TOKYO/ May 18, 2022/ VFR Inc.
– Provides services from complicated aircraft management to user information and flight history management through its official LINE account –
VFR Inc. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Mr. Koichiro Yuasa, hereinafter referred to as “VFR”) is pleased to announce that VFR has started offering “VFR Customer Connect”, a customer support service through LINE for drone users from April 26th, 2022. The structure of the service was built by transcosmos inc. (Headquarters: Toshima-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director and COO: Mr. Okuda Masataka, hereinafter referred as to transcosmos).
[Background of the launch of this service]
Currently, the flight history of a drone is linked to each model and/or account, making it difficult for users who owns multiple drones to manage them. It is similarly complicated for companies and organizations to organize flight history of multiple drones together.
On the other hand, the cases of utilizing multiple drones are expected to increase, especially with the expanded opportunity of using drones along with the start of sales of Japanese drone, “SOTEN”. In light of such situation, VFR has started to provide “VFR Customer Connect” as a service that makes flight history and user management easy.
Moreover, this service is architected to support operators focus on their tasks by enabling them to view e-manuals and send inquiries regarding aircraft through itself. This service utilizes the first LINE official account in the drone industry*, and starts with support for the Japanese drone “SOTEN”. VFR plans to support other models in the future.
VFR aims the proliferation of drones that can be used by anyone, anywhere and anytime and promotes further use of drones through user friendly “VFR Customer Connect”.
With the launch of “VFR Customer Connect”, transcosmos has built a customer support system provided through LINE. From the establishment of LINE official accounts to operation and customer communication, they utilized their extensive know-how and high technical capabilities in LINE’s corporate services to build and implement the system in a short period of time.
*According to VFR research
■Outline
“VFR Customer Connect” has three special features, all of which are focused on “easy-to-use”.
1. Manage drone operation easily with LINE
User registration, aircraft registration, flight history management
2. Obtain information easily through LINE
Latest information on software, etc, web conference support reservation center
3. Easily operate drones with e-manuals
The latest manuals are always provided and can be searched/viewed even on site
■Special Features
1. Manage drone operation easily with LINE
● Function 1: User registration and aircraft registration
By scanning the QR code affixed to the SOTEN packaging box with a smartphone,
you can add friends to the LINE official account, register users, and register airplanes
all at once.
● Function 2: Flight History Management
Simply tap the app on the LINE official account to save your fight history* to your
smartphone.You can also select the records you need and download them at any time.
*Details of flight history
Manual entry: user name, email address
Automatic input: VFR model number, VFR S/N, serial number,
flight start date and time/end date and time,
flight area latitude/longitude, flight area city name,
weather, wind speed, wind direction
2. Obtain information easily through LINE
Users can obtain the latest information on software etc. on LINE, which saves trouble to check the website regularly. In addition, those who have applied for VFR’s own customer support contract can access the web conference support reservation center from LINE.
3. Easily operate drones with e-manuals
“Electronic manuals” that can be “easily” checked on a smartphone or tablet is provided. It is easy to understand with photos and videos, so you can intuitively understand the operation and utilization. The manuals are updated as needed for those that receives many inquiries from customers, and they are always up-to-date and more “easy-to-use”.
VFR aims the proliferation of drones that can be used by anyone, anywhere and anytime and engage in various initiatives.
<About VFR Inc.>
VFR was established as a subsidiary of VAIO Corporation with the vision of “Opening up possibilities for people and society with our technologies and passion.” The company provides solutions for drone business, service providers, and end users, and also aim to contribute to building an ecosystem for the development of the drone industry by engaging in an open and flat dialog with all parties involved in the drone industry.
Company name: VFR Inc.
Location: Yebisu Garden Place Tower 31F, 4-20-3 Ebisu, Shibuya-ward, Tokyo, Japan Representative: President & CEO Koichiro Yuasa
Establishment: March 12, 2020
URL: https://vfr.co.jp/
Business Overview: Plan, design, manufacture, sale, repair, maintenance, inspection, import and export of industrial drones, small unmanned aerial vehicles (drones, etc.) and accompanying software, and contracting of design, manufacture and repair.
Incidental to these, technical support, design support, operational support for production and sales, and planning support, etc.
<About transcosmos>
Since its founding in 1966, transcosmos has been delivering highly valuable services by uniting highly-skilled “people” and the world’s cutting-edge “technology” in order to enhance the competitiveness of its clients. Today, we provide services to support our clients’ business processes in both cost optimization and revenue growth in 169 offices in 28 countries and regions around the world, mainly in Asia, while pursuing operational excellence. In addition, in line with the expansion of the e-commerce market on a global scale, we provide a global e-commerce one-stop service that delivers high-quality products and services of our customers to consumers in 46 countries and regions around the world. transcosmos endeavors to become “the Global Digital Transformation Partner” that responds to changes in the business environment and supports customers through the use of digital technologies. (URL:https://www.trans-cosmos.co.jp)