if Co., Ltd. Enhances AI-Powered Mentoring Support for In-House Business System Development Targeting SMEs in Printing and Order Management Industries — Launches Individual Consultation Sessions

if Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Nakano-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Yasuyuki Ito) announces its initiative to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in order receiving and processing—particularly in the printing industry—through AI-powered mentoring for in-house development of business systems. For tasks such as interpreting order emails, calculating estimates, and arranging deliveries—areas often outsourced or reliant on manual, person-dependent processes—if offers a combination of weekly to biweekly one-on-one mentoring, training-linked development support, and subsidy utilization assistance. This empowers non-engineer staff to transition into a state where they can continuously improve their own business operations internally.

Challenges in In-House System Development for Printing and Order-Management Businesses

Many SMEs handling order processing, including printing companies managing diverse projects such as business cards, direct mail, and address book printing, use database tools like kintone for project management. However, daily operations still often involve person-dependent burdens:

Manual interpretation of order emails: Extracting order requirements from multiple email exchanges before confirmation tends to concentrate on specific individuals.

Estimation and pricing based on personal experience: Price calculations, which vary by delivery region and specifications, are often handled mentally or via individual Excel files, making standardization and automation difficult.

Manual back-end processes like shipping label generation: Tasks such as CSV exports, uploading to shipping cloud services, and linking generated PDFs to orders burden staff unfamiliar with PC operations.

Lack of sustained learning from one-off training: Even if skills are temporarily acquired, knowledge and motivation often fade without a system to apply them in daily work.

These are not simply issues of "lacking engineers," but structural challenges common to order-processing businesses: whether frontline staff can continuously improve existing operations and systems on their own.

What if's Mentoring Support Offers

if's support does not place participants on an external curriculum—a pre-existing track. Instead, instructors join companies on their own existing track (current operations, systems, and on-site knowledge) to guide internal improvement. For businesses managing order processing, if provides three integrated services:

1. AI-Powered Mentoring (One-on-One, Weekly to Biweekly)

Through screen sharing, mentors guide non-engineer staff using AI coding tools like Claude Code and Cursor, applying real business challenges as learning material. Content is tailored to the company’s technical environment, including kintone JavaScript customization, automation using Google Apps Script (GAS) and external APIs, and web app development with React/Next.js.

2. Training-Linked Development Support

After completing corporate programming training, participants can seamlessly transition into ongoing mentoring support. This prevents the common issue of learning stopping after training ends, aiming instead for continuous in-house development of practical systems.

3. Subsidy Utilization Support

Support is provided for utilizing the Human Resources Development Support Subsidy (e.g., fixed-amount training subsidy), from eligibility checks to document preparation. This enables investment in talent development with wage and training cost subsidies, making the program accessible even for cost-constrained SMEs.

Potential In-House Development Themes for Printing and Order-Management Businesses

The following tasks are considered ideal starting points for in-house system development in order-processing businesses. These are areas where frontline staff possess the deepest operational knowledge, and mastering AI-assisted development skills enables continuous self-driven improvement without relying on outsourcing:

Automated extraction of order information from emails: Automatically parse and register order details from multi-exchange email threads into the system using AI, GAS, and external APIs.

Automated estimation and pricing: Implement variable pricing logic—based on delivery zones and specifications—as reusable components in a web application, enabling standardization.

Automation of back-end processes like shipping: Integrate kintone, JavaScript, and shipping cloud APIs to systematize workflows from CSV export to PDF generation and order linkage.

In-house development of order management web systems: Build a custom order management system with features like login, data management, and status tracking, using tools such as kintone, React/Next.js, and Supabase.

*The above are example themes; actual support is individually tailored to each company’s operations and structure.

Individual Consultation Sessions

if is offering individual consultation sessions for businesses in the printing industry and other order-processing sectors aiming to become organizations capable of building their own systems without relying on outsourcing.

Based on your current operations, systems, and on-site conditions, we will design a customized curriculum to determine which tasks to prioritize for in-house development and which combination of training, mentoring, and subsidies is most suitable. We also accommodate company-specific structures, such as teams led by non-engineer staff driving improvement.

For inquiries and consultations, please use the contact form on if Co., Ltd.'s website (https://if-tech.co.jp/).

*Subsidy receipt is not guaranteed. Eligibility and amounts are determined by the relevant labor bureau.