsible for maintenance and operation after release.

"PG Multi-Payment Service" is a payment processing services that provides a rich online payment method such as credit card payments and various Pay payment. To date, it has been introduced in more than 150,000 stores, including not only private e-commerce and mail order businesses, but also public entity such as NHK and National Tax Agency, Actual.

The features of "PG Multi-Payment Service", which are adopted in a wide range of industries and industries, are not only the abundance and number of merchants of payment method. The company also offers generous support from a highly specialized sales team that is familiar with each industry, as well as a secure system with a high uptime rate that fully complies with PCI DSS Ver3.2.1, the global security standard for the credit industry.

What attracted the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Waterworks about "PG Multi-Payment Service" with such features that led to its decision to introduce it?

"The first thing that attracted me was that GMO-PG already had a lot of Actual to be introduced to other rural municipalities and public services. It is also important that there were many Actual to infrastructure companies such as gas and electricity​.

I think that public services and local municipalities have different specifications and needs than private companies, and there are many special requirements. I felt that GMO-PG, which is highly regarded by such introductory companies, is still a reliable partner. However, since it was a planning proposal, we made a comprehensive judgment based on the features and price of each company's services."

No matter how good a payment system is, it cannot be implemented unless it can be integrated into the existing system to be implemented while ensuring security. payment Mr. Kikuchi says that it was necessary to carefully select the procedure "because it is a public service that cannot afford to fail."​

"Of course, it is important for private companies, but even more so, we cannot afford to make mistakes in payment in public services. It is obvious, but there must be no deficiencies in the part where important money is involved. That's why it's important to have a reliable payment system.
We also trusted the fact that we could integrate it into the system of the app development vendor that we had decided on earlier while maintaining safety, and that we could work together in step with future expansion of payment method. GMO-PG also maintained a high level of security, which was also shown as an objective result."

"One of the strengths of PG Multi-Payment Service is its high level of security, and I am happy that you have firmly evaluated this point along with the abundant Actual."

The selection factor for the payment method is that the GMO-PG outer pond is first and foremost used by a wide range of Tokyo residents.

"At the time of development, ​​in addition to credit card payments, we selected Pay-based payment method based on market share payment method​​ (GMO-PG Sotoike)

It has more than 1.6 million users. Achieving both paperless and cashless

The "Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau App" is attracting attention from all over the country as a pioneer of DX in public infrastructure. As a good example of DX, there are many inquiries from other municipalities.
In addition, it won the Tokyo Metropolitan Government DX Award 2023, which recognizes outstanding digital utilization efforts within the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. From a total of 26 entries from 19 stations, it was evaluated as an app from a thorough user's point of view.

Even if you look at the growth in the number of app users, its support is clear.

"The number of users is 1.67 million as of the end of June 2024, and the original target was 1 million users by the end of fiscal 2025, so it is much higher. One million users had already achieved it in July 2023. The number of users increased rapidly in the first 2~3 months of release, and it continues to increase by about 50,000 every month."

There was also a significant reduction in terms of improving operations within the organization.

"The processing speed of new water supply applications has been improved. By automatically transferring data to the core system, which was not available before, the processing time was reduced by 1.3 minutes per case.
In FY2023, the number of applications for starting water supply through the app was about 280,000 per year, so we have achieved a total of about 6,000 hours of time savings."

"From the perspective of going paperless, as of the end of March 2024, 97% of app users chose to receive meter reading slips electronically. In the year and a half since its release, it has succeeded in digitizing more than 9 million meter reading slips.
Considering that there will be few users who will switch from electronic to paper in the future, we have achieved semi-permanent digitalization."

In this way, the DX of water supply procedures for Tokyo residents is clearly expressed as a change in numbers. The DX transformation of payment systems integrated by "PG Multi-Payment Service" can also be seen as quantitative results.

"We have also achieved great results in cashlessness. The number of applications for credit card payments has increased significantly, with ​an increase of about 50% compared to FY2021 before the app release and FY2023 after the release.
As of March 2024, the cashless ratio of water bills payment, including credit card payments, Pay payment, and Account transfer payments, is approximately 80%. It can be seen that there was a potentially high need for cashless water bills."

I was attracted to the human resources of GMO-PG. We would like to continue to work together to transform water supply into DX

The Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau has successfully solved the complex and delicate issue of DX in public services and advanced the lives of Tokyo residents. Finally, he expressed his gratification for "PG Multi-Payment Service" and GMO-PG, which built the payment system of the "Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau App".

"I trust GMO-PG frankly. I'm not talking about it because I'm being interviewed, but I think it's a company with very great human resources.

In the past, when we tried to implement a new payment method, there was a disagreement between the two sides about what contract was about. At first, I thought that the person in charge at the time of the contract exchange was already absent, and I was in trouble at first, but thanks to Mr. Sotoike's sincere and persistent fact checking one by one and bringing me to negotiate many times, I was able to land on a contract content that both parties were satisfied with. It was difficult for both of us at the time when we were negotiating many times, but I feel that this matter has actually strengthened our relationship of trust. Mr. Sotoike is in​ charge of sales, but he also learns about techniques every day and has a very good impression of him."

"I think I am the one who interacts with Mr. Sotoike the most, but improving the app requires cooperation from all sides, and it is a difficult task. I feel like we can overcome the difficulties in the future together." (Mr. Mimori)

In order to continue to maintain a convenient app from the perspective of Tokyo residents, GMO-PG will continue to support the payment system of the "Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau App".

Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau App In addition to being able to easily and quickly perform various procedures related to water supply from your smartphone, it also supports payment with credit cards and Pay payment. In addition, in addition to meter reading slips, water consumption, and water charges, this app allows you to check the location and opening status of water supply stations (water supply bases) in the event of a disaster. https://tokyo-waterworks.jp/