Flexibility is key in today’s access control market, reflecting that users need options that go beyond controlling who enters and leaves their premises. Visitor management solutions that scale across multiple sites and are suitable for mission-critical deployments are gaining importance.
Asmag.com had the opportunity to speak with Mark Junge, Gallagher Security Chief Executive, about this and more, just a few weeks after the company launched its new cloud-native Visitor Management Solution powered by Kenai, giving Command Centre users more flexibility and channel partners the opportunity to create more value for their clients.
Asmag.com:
Gallagher just launched its new, cloud-native Visitor Management Solution powered by Kenai, after a strategic investment in the company. Tell us a bit about how the deal came to be?
Mark Junge: This is a relationship that has built naturally over time. Gallagher has had a local presence in South Africa for more than 30 years, and it was through that strong regional footprint that our partnership with Kenai first took shape. We’ve worked closely with the team for several years and have had significant shared success with prominent joint clients across many sectors including banking, consulting, manufacturing and supply chain.
What stood out to us was that Kenai wasn’t just solving visitor management in a narrow sense. The team had developed a cloud-native platform that brings together visitor sign-in, workplace workflows, contextual access, and a more intelligent experience for people moving through a site. Their overall vision is ‘Building the intelligence behind workplace access’. That made it a natural fit with Gallagher’s broader strategy of delivering integrated security solutions that extend from curb to core.
The strategic investment formalizes that long-standing collaboration. Gallagher now holds a 30% stake in Kenai, giving us the opportunity to bring the solution to our global Channel Partner and customer network while supporting Kenai’s continued growth and innovation.
For us, this was less about adding a standalone product and more about expanding the value we can offer through Command Centre and our wider ecosystem. Visitor management is increasingly part of the broader security and workplace experience conversation, and Kenai gives us a strong cloud-native capability in that space, backed by a team and technology we know well.
Asmag.com:
What will change for Gallagher Command Centre users? And how and when can they benefit from the new possibilities?
Mark Junge: Command Centre users will gain access to a modern, cloud-native visitor management experience that integrates directly with the platform they already rely on every day.
Rather than replacing existing workflows, Kenai enhances them by connecting people, places, and processes into a single, intelligent experience. It introduces modern workplace capabilities such as visitor management, safety inductions, parking booking, and other workplace workflows, all while leveraging the access control and security foundation Command Centre already provides.
This intelligence layer enables organizations to:
- Automate manual workplace processes.
- Gain greater visibility into who is on site and why.
- Improve compliance through digital records and audit trails.
- Deliver faster, more seamless experiences for visitors and employees.
- Access cloud-delivered innovation and new capabilities without disrupting existing security operations.
Asmag.com:
What does the new solution mean for channel partners? Will the new solution be sold as an add-on to Command Centre? Will they be able to offer it to their established customers? How will adding it work practically?
Mark Junge: For our Channel Partners, the new Visitor Management Solution creates a genuine opportunity to bring more value to both new and existing Gallagher customers. It gives them a cloud-native solution they can position alongside Command Centre, helping End Users extend their security environment into broader workplace experiences such as visitor sign-in, inductions, parking, notifications, and site-specific workflows.
Practically, Kenai is available now globally and is offered through three bundle tiers: Core, Integrated, and Ultra. Core can operate as a standalone visitor management solution, while the Integrated and Ultra tiers connect directly with Command Centre. For established Command Centre End Users, that means Channel Partners can offer Kenai as an add-on that enhances the system they already have in place, without requiring them to rethink their core access control environment.
For new End Users, Kenai can be introduced alongside Command Centre from the outset, creating a connected experience from day one. For existing End Users, the process is more about enabling the right tier, configuring the relevant sites, workflows, forms, notifications, and workplace processes, then integrating those with their current Command Centre environment.
One of the strengths of the platform is that it is highly self-configurable. Channel Partners and End Users can tailor the solution to suit different sites, tenants, and operational needs with minimal technical complexity. That makes deployment faster, administration simpler, and gives End Users flexibility to keep adapting the system as their workplace requirements evolve.
