Nicigas

The Opportunity: Building a Digital-First Sales Office

When expanding into Hamamatsu, the largest city in Shizuoka Prefecture and home to 200,000 propane-using households, residential energy pioneer NICIGAS saw a chance to completely rethink its operations.

Unlike city gas customers clustered in dense areas, propane users are spread out, making door-to-door meter reading costly and inefficient. Regional Head Manager Takeshi Suzuki recognized that traditional methods wouldn’t scale in Hamamatsu’s market.

“We wondered if we could change that conventional business model from ground zero, using the power of IoT and apps,” said Suzuki.

The new Hamamatsu Sales Office would be the prototype for a fully digitalized approach to customer management, billing, and service.

The Solution: IoT-Powered “Space Hotaru” and Three Major Efficiencies

At the heart of the transformation is Space Hotaru, a smart gas meter and Network Control Unit developed with Soracom that automatically collects usage data and detects abnormalities. By transmitting readings over cellular networks, Space Hotaru eliminates the need for monthly in-person visits, cutting costs and improving productivity.

The Hamamatsu office introduced three key “lessening” measures:

• Cashless: All payments are made by direct debit or credit card, eliminating petty cash handling, reducing administrative work, and improving security.
• Paperless: Space Hotaru readings feed directly into the My NICIGAS app, replacing physical meter slips and enabling instant usage visualization.
• Clerk-less: Digital workflows and cloud-based data sharing allow clerical work to be performed remotely, freeing staff for more customer-facing roles.

These changes reduced clerical workloads to just one-fourth of previous levels and enabled the Hamamatsu office to launch in only 18 months, far faster than the traditional two to four years.

Why Soracom: Scalable, Reliable Connectivity

The Space Hotaru project is a collaboration between Nicigas, Unabiz, Kyocera Communications, and Soracom. Using Soracom’s Air service for IoT SIM connectivity, Space Hotaru can transmit reliable, secure meter data across thousands of dispersed locations.

“NICIGAS represents a prime example of the benefits that a smart IoT connectivity platform brings to large-scale deployments,” said Ken Tamagawa, Soracom Co-founder and CEO.

Soracom’s architecture supports massive scaling while maintaining cost control – critical for a rollout that spans tens of thousands of homes.

The Outcome: Operational Efficiency and Industry Transformation

Going digital has redefined daily operations at Nicigas. Clerks now focus on customer engagement, meter data is collected hourly for more accurate forecasting, and delivery efficiency has improved dramatically, cutting rotation speed by up to 50%.

Customers benefit from transparent usage data in the My NICIGAS app and targeted digital offers, while Nicigas slashes printing and distribution costs.

Following Hamamatsu’s success, Nicigas has begun rolling out the model to other offices, with ambitions to share the system beyond the gas industry.

“The keyword for the future is co-creation, not competition,” said Suzuki. “We hope that Space Hotaru and our cashless and paperless systems will be utilized by companies all over Japan.”