Most organizations focus on automating user provisioning through HR-driven lifecycle events. When someone joins, moves roles, or leaves, accounts are created or updated automatically. On the surface, access management appears controlled. Yet studies show that nearly 60% of organizations experience access creep, and over 70% of data breaches involve excessive or misused privileges.
The hidden risk often sits inside business applications. Users gain access to platforms like ServiceNow, Salesforce and other critical SaaS systems where roles and permissions are managed within the application. As responsibilities change, that application-level access is rarely reviewed with the same discipline.
Over time, this creates excess privileges, unused accounts consuming licenses and access that are no longer aligned with the business needs. Consequently during audits, organizations struggle to prove that application access is actively reviewed and validated.
To resolve this shortcoming, Application Access Certification addresses this gap. It enables structured, periodic access reviews to confirm that users still require access to specific applications and that their roles remain appropriate, ensuring that access stays aligned with business and compliance requirements.
Application Access Certification is a structured, campaign-driven Application Access Review process that validates whether users should continue to have access to specific business applications and roles within those applications.
It enables organizations to-
It is also commonly referred to as a Periodic Access Review but within Hire2Retire, it is delivered as a formal Access Certification capability designed for compliance-grade governance.
Unlike provisioning automation which grants access based on rules, Application Access Certification validates whether that access remains appropriate over time or needs to be revoked.
Access Certification in Hire2Retire initially focused on entitlement-level governance, reviewing directory groups, roles, and privileged memberships. This helped organizations validate that users had the right infrastructure access aligned with HR-driven lifecycle changes.
That was the first control layer. IT and security teams could run structured Application Access Reviews or Periodic Access Reviews on directory entitlements to confirm that group memberships were still appropriate.
However, access risk does not stop at the directory. Business applications manage their own roles and permissions internally. A user may have the correct group membership but still hold unnecessary or excessive access within a SaaS application.
Application Access Certification extends this governance model to the application layer. It allows organizations to review whether a user should continue to have access to a specific application and whether their assigned role within that application is still aligned with business needs.
This is a natural extension, not a separate feature-
Together, they provide end-to-end Access Certification coverage, ensuring access is both provisioned correctly and periodically validated across the entire identity environment.
Application access is where real business activity happens. Revenue operations, customer data management, financial processing, HR administration, and IT service workflows all operate inside SaaS applications. While identity systems control authentication and group memberships, actual privileges and sensitive actions are often defined within the application itself.
As organizations grow, employees change roles, shift departments or take on temporary responsibilities. Access is granted quickly to avoid business disruption, but it is rarely reviewed with the same attention. Over time, users accumulate application roles that no longer reflect their current job function. This gradual access drift increases risk without creating visible operational issues.
Application Access Review becomes critical because it provides structured validation of who has access to what, and whether that access is still justified. Without a formal Periodic Access Review process at the application level, organizations cannot confidently demonstrate that least-privilege principles are enforced beyond initial provisioning.
In addition to security exposure, there is a measurable business impact. Inactive or unnecessary application accounts continue consuming paid licenses. Privileged roles remain assigned even when no longer required. During audits organizations struggle to produce clear evidence that access to business-critical systems is reviewed regularly.
Application Access Certification addresses these gaps by introducing structured oversight at the point where risk actually resides: inside the application. It transforms access governance from a one-time provisioning activity into an ongoing validation process aligned with business and compliance requirements.
By following this simple, structured campaign process, organizations can easily set up and run Application Access Reviews in Hire2Retire.
From Access Manager, open the Access Certification module and click Create New Campaign. The workflow is consistent with entitlement-based certification, ensuring a familiar experience for administrators.
Enter the campaign name and description. Then select the campaign start date and due date to define the review window.
You must also select the identity system connection (Active Directory, Entra ID, or Hybrid). This connection allows Hire2Retire to fetch employee attributes such as manager information, which can be used for reviewer assignment.
Choose one or more applications that need to be reviewed. These applications are pulled from the centralized access application catalog.
If an application is not available, it can be defined and configured before initiating the campaign. At this stage, you are defining which third-party systems will undergo Application Access Review.
Assign one or more campaign owners. The campaign creator is added as the default owner.
The owner serves two purposes:
Next, define reviewers. Reviewers can be:
Once the campaign is created, Hire2Retire generates the campaign workspace.
For Application Access Certification, application membership data is uploaded through a structured file extract. This allows organizations to import user access data from third-party systems such as ServiceNow or Salesforce.
Note – Data can be uploaded until the campaign start date. At midnight on the start date, the campaign configuration and uploaded data are frozen to preserve audit integrity.
When the campaign reaches the start date, its status changes to In Review.
Reviewers can:
If access is rejected, a justification note is required. The item is then marked as pending remediation.
Rejected items must be marked as fixed once remediation is completed. An item is considered complete only when it is either approved or rejected and fixed.
Note – Until the due date, reviewers can continue working on pending items. Once the due date passes, the campaign becomes read-only and is locked for reporting purposes.
Campaigns move through structured states:
Every review decision, rejection reason, and remediation update is logged. This creates a complete audit trail for compliance and internal reporting.
Application Access Review helps organizations ensure that access to business-critical systems remains appropriate over time. Instead of relying only on day-one provisioning, Periodic Access Review campaigns validate whether users still need access, whether their roles are correct, and whether inactive accounts should be removed. This reduces unnecessary licenses, prevents access buildup, and keeps application permissions aligned with current job responsibilities.
From a compliance standpoint, structured Access Certification creates clear audit evidence. For standards such as SOC2 Type2 audit, organizations must prove that access to systems is reviewed regularly. Campaign records, reviewer decisions, timestamps, and remediation tracking provide a complete audit trail. This reduces audit effort, improves control visibility, and strengthens overall governance maturity.
Many organizations focus on provisioning but overlook what happens afterward. Access accumulation is common: employees change roles, gain additional application privileges, and rarely lose outdated access. Over time, permissions exceed actual job requirements.
Inactive accounts are another risk. Users may retain access to applications they no longer use, creating unnecessary exposure to systems containing sensitive data. Privileged roles configured directly within SaaS platforms often go unreviewed, increasing the chance of misuse.
Without structured Application Access Review, organizations also lack clear visibility for audits. They struggle to demonstrate who has access, why it exists, and when it was last validated.
Application Access Review closes a critical governance gap that many organizations overlook. Provisioning alone is not enough; access must be validated regularly to ensure it remains aligned with business needs.
By extending Access Certification to the application level, Hire2Retire brings structured, campaign-driven oversight directly into lifecycle automation. The result is stronger security, clearer audit evidence, and measurable control over access to business-critical systems.
Want a deep dive into Phase 10.2 changes? Explore all updates in the Hire2Retire Phase 10.2 release notes.
Nitesh Durgude is a marketing specialist with 6+ years of experience in the content industry and an engineering background. He specializes in SaaS and business-focused content, creating blogs and videos that simplify complex topics into practical, easy-to-understand insights.
Nitesh Durgude is a marketing specialist with 6+ years of experience in the content industry and an engineering background. He specializes in SaaS and business-focused content, creating blogs and videos that simplify complex topics into practical, easy-to-understand insights.
