Transforming the eldercare industry through the voices of care workers – The Story Behind the Development of "FIKAIGO," a Sumitomo Corporation x Sompo Care Collaboration

To begin, could you give us an overview of FIKAIGO's services?

Sugaya Certainly. FIKAIGO is a system that provides end-to-end support for back-office tasks at nursing care facilities, starting with shift scheduling. When staff submit their preferred days off through a smartphone app, the system automatically generates early, late and night shifts based on that information. It also continuously monitors whether staffing meets the legally required placement standards under Japan's Long-Term Care Insurance Act, as well as the requirements for additional reimbursements earned by enhanced care arrangements. Further, it automatically generates documents required for submission to administrative authorities.

We understand this project is the first to be commercialized from Sumitomo Corporation's internal entrepreneurship program, "0→1 NEXT."* What led you to take on this challenge?

How did the project progress from idea selection to development?

Sugaya Through repeated hypothesis testing, the most important insight we arrived at was that the burden on care workers lies not in caregiving itself, but in back-office administrative work. Providing care to residents is rewarding, but administrative tasks unexpectedly become a heavy burden – and one many people feel uncomfortable with. Leaving that gap unaddressed would make it impossible to protect the future of caregiving.

Care sites still rely heavily on analog processes, which can even lead to interpersonal friction. That's why we decided to start by automating shift scheduling, the single most burdensome task. However, the company required us to confirm real demand by securing a commitment from a major operator. At that time, Sompo Care was considering introducing shift scheduling software. We approached them, and they agreed to adopt FIKAIGO.

Why did Sompo Care decide to adopt FIKAIGO at such an early stage of development and even participate in the project itself?

We understand development took around two years. What challenges did you face?

Sonoyama App development was outsourced to a startup, but as this was a large-scale SaaS project, issues with scheduling and quality gradually emerged. To address this, we strengthened the involvement of Sumitomo Corporation and group companies with extensive experience in enterprise development and web design, including Insight Edge and SCSK. By shifting to a structure in which the group worked closely with the startup's development process, the project was able to get back on track.

Were there specific challenges unique to developing systems for nursing care facilities?

Sonoyama Yes. Nursing care facilities require much more than simply having enough staff to keep operations running. Compared to other industries, the complexity is several times greater – at least in my experience.

Odake This is because shift management in nursing care facilities is governed by many detailed rules under the Long-Term Care Insurance system, including staffing standards and additional reimbursement requirements. What’s more, requirements differ between residential care homes and day-service facilities. Creating a single system that can flexibly handle all of that requires ingenuity. Sumitomo Corporation carefully organized on-site workflows and decision-making processes, always asking, "What will make this easier to use on the front line?" Working through this process together was a major learning experience for us as well.

After all that trial and error, what would you say are FIKAIGO's major strengths?

Sonoyama There are two main strengths. First, FIKAIGO provides one-stop support for all staffing-related functions: (1) automatic shift creation, (2) monitoring of staffing standards and additional reimbursement requirements and (3) automatic generation of administrative documents (staffing / work classification lists and reference calculation sheets).

In nursing care, it's not enough for a shift to simply "work operationally." It must also meet staffing and reimbursement requirements, otherwise facilities cannot receive long-term care insurance reimbursement. We believe FIKAIGO is currently the only product that can satisfy both at the same time.

Sugaya Among these, the most positively received feature is the automatic creation of administrative documents. Preparing these documents is time-consuming and burdensome for care sites, but after implementing this feature at Sompo Care's request, many operators praised it as something that truly eases pain points.

Sonoyama The second strength is the deep integration of operational expertise into the system. Automatic scheduling rules and calculation logic reflect Sompo Care's expertise and interpretations of care reimbursement, preventing reimbursement reductions due to non-compliance before they happen. With conventional products, users had to build scheduling rules from scratch, and we heard of many cases where they gave up after two months without ever reaching stable operation.

FIKAIGO is currently deployed at around 300 Sompo Care residential facilities. What feedback have you received from the field?

How would you like FIKAIGO to evolve going forward?

Sugaya Starting with shift management, we envision a future where all analog on-site tasks are integrated into the FIKAIGO platform and managed through a single ID. Beyond scheduling, we'd also like the platform to support communication with families who entrust their loved ones to care facilities, as well as tasks like shopping.

What kind of future do you hope this project will help realize?

Sugaya When visiting small facilities, we often see fundamental operational challenges. Many care sites are staffed by dedicated people doing their best with limited numbers. But that situation always carries the risk of accidents. That's why we want to propose safer ways of working through systems. Improving on-site conditions directly leads to less anxiety for residents. To enhance safety at a fundamental level, we also need to rethink operational frameworks, not just rely on individual ingenuity. I recently discussed this with Sompo Care's standardization team and felt strongly that a certain level of industry-wide standardization is essential.

Odake Sompo Care is committed to the mission: "Sompo Care transforms Japan's nursing care, and builds the future of Japan." That's our purpose as a company. By developing shared systems like FIKAIGO, we hope the entire nursing care industry, which plays a vital role in society, will continue to thrive and improve.

Sugaya That thinking also resonates with Sumitomo Corporation's management philosophy of "benefit for self and others, private and public interests are one and the same," acting with a view to enhance value for society, not just organizational benefit. Because this was a partnership with Sompo Care, which shares that high-level perspective, a project that began through an internal entrepreneurship program has been able to grow this much.

Ultimately, our goal is not simply to reduce back-office tasks. In an industry where labor costs account for around 70% of expenses, optimal staffing is the greatest management challenge. Through operational standardization and optimal placement, management stabilizes, working conditions improve and service quality for residents rises. Creating that "three-way win" for the nursing care industry is our goal. We will continue working toward a future where, ten or twenty years from now, people can say: "Thanks to FIKAIGO, the nursing care industry became sustainable."