Case Study: NTT DOCOMO – “d Car Share”

Industry: Telecommunications & Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS)

Snapshot

Japan’s appetite for Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) keeps rising as consumers swap vehicle ownership for on-demand access. To capture that shift, the Smart Life Promotion Department at NTT DOCOMO launched “d Car Share” in November 2017—a smartphone-centric MaaS platform that bundles three offerings: Car Share (B2B), peer-to-peer My Car Share, and traditional Rent-a-Car. Startup fees and monthly charges are zero; customers simply pay for what they use.

As the MaaS ecosystem expanded and partner operators grew from one to four within three years, DOCOMO needed iron-clad back-office processes, accurate billing for both end users and partner companies, and a knowledge base nimble enough to track more than 400 evolving FAQ articles. In March 2020 TMJ delivered a full-text FAQ search engine—compressing the typical six-month build into three months and unlocking true customer self-service.

The Challenge

• Channel every customer and partner inquiry for three distinct MaaS offerings into a single support model
• Maintain up-to-date manuals and playbooks as each new mobility operator joined the platform
• Replace a static, 400- to 500-item FAQ with a fast, smartphone-friendly search tool
• Launch that search engine in half the usual lead-time to meet DOCOMO’s go-live target
• Handle end-user billing and multi-party revenue settlement without service disruption

TMJ’s Solution

Embedded Operations Desks
TMJ deployed three dedicated desks inside DOCOMO headquarters, covering (a) end-user billing, (b) partner settlement, and (c) escalations from the TMJ-operated Sapporo-based d Car Share Support Center. Their on-site presence eliminated time-consuming hand-offs between head office and the contact center—critical for the fast-moving MaaS market.

Living Knowledge Management
Every customer interaction fed TMJ’s knowledge loop. Analysts captured issues, refreshed operator-specific manuals, and expanded the FAQ library in lock-step with service changes—adding roughly 100 new articles when Toyota Share joined the MaaS platform in October 2020.

Rapid FAQ Search Deployment
By December 2019 the existing FAQ had grown unwieldy. TMJ proposed a searchable engine and, at DOCOMO’s request, re-allocated technical resources to compress the build from six months to three. Content migration, smartphone-UI optimization, and testing were completed on schedule, and the new FAQ went live in March 2020—just ahead of the next partner onboarding wave.

Results

Self-Service at Scale

• Monthly FAQ page views soared from 20 000–30 000 to well over 100 000 after the search launch, proving customers can now resolve issues themselves.
• A redesigned mobile interface makes answers faster to find and act on—essential for on-the-go MaaS users.

Operational Agility

• Every partner integration hit its launch date; Toyota Share FAQs were published the same day the service opened.
• All manuals, billing flows, and settlement rules stayed in sync with each expansion.

Efficiency & Insight

• Embedded desks shrank escalation loops and gave DOCOMO real-time visibility into MaaS operations.
• Monthly governance reports translate live feedback into actionable product tweaks.

“TMJ’s hands-on support let us roll out the FAQ search system in just three months—half the normal time—without missing a single partner milestone.”

Koji Tamura, Senior Manager, Mobility Business, Smart Life Promotion Dept., NTT DOCOMO

“Scaling d Car Share on schedule would have been extremely difficult without TMJ’s knowledge-management expertise.”

Hiroshi Akiwa, General Manager, Mobility Business, Smart Life Promotion Dept., NTT DOCOMO

Looking Ahead

As the MaaS revolution accelerates, DOCOMO plans to widen its partner ecosystem and place vehicles within convenient reach of every customer. TMJ will remain the operational hub linking DOCOMO HQ, partner operators, and the Sapporo Support Center—reinforcing the service foundation that keeps d Car Share growing.

(“d Car Share” is a registered trademark of NTT DOCOMO, Inc.)

If your business faces similar challenges to this, https://tmj-bpo.com/solutions/.