Manual access management costs IT teams too much time and leaves security gaps open. Entra ID Governance automates the full joiner-mover-leaver cycle with Lifecycle Workflows, Access Reviews, Entitlement Management, and PIM, giving administrators demonstrable control over who has access to what.
Every organisation recognises the problem. A new employee starts on Monday but doesn't have access to all required systems until Wednesday. A colleague who changes departments keeps their previous role's permissions for months. And when someone leaves, it can take weeks before all accounts are closed and licences freed up. Access management remains a manual, error-prone process in many organisations — one that consumes too much IT time and represents a genuine security risk.
Microsoft Entra ID Governance offers an integrated approach to this problem. It combines four tools: Lifecycle Workflows, Access Reviews, Entitlement Management, and Privileged Identity Management (PIM). Together, they automate the complete lifecycle of digital access, from an employee's first day to the moment their account is permanently decommissioned.
Lifecycle Workflows are automated sequences triggered by HR events such as a start date, a role change, or an end-of-employment date. A typical joiner workflow sends a welcome email, adds the user to the appropriate security groups and Teams channels, and activates the required licences — all without IT involvement. The only requirement is that HR data is available in Entra ID, either directly or via a connector with a system such as SAP SuccessFactors, Workday, or a custom API integration.
The mover workflow does the same when someone changes roles. A colleague moving from sales to finance automatically loses the sales groups and gains finance access, including the corresponding SharePoint sites and Power BI reports. The leaver workflow is equally important: a predefined period before the end date, accounts are disabled and email is forwarded to the manager, and after the offboarding window the account is permanently deleted. No one needs to keep track of this manually.
Access creep is a common issue. Employees who change departments, long-running project participants, and external parties retaining access well after a project ends cause group memberships and application permissions to accumulate. After two years, many organisations have lost track of who actually has the right to access what.
Access Reviews solve this with periodic assessment rounds conducted by the right people: the manager, the resource owner, or the user themselves. A review runs for a set period, the reviewer confirms or revokes access for each user, and Entra ID processes the decisions automatically. Anyone who does not respond either loses access by default or is handled manually — that is configurable. The result is a structured, demonstrable clean-up process that can be presented directly in an audit or certification.
In a traditional setup, an employee requesting access to system A, security group B, and SharePoint site C submits three separate service-desk tickets. Entitlement Management bundles these into access packages: a package that groups all the permissions needed for a role or project, complete with an approval workflow, a time limit, and optionally a dependency on another role or group membership.
A practical example: a project manager who temporarily needs access to financial reporting can request an access package via the Entra self-service portal. The finance owner approves, access is granted for three months, and then automatically revoked. No email chains, no forgotten licences, and a complete audit trail available at any time.
Permanent Global Administrator permissions in a tenant are a significant security risk. If such an account is compromised, an attacker gains unrestricted access to the entire environment. Privileged Identity Management (PIM) addresses this by setting admin roles as 'eligible' rather than permanently active. An administrator activates their Global Admin role when needed, for a maximum of a few hours, with a justification and optional manager approval. Outside that window, the role is inactive.
PIM logs every activation: who, when, for how long, and for what reason. This makes PIM valuable for compliance purposes as well. Tenders, ISO 27001 certification, and cyber insurers increasingly ask for evidence that administrative access is controlled and time-limited. PIM delivers that reporting out of the box.
The four tools require Entra ID P2 or the separate Microsoft Entra ID Governance licence. Entra ID P2 is included in Microsoft 365 E5 and in the Microsoft 365 E3 bundle combined with Enterprise Mobility + Security E3. For organisations already on E5 or E5 Security, all governance tools are already available without an additional licence. For other licence combinations, the Governance add-on is the appropriate route.
It is worth mapping out your current licence composition carefully before purchasing additional licences. In many cases, tools such as PIM are already available but simply not yet activated.
The most effective sequence is as follows. Step one: activate PIM for all accounts with elevated permissions — this delivers the biggest immediate security gain. Step two: configure Lifecycle Workflows for joiners and leavers to automate onboarding and offboarding. Step three: launch Access Reviews for the most critical groups and applications. Step four: roll out Entitlement Management for the roles or projects with the highest volume of access requests.
This does not need to happen all at once. A phased approach over three to six months makes the implementation manageable and gives users and managers time to adapt to the new way of working. Want to know which governance tools are already available in your current licence and how best to approach the implementation? Contact Zarioh for an initial assessment.
