A locally rooted, regionally circulating welfare service, contributing to regional revitalization

Inesus: Welfare Benefits App

Yamaguchi Financial Group is a financial holding company with three regional banks under its umbrella: Yamaguchi Bank, Kitakyushu Bank, and Momiji Bank. Under the slogan "Beyond Regions, For the Future," they have positioned contributing to regional development as their mission. In February 2021, the company established "Inesus," a new company that acts as a corporate welfare service provider, a first among regional banks nationwide. They are working to solve regional issues through their welfare service business. Monstar Lab participated in the development of the welfare service app "Inesus," named after the newly established welfare service company, from the planning stage. We were responsible for the processes from requirements definition to UX/UI design and product development.

Challenges:

The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in 2020, has significantly changed people's working styles, and corporate welfare services are now required to align with the new normal. However, many existing welfare services have limited coverage areas, often focusing on metropolitan areas. Yamaguchi Financial Group recognized the need for an optimal service that meets the needs of regional areas.

Inesus, established as a new company, aimed to provide a regionally circulating welfare service that leverages Yamaguchi Financial Group's regional foundation. By increasing the satisfaction of employees working at local companies and promoting local consumption, they aimed to contribute to regional revitalization.

The challenge in product development was the lack of app development expertise. To ensure that the app would be used as a service closely integrated into the lives of local users, a partner with specialized knowledge in all aspects of app development, from requirements definition to UX/UI design, was needed.

Solutions:

Monstarlab began by analyzing the service that Yamaguchi Financial Group had been developing for testing purposes. We started by organizing the stakeholders, including contracted companies and store owners providing discount coupons.

Next, we redesigned the personas and created user stories that envisioned usage scenarios. We linked the candidate features to each scenario and prioritized them.

For the development methodology, we proposed agile development, which is resilient to requirement changes. To achieve a rapid service launch, we focused on the minimum necessary features while formulating a project execution plan that also considered post-release feature expansion.

A key consideration during the management system development was that there were three roles operating the management screen: Inesus, participating companies, and coupon-providing stores. We built a system that did not compromise operability for each role, while being mindful of the differences in their workflows.

In frontend development, we prioritized usability. Considering that the app would be used by the employees of participating companies and their families, we carefully considered the registration method and implemented a simple system with minimal steps.

Results:

"Inesus," released as a new regionally focused welfare service, is being deployed across three prefectures—Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka—and currently offers discount coupons at over 4,000 participating stores.

While the first phase release focused on features for searching participating stores and using coupons, Monstar Lab continues to develop additional features.