The AD integration has made it easier to use the cloud service in the field of sales and has reduced account management tasks that used to take more than 120 hours.
— Please give us an overview of Inochio Holdings’ business.
The Inotio Group was founded in 1909, and this year marks its 111th anniversary. The company started out as Ishiguro Pharmacy and later entered the agricultural field. Today, we are engaged in a wide range of businesses related to agriculture, including agrochemicals, fertilizers, agricultural greenhouses, and flowers, with 14 companies and 52 offices in Japan and 2 companies overseas.
— Please tell us about your company’s use of IT, including the use of cloud services.
The agriculture industry has a pervasive analog culture, and until now, business was conducted mainly by paper and fax. However, in response to the reform of work styles, the entire company started using Microsoft 365 five years ago, and two years ago, the operating companies started to use Salesforce for customer management. Microsoft Teams is also being used by Corona.
— What was the background behind the introduction of HENNGE One?
We used to use a different service for access control, but we had a big problem with user management. When adding users, we had to create separate accounts for each service and AD, and we also had to set passwords for each function. Some on-site salespeople who used the tool on their smartphones said that logging in was cumbersome and difficult to use.
Since the use of cloud services was expected to increase in the future, we wanted to somehow enable access with a single authentication infrastructure to solve these problems. In addition, given that salespeople often use the tool while on the road, we knew we needed to strengthen security.
— Comparing HENNGE One with your previous access control service, what were the deciding factors in your decision to finally adopt HENNGE One?
We happened to know HENNGE One itself through an exhibition held a few years ago, so when we decided to switch from our previous service, we first contacted HENNGE and compared the features. The most decisive factor for us was the ability to integrate with on-premise AD and centralize account management.
We also felt that the number of services that could be linked was a major advantage. The services we used before were about 3 to 5, but with HENNGE One we have over 170, and the number is still increasing every month. We have several core businesses, and each operating company requires different services. Considering that the use of cloud services will probably increase in the future, we thought we should have an environment that can guarantee security through access control.
— Please tell us about other functions you are using.
We use access control at all of our locations nationwide to allow access to Microsoft 365 only from within the company. On the other hand, we have had requests to check e-mails from home and on the road, so we use HENNGE Secure Browser, mainly for management staff. Regarding the transmission of large files, we are promoting the use of HENNGE Secure Transfer. In particular, the advertising department often handles large files, so they use it frequently.
— How was the support when you switched to HENNGE One?
We highly appreciate it. We were anxious about the switchover to HENNGE One because we could not verify the service in advance and it was the first time for us to work with AD, but they supported us in detail. It was also helpful that they carefully interviewed us from the stage before we signed the contract to find out what risks there were involved in the switchover, and proposed a plan of action.
The integration with the cloud service was also very smooth thanks to the well-written manuals, and the implementation engineers provided us with generous support even during the continuous use of HENNGE One.
— Please tell us about your current use of HENNGE One.
We have been using HENNGE Access Control as our main tool since its implementation in December 2020. The two cloud services we are working with are Microsoft 365 and Cloudsign, and we are also considering integrating Salesforce.
We also use HENNGE Email DLP, HENNGE Email Archive, and HENNGE Secure Transfer. We use HENNGE Secure Transfer for most file transfers, but some companies have strict security requirements regarding uploaders, so we would like to be able to flexibly use different functions depending on the recipient.
— Please tell us about the benefits of using HENNGE One.
The integration with AD has made account management easier. Previously, user information was registered for both the access control service and the AD side, and it used to take 120 to 200 hours to respond to changes in the workflow system or organizational information.
Another surprisingly useful tool is the HENNGE Email Archive. We used to delete the Microsoft 365 accounts of retirees so we could not see their email history, but the HENNGE Email Archive allows us to save all the emails so we can easily check them when there is a problem.
— Please tell us about your company’s DX strategy for the future.
Actually, starting in the winter of 2020, we are promoting internal and external digitization under our “inochio Digital Shift 2025” initiative. Agriculture is a field where digitalization is lagging behind, but attention to DX, including the use of IoT, is rapidly increasing, and since the provision of added value using IT will be the key to future business, we are committed to becoming the most digitally advanced company in the agricultural sector. In the future, I would like to provide communication to our customers using e-commerce sites, SNS, and applications.
In addition, the systems we use within the company are still mainly on-premise, and our current challenge is that we have yet to truly centralize authentication, but we would like to eventually integrate authentication for all systems. In the future, it is conceivable that business companies will start using their own cloud services, and in that case, we would like to build an environment that facilitates access control, with the first requirement being that the service be able to integrate with HENNGE One.