Demonstration testing underway for BUKATOOL skill-sharing platform designed to support school sports clubsMaking a science of club activities through digitalization

Sumitomo Corporation (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director, President and Chief Executive Officer: Masayuki Hyodo) has begun demonstration testing of BUKATOOL, a skill-sharing platform designed to support school club sports through an app for smartphones and other devices, with an eye toward full-scale commercialization.

Club sports at junior high schools, high schools and universities across Japan are presently facing a number of difficulties, among them being a shortage of coaches, complicated activity fee management, and a wide diversity in member opinions and needs. Theirs is a world apart from the environment enjoyed by professional sports athletes, who enjoy a comprehensive support system ranging from injury care to nutritional management.

BUKATOOL provides club athletes with three services: the best coaches, the newest technologies, and the most effective club activity management systems. This app for smartphones and other devices makes it possible for clubs to team up with Japan’s leading coaching staff, visualize their training plans and nutritional practices, and suitably manage their activity costs, essentially “making a science of club sports through digitalization.”

Top-class coaching staff began last year offering instruction to junior high schools, high schools and universities in Tokyo and other regions, and the BUKATOOL app will be provided to clubs and athletes on a trial basis soon.User views will be reflected in efforts to enhance the app’s precision and, although the initial focus is on support for sports clubs, future consideration will also be given to assisting the activities of cultural clubs and deploying the app overseas. With BUKATOOL additionally serving as an interface between food, insurance and other companies and school sports clubs, another aim is to create an ecosystem in which companies can provide clubs with supplements, sporting goods, insurance and a variety of other goods and services.

This app was designated an outstanding new business idea in Sumitomo Corporation’s “01 Challenge 2018” in-house entrepreneurial program, and selected by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as a “Future Classroom” verification project. Sumitomo Corporation is looking to “improve the value of learning through club activities” by using BUKATOOL to offer school club athletes a more sophisticated sports environment and help them resolve a wide range of issues, including fostering broad-minded sports personnel willing to take on challenges and reducing the workloads of coaches.





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■BUKATOOL app screenshots
 

■Sumitomo Corporation’s Material Issues
Sumitomo Corporation Group positions “Six Material Issues to Achieve Sustainable Growth with Society” as an important factor in developing business strategies and in the decision-making process for individual businesses. Going forward, we will pursue sustainable growth by resolving these issues through our business activities. This project especially contributes to “Contributing to the Development of Local Communities and Industries”, “Establishing a Foundation for Comfortable and Enriching Lifestyles” and “Providing Diverse “Accessibility””.