How Saviynt Helped LIXIL Modernize Global Identity Governance at Scale

SAP environments are becoming harder to govern. AI-driven automation is increasing both speed and risk. Saviynt’s 2026 Identity Security Trends report frames the shift through zero trust mandates, AI risk exposure, and governance at scale. Manufacturers such as LIXIL experience these pressures as daily operational constraints.

LIXIL manufactures water and housing products under brands such as GROHE, American Standard, INAX, and TOSTEM, serving markets worldwide through a global workforce. As the company expanded, regional differences and fragmented controls limited visibility into who had access to critical systems, making identity governance difficult to manage.

When a Homegrown System Could No Longer Scale

LIXIL relied on a custom-built identity system that was originally created to support employees in Japan. As the company expanded internationally, the system did not keep pace with the needs of a broader workforce.

For example, the company’s acquisition of GROHE added a large population of users in Germany and across Europe, bringing additional regulatory obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including requirements around where data is stored. The existing platform was not designed to manage access consistently across regions or address growing compliance demands.

LIXIL’s IT team concluded that it needed a simpler, more consistent way to manage access across the company. The goal was to make audits easier, apply the same controls globally, and reduce friction for employees requesting access.

Instead of continuing to modify the existing system, LIXIL chose Saviynt’s Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) platform to create a single identity governance framework across its global operations.

From Fragmented Controls to Unified Governance

As LIXIL modernized its identity framework, the scope of control expanded. AI-driven tools and analytics create non-human identities, service accounts, and machine-based access pathways across core systems. Governance must now span employees, machines, integrations, and AI agents that move through the same ERP, cloud, and connected environments.

By adopting Saviynt Identity Cloud, the company consolidated disparate identity processes into a centralized governance framework capable of scaling across geographies. This architectural shift provided LIXIL with consistent policy enforcement, improved visibility across access entitlements, and greater automation in provisioning and deprovisioning workflows.

Operationalizing Identity at Enterprise Scale

As part of its broader cloud transformation, LIXIL also implemented SAP SuccessFactors as its human capital management system, with the goal of using it as the primary source of identity data. At the same time, the company began phasing out its legacy in-house identity platform to simplify operations and improve efficiency.

As a result, onboarding processes have become faster and more streamlined, while the organization reports reductions in compliance and cybersecurity risk.

Since SAP systems support complex, role-based business processes across finance, supply chain, and operations, structured access management becomes essential. Centralized oversight helps organizations manage that complexity effectively while strengthening compliance and operational control.

Beyond compliance, LIXIL’s implementation demonstrates how identity governance becomes an operational enabler. For a growing multinational, a scalable identity framework helps ensure that new employees, acquisitions, and regional expansions follow consistent access policies, that segregation-of-duties rules are applied uniformly across jurisdictions, and that audit and regulatory requirements can be met without duplicating controls in each country.

Saviynt Identity Cloud provides automated identity lifecycle management, policy enforcement, and centralized visibility across applications and environments, enabling organizations to streamline governance, support continuous compliance, and maintain consistent access controls across expanding systems.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

• Legacy identity governance models cannot absorb AI-driven growth. As AI, automation, and integrations expand human and machine access, legacy identity governance struggles to maintain visibility and control. For growing multinationals, this adds complexity. Saviynt Identity Cloud centralizes identity governance to replace fragmented controls and manage expanding access across SAP and connected environments.
• Modernization windows should not be missed. SAP S/4HANA migrations and evolving regulatory requirements create a strategic moment to modernize identity architecture before complexity compounds. Implementing an integrated IGA platform like the one provided by Saviynt during SAP transformation efforts allows organizations to embed governance into the new environment rather than layering it on afterward.
• Centralized visibility strengthens resilience. Unified identity governance reduces risk exposure across SAP environments while improving operational efficiency and compliance oversight. By consolidating identity processes within Saviynt Identity Cloud, enterprises gain consistent policy enforcement, automated controls, and audit-ready reporting across global operations.