Benkyo Cafe Adopts Akerun Across All Locations, Significantly Reducing Labor Costs Through Unmanned Operations and Accelerating Franchise Expansion

"Akerun Access Management System" (hereinafter referred to as "Akerun"), provided by Photosynth Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Kota Kawase; hereinafter referred to as Photosynth), has been adopted as standard equipment for "Benkyo Cafe," a membership-based self-study room operated nationwide by Bookmarks Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Hiroshi Yamamura; hereinafter referred to as Bookmarks). By introducing Akerun across all locations, Benkyo Cafe has achieved the establishment of a secure and safe self-study environment, a 40% reduction in labor costs through a remote customer service system centered on Akerun, and a lowered barrier to entry for franchisees by standardizing Akerun in their franchise opening packages. The overview of Akerun's introduction at Benkyo Cafe is as follows: * Introduction of a secure, safe, and convenient access management solution through the robust and reliable Akerun for corporate use. * 40% reduction in labor costs through unmanned and streamlined operations with a remote customer service system centered on Akerun. * Adoption of Akerun in the opening package for franchise expansion, lowering the barrier to entry for franchisees with Akerun's post-installation, no-construction setup. **Background and Effects of Akerun Introduction** Since its founding in 2008, Bookmarks has been expanding "Benkyo Cafe," Japan's first membership-based self-study room with a supportive approach, nationwide, with the mission to "increase adults who become happy through learning." Through lounges and events where users can interact, coaching services to manage progress, and other offerings, it supports adult reskilling and qualification acquisition from both soft and hard aspects, currently operating 38 stores nationwide, including directly managed and franchise locations. Benkyo Cafe traditionally operated with human staff, but challenges arose from relying on manual operations, such as securing personnel for facility management from early morning to late night and the burden of labor costs. Furthermore, the previously implemented access management system required construction on the doors themselves, incurring high initial costs per door, which presented a significant barrier for franchisees when considering future franchise expansion. The traditional challenges in Benkyo Cafe's facility operation and franchise expansion were as follows: **[Challenges Before Akerun Introduction]** * Introduction of an access management solution that ensures security, safety, and quietness in the members' self-study environment. * Establishment of a system that can resolve issues such as the burden of securing personnel and increased labor costs in facility operations. * Provision of an opening support package with reduced entry barriers to accelerate nationwide franchise expansion. This time, Benkyo Cafe has introduced Akerun as a solution to achieve labor cost reduction and operational efficiency through unmanned and streamlined operations, as well as to lower the entry barrier for franchisees for accelerated franchise expansion. Benkyo Cafe has realized the following benefits through the introduction of Akerun: **[Effects of Akerun Introduction]** * Creation of a comfortable, secure, and safe self-study environment with Akerun, which boasts excellent market performance and UX. The introduction of Akerun, which offers robustness and reliability for corporate use, along with superior convenience and manageability, provides members with the convenience of entering and exiting using their usual IC cards, while also ensuring a secure and safe self-study environment through features like granting access rights only to members and confirming entry/exit history. * 40% reduction in labor costs by establishing a remote customer service system. By centering operations around Akerun, combined with in-store situation monitoring via cloud cameras, member support via chat tools, and a member management system, remote operators can manage multiple stores collectively. This enables smooth facility operation and customer service remotely without needing staff on-site, resulting in a 40% reduction in labor costs. * Acceleration of franchise expansion and reduction of entry barriers for franchisees. Akerun can be retrofitted to existing doors without requiring construction, eliminating the initial costs of 200,000 to 300,000 yen per door that were associated with previous systems. This significantly reduces the costs and effort for franchise store openings. Furthermore, the remote customer service provided by the head office's operators reduces the burden of staff recruitment for franchisees. Photosynth will continue to strengthen its proposals for unmanned and streamlined solutions originating from Akerun to improve operational efficiency in all types of facilities. They will also promote functional enhancements and the expansion of linked services to meet various needs, such as building secure and safe space environments and reducing facility operating costs. For more details on Benkyo Cafe's introduction of Akerun, please refer to the case study article on the Akerun service site: https://akerun.com/casestudy/detail_bookmarks_benkyo-cafe **About Akerun** "Akerun" is an IoT service that digitizes all keys, improving convenience and security. Utilizing "Akerun Access Intelligence," an access authentication platform that combines digital and physical IDs to authenticate users, it enables access management to various locations and scenes by connecting any door to the internet. The flagship service under the Akerun brand, the "Akerun Access Management System" for corporate use, is a cloud-based service that can be retrofitted to existing doors. It allows for key authority management and access management via the cloud, including locking/unlocking with smartphones or IC cards, checking entry/exit history via a web management tool or smartphone app, and remote locking/unlocking, as well as granting/revoking key permissions. Service Site: https://akerun.com/ **About Photosynth Inc.** With the mission "To embed experiences that bring happiness through learning into the future," Photosynth Inc. aims to solve social issues such as labor shortages and the declining working population. They provide Akerun brand cloud-based IoT services for offices and residences, including the "Akerun Access Management System" which allows cloud management of keys by simply retrofitting smart locks to existing doors. Through its subsidiaries, the company also offers "Migakun," a facility operation BPaaS service that supports the efficient management of various spaces, and "fixU," a cloud-based customer management and payment system focused on unmanned and labor-saving operations. By providing various services that realize labor shortage solutions and unmanned/labor-saving operations in all physical spaces such as offices and commercial facilities, they support problem-solving for companies of all industries and business types, regardless of scale. https://photosynth.co.jp/