Gallagher AccessNow Cloud Access Management Platform Streamlines Access Requests, Approvals and Provisioning – SEN got an early look at this powerful new addition to the growing Gallagher stable.
Gallagher AccessNow Cloud Access Management – Gallagher’s AccessNow workflow platform – currently in the final refinement stage of customer testing before release – allows staff to request access, request new credentials and update photo IDs in Gallagher Command Centre without directly accessing Command Centre management software.
What’s sweet about AccessNow is that the web-based solution is hosted by Gallagher in the cloud and secured using SSO. This means security teams and an organisation’s access approvers can undertake some of their most high volume, time hungry tasks from wherever they happen to be, without needing access to Command Centre and with every step in the process as automated as it can possibly be.
Automating how access is requested, approved and provisioned frees security teams from part of their administrative burden and gives end users instant, self-serve access to the processes they need most. This allows them to view current access level, request additional access, apply default expiration dates and more.
Making life for security teams easy, AccessNow is developed around a builder which includes the toolkit security teams use to configure the workflow for each request type. During my demo, Gallagher Security’s national technical account manager, Dean Matheson, steers the builder and it’s clear to see how cleverly this simplifies multiple manual processes.
Gallagher AccessNow Cloud Access Management – To set things up at the start, an operator defines what’s being requested, chooses who needs to approve it and then configures where access will be provisioned in Command Centre. Once a workflow is published, every request of this type will follow the same automated path – from submission, to approval, to provisioning.
Access holders, meanwhile, request the access or credential they need using their mobile device and are required to provide the details the security team has stipulated – name, ID or reasons for access requests to secure zones. They then hit submit and approval requests are automatically channelled to the approver responsible via email, allowing them to respond without the usual delays.
Once an approval is received, access is provisioned directly in Command Centre with no manual steps and no wasted time. The process itself – which is often organic and drawn-out – is tightly governed to ensure it meets compliance requirements and delivers full audit trails. This doesn’t sound like a big deal at first but when you extrapolate its functionality to scale, the value of AccessNow comes sharply into focus.
According to Matheson, the team has been getting feedback from end users about how painful onboarding, offboarding and change management of credentials can be in many applications for some time.
“Users were emailing or calling the security team to request access to areas – sometimes they’d use ticketing systems designed for IT faults to try to manage the process, which was clunky and not people-centric,” Matheson explains.
“It was from these conversations that we developed AccessNow to allow users to request changes to access levels, new credentials or update photo IDs with requests automatically going to an approver or group of approvers, then able to approve, deny, or request more information instantly“.
“Users authenticate using organisational SSO without extra logins or direct access to Command Centre. What this means is that a streamlined process is streamlined itself – there’s less latency, less mechanical process and less chasing of approvers by security personnel.”
“Users can request access to secure zones – we can embed rules – for instance, defaulting server room access to 3 months. And once expired, a new workflow can prompt users to reapply instead of letting access continue indefinitely.”
Gallagher AccessNow Cloud Access Management
According to Matheson, too often the security team is burdened with making access decisions that should fall to managers or department heads. AccessNow puts the decision-making squarely where it belongs, with an audit trail backing the process up.
“Approvers get email tasks and notifications, security teams can assign groups or individuals, and everything is designed to reduce the time and cost of managing access while improving audit trails,” he says.
While Matheson is explaining all this it occurs to me what a massive time saver AccessNow would be on a large site – an airport, a university, a high security government agency with a national footprint.
“It is a huge time saver in applications like those,” Matheson agrees. “Especially with things like mobile credentials. With AccessNow, if an authorised user changes phones the system can automatically disable the old mobile credential and issue a new one – there’s no manual approval required.I
“It’s such a big deal – think about a university – students churn through phones. We’ve had a customer using it for a year now and the savings are real.”
How customisable is AccessNow? I ask.
“Fully customisable,” Matheson says. “Logos, colours, wording – everything can match the customer’s design scheme. You can customise workflows, too. You can choose whether a manager can make requests on behalf of a team member, select where a user can pick up a physical credential, or how they submit a new photo. Even elevator access, lockers, or car parks could soon be included.”
A solution like this, which is integrated into Gallagher Command Centre, needs a dependable backend and Matheson says all that is firmly in place.
“AccessNow integrates via our REST APIs, which are the same secure APIs we use for third-party development,” Matheson says. “The database of records remains part of Command Centre – what AccessNow is doing is orchestrating requests and approvals.
“The requests and audit trail are created in the cloud, but the change itself, for instance, ‘John gets front door access’, is made in real time in Command Centre, then pushed out to the door controllers.”
“The idea is that most users will only ever see the ‘requests’ screen. Approvers see their ‘tasks’. Security admins manage the rest.”
“It’s also hosted on AWS in Australia, so all data stays here,” Matheson says. “And we’ve put a lot into security as you’d expect – there’s SOC 2, ISO assurance, pen testing internally and externally, and more.”
So, the architecture stays hybrid with Command Centre on-prem or in private cloud, controllers in the field and AccessNow is a SaaS layer? I ask.
“Exactly,” says Matheson. “This topology allows feature updates to AccessNow without needing a Command Centre upgrade, which is useful for large customers with formal upgrade processes.”
“Down the track, we’ll also add visitor printing, temporary card issuance, and richer web-based credential management. That’s the road map.”
Is there a plan to replace the current HTML workflow editor?
“Yes, we’re working on a visual workflow builder now,” Matheson explains. “The existing JSON-based workflows are too complex for real-world admin use. The new builder will be visual in a flow-chart style, which is much easier to use.”
Ok – so what’s the release timeline – when can Gallagher channel partners and customers expect to get their hands on AccessNow?
“AccessNow will be released early 2026,” Matheson says. “One of our early-access customers is now live and another is about to start trials. If everything goes well, once the workflow builder is done, we’ll launch.”
Will AccessNow be showing at SAGE in Canberra this Thursday November 20?
“We’re looking forward to exhibiting at SAGE again this year,” Matheson says. “While we’re not officially demo-ing AccessNow on the Gallagher stand, we can show attendees AccessNow’s functionality – come have a chat.”
You can learn more about Gallagher Security solutions here, register for SAGE 2025 here, and read more SEN news here.
“Gallagher AccessNow Cloud Access Management Platform Streamlines Access Requests, Approvals and Provisioning – SEN got an early look at this powerful new addition to the growing Gallagher stable.”
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