Overview of KITZ Corporation

Holds the top market share in Japan for valve manufacturing and sales, and ranks within the top 10 globally. Founded 72 years ago, with 5,352 consolidated employees. Fiscal year 2022 sales reached 159.9 billion yen; listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market.
With a core strength in "fluid control" for liquids and gases, the company boasts a high market share in piping valves for residential homes, condominiums, buildings, factories, and oil refining plants.
Learn more here: https://www.kitz.co.jp/who/

Background to the Adoption of uSonar at KITZ Corporation: Accelerating Growth in Expanding Markets Through the Mid-Term Management Plan

In its current mid-term management plan, KITZ Corporation has established a policy to accelerate expansion into growth markets, such as the digital market—including data centers and semiconductor manufacturing equipment—and the green market, covering next-generation energy sources like hydrogen and fine chemicals, while maintaining its presence in traditional core markets such as general construction and industrial plants.

Determining That uSonar Is Essential for Driving Digital Transformation

To advance into these growth markets swiftly and reliably, the IT Management Center (Information Systems Department) is promoting digital transformation (DX) to evolve the group's overall information infrastructure. In particular, to support information gathering for growth markets, research on both corporate customer demand (for sales) and parts manufacturing subcontractors (for procurement) became essential, leading to the adoption of uSonar products (see the figure below).

Use Cases and Benefits of uSonar at KITZ Corporation

On the sales front, prospecting for new business previously involved gathering corporate information through referrals, internet searches, and library visits. Since integrating uSonar with Salesforce, the team can now instantly generate target company lists, significantly reducing the man-hours required for new prospect research and improving efficiency.
Furthermore, in terms of procurement, the post-COVID era has seen an increase in sudden bankruptcies and delivery delays among parts manufacturing partners. Previously, finding alternative or new partners suited to emerging markets relied on internet searches and word-of-mouth. By using uSonar, the time spent on research has been drastically reduced, and the comprehensiveness of potential candidate lists has expanded.

Comments from Takashi Ishijima, Executive Officer and General Manager of the IT Management Center, KITZ Corporation

In our current mid-term plan, we have set goals to expand our traditional core markets alongside growth markets. We are building a track record of meeting demand in the digital and green markets, including air conditioning equipment for data centers, valves for semiconductor manufacturing equipment, filtration systems for ultra-pure water used in computer processing, and equipment for hydrogen stations, which are considered next-generation energy sources. To achieve this growth, we must implement marketing strategies that identify and approach a wider range of customers with demand in each market. However, the challenge has been that corporate information is not only difficult to collect but also constantly changing and becoming outdated. With the introduction of uSonar, we have felt the dramatic effects of DX promotion, with staff members exclaiming, 'What was all that struggle for until now?' We have high expectations for uSonar to provide comprehensive, up-to-date corporate information and to help us efficiently narrow down our target prospects.

uSonar: Enhancing Salesforce Adoption in the Manufacturing Industry

Companies in the manufacturing industry advancing their DX initiatives are aiming to improve new business development and order win rates by thoroughly accumulating and analyzing customer information, such as sales negotiation data, through the adoption of SFA/CRM platforms like Salesforce. On the other hand, a new challenge arises with Salesforce adoption: the increased burden on sales teams to input, accumulate, and update information.
In short, there is a requirement to 'automate and streamline the accumulation and updating of information as much as possible to reduce the operational burden on the front lines.' This is where the customer data integration solution 'uSonar' plays a vital role.
Learn more here: URL https://usonar.co.jp/service/usonar/

uSonar Co., Ltd. Public Relations:
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