How Lumos Uses Lumos to Empower End Users with Self-Service

At most companies, access requests and reviews are synonymous with friction: endless tickets, long approval chains, and audits filled with gaps. At Lumos, we’ve flipped the script. By running our own platform internally, we’ve transformed access governance from a reactive chore into a proactive engine for speed, accountability, and security.

This post is part two of our “How Lumos Uses Lumos to Scale IT Via Process Automation” blog series, where we spotlight how internal usage informs product excellence. In our last article, we explored onboarding, offboarding, and birthright access. Now, we’re turning the spotlight on application access requests and reviews: and how Lumos transforms both from bottlenecks into accelerators. Let’s dive in!

Self-Service Access That Empowers Employees and Frees Up IT

At Lumos, we believe that access shouldn’t be a blocker; for employees trying to do their jobs, or for IT trying to scale. That’s why we use Lumos internally to power a fully self-service model that directly connting requestors to approvers, while freeing IT from manual approvals and context-switching.

The result? Faster time-to-access, lower ticket volumes, and better balance between security and productivity.

A Streamlined AppStore Experience in Slack

Instead of submitting IT tickets or forwarding requests through multiple managers, Lumos employees simply submit requests through the internal Lumos AppStore. It’s a searchable, intuitive interface that makes it easy to find entitlements, review descriptions, and request access in just a few clicks: all from within Slack or the web.

Once submitted, Lumos routes the request to the correct app owner or business approver, notifying them through Slack and email. The requestor is also able to see who the approver is, leading to transparent two way communication between requestors and approvers. IT Admins also have override/reassign options to unblock when approver is not available. For IT admins, the Lumos dashboard shows a complete, org-wide view of pending and completed tasks. This allows us to keep a tight grip on who has access to what; without standing in the way.

This end-to-end transparency helps everyone work faster: employees know where their request stands, approvers make decisions quickly, and IT can focus on strategic work instead of status updates.

Cutting Down IT Tickets with Direct Approvals

Before we implemented Lumos internally, most access requests were routed to IT – even when IT wasn’t the actual approver. That led to delays, confusion, and unnecessary ticket churn. Now, Lumos displays app owners directly in the AppStore, so users know exactly who’s responsible for approving access.

Even better, Lumos facilitates direct communication between requesters and approvers. If a user needs to explain why they’re requesting a tool or follow up on a pending decision, they don’t need to go through IT. Instead, they can message the approver directly.

This one shift has had an outsized impact: we’ve drastically reduced the number of ad-hoc access tickets, cut down on back-and-forth emails, and eliminated the IT bottleneck. App owners are empowered, employees are unblocked, and IT spends less time chasing approvals and more time on high-impact projects.

The Lumos AppStore has helped us redirect ~50 IT tickets per week, significantly reducing IT ticket volume.

Scaling Access Governance Without Slowing Down

By distributing ownership and enabling self-service, Lumos has helped us scale access governance without compromising control. It’s not just about deflecting tickets: it’s about embedding accountability into the fabric of our workflows. App owners understand their role. Employees have visibility into the process. And IT can maintain least-privilege access at scale, with audit trails to back it up.

And because we use Lumos every day, we’re constantly improving it; refining UX, uncovering edge cases, and making it better for our customers by making it better for ourselves.

Automating Access Requests and Reviews With Lumos

At Lumos, we believe access governance shouldn’t be a burden: for IT, for employees, or for security. That’s why we use our own platform every day to handle access requests and user access reviews (UARs) at scale. It’s not just about testing features; it’s how we eliminate friction, distribute ownership, and improve visibility across the entire organization.

By running Lumos internally, we’ve transformed our access management experience into something employees actually want to use; and IT is proud to support. We’re not just governing access. We’re scaling trust, transparency, and operational efficiency.

If Lumos helps us do this internally, imagine how it can transform your access request and review workflows. Ready to reduce tickets, increase visibility, and drive down risk? Book a demo and see how Lumos makes access governance work for everyone.