KITZ Corporation (KITZ) is a global manufacturer of valves and other flow-control equipment. This article covers why KITZ adopted Tactna as the unified ID platform behind its digital services for distributors and other external partners, and how the rollout was achieved.
01Background: the risks of stale and sprawling external IDs
KITZ, a global manufacturer of valves and other flow-control equipment, had entered a phase of its mid-term strategy in which digital services for external partners such as distributors would be rolled out in earnest. The first was an inspection certificate system. Systems for external users, however, carry risks that internal systems do not. KITZ faced three challenges.
- Challenge 1: No way to keep up with external users moving or leavingUnlike employees, staff changes at distributors are hard to track in real time. Accounts of people who left, abandoned in the system as so-called "zombie IDs," could be abused, creating a risk of unauthorized access and customer data leaks.
- Challenge 2: Sprawling systems raising operating cost and hurting UXBuilding a separate ID system per application not only raises development and operating cost, it forces users to manage different IDs and passwords per system. For both usability and security, the need for a unified cross-application ID platform was clear.
- Challenge 3: Giving external partners confidence in securityFor distributors and business partners, trust that KITZ's systems are safe to use is a precondition for a lasting relationship. At the time, however, there was no way to implement and present a consistent ID-security baseline matching current standards such as MFA and operating policies.
02Choosing Tactna: focus on what is needed, predictable cost
When selecting an ID platform, SaaS solutions from global vendors were initially candidates. Feature-rich as they were, many features would go unused under KITZ's requirements, and cost was a concern. Tactna was chosen instead, for the following reasons.
- Just-fit for our requirementsShared account management, OIDC integration: exactly the core features needed, no more
- Time to valueBeyond authentication and authorization it covers user lifecycle, yet a 3-month rollout could be planned at proposal
- Active-user pricingEasy budgeting even with self sign-up. Pay for users who actually use it, not registrations
- Enterprise-grade security standardsMFA, password policy, and account lifecycle built in, so security can be shown to external partners
03A forward-looking approach to supply-chain security
KITZ's initiative goes beyond adding ID management to a single system. Anticipating more external digital services, it unified authentication, authorization, and account management in advance, so the same security level holds as services expand.
Delegation to the user side.Using Tactna's admin portal, each user company or organization has an "admin," and users add people and run reviews themselves. Delegating this to the user side rather than the provider's staff lightens the load on KITZ's own operations team. Account lifecycle management (freshness).To oversee whether distributors manage IDs properly, KITZ also put in place periodic password changes, suspension of inactive accounts, and a month-end review. These mechanisms reduced the security risk from abandoned accounts while improving operational efficiency.- Password rotationAfter 90 days without a change, automatic notice and a one-time-password reset
- Suspending inactive accountsBy rule, any user inactive on an app for a set period is notified and then automatically suspended
- Account reviewAccounts fully deleted a few days after suspension
04Results: dramatic efficiency and cost savings
A unified ID platform and an automated review process delivered stronger security and a large business impact at once.
| Metrics | Results |
|---|---|
| Securing the supply chain | About 30% turned out to be zombie IDs after Tactna went live. None are left behind now. A safe environment for external partners |
| More efficient ID management and reviews | About 70% less work through centralization and automation |
| Lower development cost per new app | About 60% lower expected development cost per new app |
From the customer
As we expanded external-facing systems, we felt it was essential to design the ID-management mechanism properly from the start. We compared several solutions, and Tactna was the one that matched exactly the features we truly needed, no more and no less. Automating the review process consolidated work that used to be done separately per app, and the workload on our staff has clearly fallen, by roughly 70% in practice. With periodic ID reviews and lifecycle management automated, we can continuously detect and clean up external IDs that are no longer in use, which also strengthens security governance and makes audits more efficient.
Authentication and ID management are specialized fields, and some of the system integrations were a first for us. Because Tactna lets you flexibly build company-specific business rules and integrations with existing systems into each authentication and ID-management process, we could integrate in line with our own application platform. TC3 handled everything from designing the integration approach to the implementation, and by aligning stakeholders inside and outside the company we moved smoothly from requirements to release.
05Outlook: scaling to 100,000 users and full HR-system automation
Starting from this ID platform, KITZ will extend it into a company-wide external platform covering other environments and existing Java-based apps. In the longer term, KITZ envisions rolling it out to some 100,000 users across its supply chain.
In the next phase, KITZ will expand services for its supply chain, centered on distributors, with Tactna as the unified ID platform. Automated data exchange with external HR systems such as talent management, and automatic account creation and deletion triggered by contract start and end, aim at more advanced supply-chain governance.
06Closing
We felt Tactna was an excellent fit for building an authorization structure with an organizational model, centered on B2B services. Against a backdrop of rising cyberattacks, the Supply Chain Security (SCS) evaluation scheme led by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, due to start operating at the end of FY2026, makes authentication, authorization, and ID-management measures important not only within a company but across its affiliates. In that light, KITZ's initiative is truly forward-looking, and we will keep evolving Tactna as a platform that delivers secure, efficient ID lifecycle management across the supply chain.