Beyond SAP Access Control: Unlocking Cross-Application GRC

As organizations transition to modern, cloud-centric environments, traditional SAP Access Control (AC) solutions are often unable to keep pace with the expanding application landscape. While SAP AC offers solid access risk management for core SAP environments like ECC and S/4HANA, it has clear limitations when dealing with today’s interconnected and diverse systems. This blog will explore the limitations of SAP Access Control in multi-application settings and introduce Pathlock’s unified solution for comprehensive governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) across both SAP and non-SAP applications.

The Limitations of Traditional SAP Access Control

SAP Access Control is primarily designed for governance, risk, and compliance within SAP applications, covering SoD (Separation of Duties) and sensitive access risk analysis within ECC, S/4HANA, and other ABAP-based SAP applications like BI, SRM, and CRM. It also offers out-of-the-box rule sets that allow customers to manage access risks within these SAP ecosystems. However, as enterprises integrate an array of cloud and non-SAP applications—like SAP Ariba, SAP Concur, Coupa, Salesforce, and BlackLine—SAP Access Control reveals significant limitations:

1. Restricted Connectivity: SAP Access Control lacks native connectivity to SAP’s own cloud applications, such as Ariba and Concur, not to mention popular non-SAP applications. As a result, organizations face a fragmented risk landscape without a clear view of cross-application risks.
2. Limited Scope of Risk Analysis: Without native integration to non-SAP applications, SAP Access Control is confined to analyzing risks within SAP applications, lacking the ability to address risks that span across different platforms and processes.
3. Manual Compliance Processes: In a traditional SAP AC setup, compliance reporting often requires manual documentation to meet regulatory standards for in-scope applications. This manual process is time-consuming and prone to errors, complicating audits and compliance reviews.

Pathlock: A Unified Solution for Cross-Application GRC

The Pathlock Cloud Platform overcomes these limitations by offering a centralized platform for comprehensive cross-application GRC that spans all critical applications, including SAP and non-SAP systems. Here’s how Pathlock addresses the challenges of cross-application governance and compliance:

1. Centralized Policy Management: Pathlock provides a single platform for defining and managing policies, including rule sets for SoD and access control, across all connected applications. This centralized approach ensures consistent enforcement of policies, reducing the need for separate policy setups in different applications.
2. Cross-Application Risk Analysis: With Pathlock, organizations can conduct risk analysis not only within individual applications but across interconnected platforms, addressing the growing complexity of risks in multi-application environments. Whether analyzing SoD conflicts between SAP and Ariba or monitoring sensitive transactions across SAP and Salesforce, Pathlock ensures that cross-application risks are visible and manageable.
3. Automated Compliance Reporting: Pathlock simplifies compliance reporting with real-time data and automated risk assessments, eliminating the need for extensive manual documentation. This feature enables audit teams to access compliance reports directly from the platform, speeding up audit processes and providing a standardized view of risk data across applications.
4. Advanced Analytics and Trend Tracking: Pathlock also allows users to monitor risk trends over time, displaying risk trends by application, business process area, or specific risk type. This capability helps organizations proactively identify and mitigate emerging risks before they escalate.

Case Study: Extending GRC Beyond SAP for Holistic Risk Visibility

A prominent customer in the manufacturing industry recognized the limitations of SAP Access Control for their multi-application environment. While SAP AC effectively managed risks within its SAP systems, it could not extend to non-SAP applications, leaving a significant gap in its risk visibility. Given regulatory requirements, the customer needed a solution that could manage risk analysis, reporting, and compliance across a diverse application landscape.

Pathlock provided the ideal solution. Not only did Pathlock deliver real-time risk analysis and unified compliance reporting across SAP and non-SAP applications, but it also received approval from the customer’s Big Four audit firm. This endorsement validated Pathlock’s ability to meet audit requirements for comprehensive GRC, confirming it as a reliable solution for cross-application governance. The customer’s audit process became more efficient, with direct access to standardized compliance reports that eliminated the need for manual documentation gathering.

Conclusion

While SAP Access Control addresses core access risks within SAP environments, it falls short in delivering a unified GRC solution for today’s diverse application landscape. Pathlock steps in as a modern alternative, with centralized policy management, cross-application risk analysis, and automated compliance reporting to meet the GRC demands of interconnected systems. Organizations looking to future-proof their compliance strategy and simplify their audit processes will find that Pathlock enables a comprehensive, scalable approach to risk management. By implementing Pathlock, enterprises can unlock true cross-application GRC and ensure holistic visibility and control over their entire risk landscape.

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