B2B identity management is the discipline of managing the identities of business customers and the users within those businesses, handling organizations as first-tier entities with their own users, roles, hierarchies, and administrators. It sits between workforce IAM and consumer CIAM, and it has distinct requirements neither fully covers.

When your customer is a company rather than an individual, identity gets structurally more complex. You are not managing one user; you are managing an organization that contains many users, with its own admin who wants to manage them.

What makes B2B identity different

B2B identity introduces organizations as a layer above users. A business customer has multiple employees who need access, a hierarchy of roles and permissions, and typically an administrator who should manage their own people without involving you (delegated administration). Business customers also often want to bring their own identity provider so their employees log in with existing corporate credentials (federation), and they expect isolation from other business customers (multi-tenancy).

Why it needs its own approach

Consumer CIAM assumes independent individuals; workforce IAM assumes your own employees. B2B is neither: external organizations, each self-managing, at scale. Handling it well means modeling organizations and roles properly, supporting delegated administration and federation, and providing multi-tenant isolation. Getting this right is essential for SaaS, marketplaces, and any platform whose customers are businesses.

Frequently asked questions

What is B2B identity management?

Managing the identities of business customers and their users, treating organizations as entities with their own users, roles, and admins.

How does B2B identity differ from B2C?

B2C manages independent individuals; B2B manages organizations containing many users, with hierarchies, delegated admins, and federation.

What features does B2B identity require?

Organization modeling, delegated administration, federation with customer identity providers, and multi-tenant isolation.

Related: B2C Identity Management · Delegated Administration · Multi-Tenancy in Identity · Identity Federation · CIAM