TECO Design, with Over 1,000 Companies Supported, Awards 'Truly Hot' Releases from a Frontline Perspective
TECO Design announced the 'H2 2025 Hot Release Award' to recognize cloud system updates that significantly ease practical workloads. Money Forward Cloud Payroll won the Grand Prize, followed by LayerX's Bakuraku Kintai and SmartHR.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 23, 2026 at 20:30
- 🔍 Collected: April 23, 2026 at 12:01
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 23, 2026 at 12:04 (3 min after Collected)
TECO Design Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, President and CEO: Makoto Sugino, hereafter: the Company) held voting and selection by our members and professional partners in the 'H2 2025 Hot Release Award,' a project to select the 'hottest release' announced in the second half of fiscal 2025 (October 2025 to March 2026) from among the cloud systems handled in our showroom 'CLOUD STATION', and decided the Grand Prize.
This project aims to shine a light on 'improvements that truly help in the field,' seen through our hands-on support for over 1,000 companies, and to deliver a 'thank you' from a user perspective to the engineers and product managers behind the development.
■ What is the 'Hot Release Award'?
The 'Hot Release Award' is a project to select 'releases that are truly hot for the frontline' from the perspective of HR and back-office personnel, chosen from the releases of companies involved with our cloud experience showroom 'CLOUD STATION'.
Rather than simply evaluating major feature additions or highly talked-about updates, we evaluate based on:
How much the burden of practical work is reduced
How much easier it becomes to use in the field
How much it pushes forward the decisions and operations of personnel
From these perspectives, in addition to our implementation support and configuration proxy members, we also ask our professional partners who face practical frontline operations daily to vote and conduct the selection.
We want to deliver a feeling of 'thank you for creating this feature' to the developers of cloud systems, who rarely hear the voices of gratitude from users. This project started with such a desire.
This time, based on the releases from various companies published in the second half of fiscal 2025, in addition to the internal selection process, we have decided the Grand Prize, 2nd Place Prize, and 3rd Place Prize while also considering the votes from our professional partners.
■ H2 2025 Hot Release Award Results
Determined based on votes from TECO Design members and professional partners.
[Grand Prize] Money Forward Cloud Payroll
Target Release
Implemented additions of integration items with 'Money Forward Cloud HR Management' and specification changes for bank account information.
Quote: Money Forward Inc. Money Forward Cloud Support: Implemented additions of integration items with 'Money Forward Cloud HR Management' and specification changes for bank account information (https://biz.moneyforward.com/support/payroll/news/new-feature/20260311.html)
Reason for Award
The connection between HR management and payroll calculation is an extremely important area in daily operations, but it is also an area where minor specification differences and insufficient integration can increase the confirmation and correction work for personnel.
This update was highly evaluated not merely as an added feature, but for making the flow of practical work connect more naturally, bringing it closer to a state where personnel can operate without hesitation.
The expansion of integration items and improvements around account information are 'modest but highly effective' updates for the frontline, and we selected it as the Grand Prize for H2 2025 from the perspective of reducing operational load.
[2nd Place Prize] Bakuraku Kintai
Target Release
LayerX begins offering 'AI Shift Conversion Feature' in Bakuraku Kintai. Automatically converts work schedules just by uploading a shift table, eliminating the need for manual format conversion.
Quote: LayerX Inc. LayerX begins offering 'AI Shift Conversion Feature' in Bakuraku Kintai. Automatically converts work schedules just by uploading a shift table, eliminating the need for manual format conversion (https://bakuraku.jp/news/20260304/)
Reason for Award
In shift-based workplaces, the 'manual work to format data' that occurs before registering work schedules is often hard to see and tends to be a heavy burden.
The release of the 'AI Shift Conversion Feature' made us feel its potential to greatly reduce the preprocessing effort previously handled by people, simply by uploading a shift table to convert it into a work schedule.
Amid the growing attention to AI utilization, it was highly evaluated for leading to concrete work reduction in the field, and was selected for 2nd place.