Asmag.com:
Kenai focuses on cloud-native solutions, while Gallagher has long been known for on-prem solutions that overcome the traditional limitations of on-prem. Are we seeing a strategic shift for Gallagher, or do the two approaches complement each other better than one might think?
Mark Junge: I’d frame it as a deliberate hybrid strategy. Gallagher is not asking customers to choose one path over the other; we’re giving them the flexibility to retain the control, resilience, and performance they value from on-premise systems, while adding cloud-native innovation where it delivers the greatest benefit.
Command Centre remains a trusted foundation for enterprise-grade access control and site security, particularly for organizations operating in high-security, regulated, or mission-critical environments. On-premise still has a very important role to play in those settings, especially where compliance, latency, control, or operational resilience are critical.
At the same time, we know more customers are looking for cloud-native capabilities where they make sense. Cloud can offer advantages around scalability, speed of deployment, lower IT overhead, and access to new capabilities over time. We already offer a range of cloud-based solutions, including SMB, OneLink, and AccessNow, and Kenai is a strong addition to that ecosystem.
So, we see the two approaches as complementary, not competing. Cloud-native solutions like Kenai can extend the Command Centre environment into areas such as visitor management, workplace workflows, parking, inductions, and contextual access, without undermining the strength of the core platform. Over time, the Kenai roadmap will look to extend its capability to also cater to End Users who require on-premise deployment, so that flexibility becomes even greater as the platform matures. That balance is increasingly important as security, workplace experience, and operational efficiency continue to converge.
Asmag.com:
Companies in the security space who want to expand their portfolio are usually faced with the question of building a new solution vs. buying it vs. investing-and-integrating it. What are the benefits of the path Gallagher choose in this case?
Mark Junge: Investing in and integrating with Kenai lets us move faster than building from scratch, while still tailoring the solution as complementary to Command Centre and to meet the needs of our Channel Partner and End User customers' needs. We have worked with Kenai for several years and genuinely believe the Visitor Management Solution is best-in-class and fits naturally within our broader solutions ecosystem, so there was no need to reinvent the wheel.
By partnering with Kenai, we’ve been able to bring a mature, cloud-native Workplace Access Intelligence platform to market significantly faster than if we redeveloped our existing visitor management offering. Customers benefit immediately from proven capabilities while continuing to rely on Gallagher Command Centre as the trusted foundation for physical security. Backed by Gallagher's strategic investment, the solution is supported by a long-term commitment to innovation. We’ll keep delivering new workplace capabilities over time while preserving the security, reliability, and performance Channel Partners and End Users expect from Command Centre.
Asmag.com:
Visitor management increasingly touches upon workplace safety and data-residency obligations that vary across global markets. Can you tell us a bit about how cloud data is being handled in this case? And does Gallagher see the new solution primarily as a compliance tool for regulated sectors, or a general-purpose convenience feature?
Mark Junge: Data security is critical, especially as cyber threats continue to accelerate. Handling data to the highest global standards is non-negotiable at Gallagher - across our proprietary solutions, integrations, partner offering, and day-to-day operations.
Kenai is designed to meet stringent data safety and privacy standards, with security controls that support compliance across regulated sectors and everyday workplace environments. Data is encrypted in transit using TLS 1.2/1.3 and at rest using AES-256; with customer data logically separated through a multi-tenant architecture and role-based access controls. The Visitor Management Solution holds ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certifications, and aligns with GDPR, POPIA, CCPA, and Australian and New Zealand Privacy Acts.
Kenai will very soon have instances hosted around the globe to ensure compliance with data residency regulations in all of our key markets.
Ease of compliance is just one of Kenai’s key benefits. Visitor experience is often one of the very first interactions a potential customer or partner has with a business, so from both a brand and sales potential perspective, making that experience as seamless as possible is critical. It's also far more efficient and easier to manage for administrative and operational teams; particularly across multi-tenant and campus environments.