[3rd Place Prize] SmartHR
Target Release
Released new feature 'Special Tax Collection Notice Management'
Quote: SmartHR Inc. Help Center: Released new feature 'Special Tax Collection Notice Management' (Updated 03/13) (https://support.smarthr.jp/ja/info/update/9x6umg1vaztg/)
Reason for Award
While special tax collection notices are an important task occurring every year, it is an area that easily generates complexity in each process of confirmation, distribution, and management.
The release of the 'Special Tax Collection Notice Management' feature was highly evaluated for making practically recurring tasks smoother.
This project aims to shine a light on 'improvements that truly help in the field,' seen through our hands-on support for over 1,000 companies, and to deliver a 'thank you' from a user perspective to the engineers and product managers behind the development.
■ What is the 'Hot Release Award'?
The 'Hot Release Award' is a project to select 'releases that are truly hot for the frontline' from the perspective of HR and back-office personnel, chosen from the releases of companies involved with our cloud experience showroom 'CLOUD STATION'.
Rather than simply evaluating major feature additions or highly talked-about updates, we evaluate based on:
How much the burden of practical work is reduced
How much easier it becomes to use in the field
How much it pushes forward the decisions and operations of personnel
From these perspectives, in addition to our implementation support and configuration proxy members, we also ask our professional partners who face practical frontline operations daily to vote and conduct the selection.
We want to deliver a feeling of 'thank you for creating this feature' to the developers of cloud systems, who rarely hear the voices of gratitude from users. This project started with such a desire.
This time, based on the releases from various companies published in the second half of fiscal 2025, in addition to the internal selection process, we have decided the Grand Prize, 2nd Place Prize, and 3rd Place Prize while also considering the votes from our professional partners.
■ H2 2025 Hot Release Award Results
Determined based on votes from TECO Design members and professional partners.
[Grand Prize] Money Forward Cloud Payroll
Target Release
Implemented additions of integration items with 'Money Forward Cloud HR Management' and specification changes for bank account information.
Quote: Money Forward Inc. Money Forward Cloud Support: Implemented additions of integration items with 'Money Forward Cloud HR Management' and specification changes for bank account information (https://biz.moneyforward.com/support/payroll/news/new-feature/20260311.html)
Reason for Award
The connection between HR management and payroll calculation is an extremely important area in daily operations, but it is also an area where minor specification differences and insufficient integration can increase the confirmation and correction work for personnel.
This update was highly evaluated not merely as an added feature, but for making the flow of practical work connect more naturally, bringing it closer to a state where personnel can operate without hesitation.
The expansion of integration items and improvements around account information are 'modest but highly effective' updates for the frontline, and we selected it as the Grand Prize for H2 2025 from the perspective of reducing operational load.
[2nd Place Prize] Bakuraku Kintai
Target Release
LayerX begins offering 'AI Shift Conversion Feature' in Bakuraku Kintai. Automatically converts work schedules just by uploading a shift table, eliminating the need for manual format conversion.
Quote: LayerX Inc. LayerX begins offering 'AI Shift Conversion Feature' in Bakuraku Kintai. Automatically converts work schedules just by uploading a shift table, eliminating the need for manual format conversion (https://bakuraku.jp/news/20260304/)
Reason for Award
In shift-based workplaces, the 'manual work to format data' that occurs before registering work schedules is often hard to see and tends to be a heavy burden.
The release of the 'AI Shift Conversion Feature' made us feel its potential to greatly reduce the preprocessing effort previously handled by people, simply by uploading a shift table to convert it into a work schedule.
Amid the growing attention to AI utilization, it was highly evaluated for leading to concrete work reduction in the field, and was selected for 2nd place.
[3rd Place Prize] SmartHR
Target Release
Released new feature 'Special Tax Collection Notice Management'
Quote: SmartHR Inc. Help Center: Released new feature 'Special Tax Collection Notice Management' (Updated 03/13) (https://support.smarthr.jp/ja/info/update/9x6umg1vaztg/)
Reason for Award
While special tax collection notices are an important task occurring every year, it is an area that easily generates complexity in each process of confirmation, distribution, and management.
The release of the 'Special Tax Collection Notice Management' feature was highly evaluated for making practically recurring tasks smoother.