Relying solely on SAP Access Control is like having a heavy, steel door for security while leaving the windows open. As enterprises expand their technology stacks with specialized cloud-based applications like Salesforce, Ariba, and Concur, access management risks multiply beyond the SAP core. The limited scope of SAP Access Control means critical visibility gaps and a fragmented approach to securing user access, leaving non-SAP applications outside of unified governance.
Pathlock Cloud answers this challenge by bringing comprehensive access control to the entire enterprise. With centralized policy enforcement, seamless integration across SAP and third-party applications, and automated provisioning workflows, Pathlock unifies identity governance and risk management, ensuring that access remains secure across all systems.
SAP Access Control was built to manage access within the SAP environment, but as companies have adopted more specialized, cloud-based applications, SAP Access Control’s limitations have become apparent. Most modern enterprises are no longer centered on a single ERP; they rely on a wide array of SaaS applications that serve unique business functions, such as Ariba for procurement, Salesforce for CRM, Concur for expense management, and other third-party solutions like Coupa, Blackline, or Fieldglass.
Each of these applications has its own access requirements and risk factors, which traditional SAP Access Control was not designed to address. As a result, access risks become fragmented, and managing user privileges across all these platforms is challenging without a cohesive approach. This scattered access control environment leaves organizations vulnerable, unable to see and manage total risk exposure across their ecosystem, and thus unable to fully ensure compliance.
Pathlock Cloud redefines access control by providing a unified platform that integrates seamlessly with SAP and other critical business applications. Unlike SAP Access Control, Pathlock Cloud is purpose-built for the modern, hybrid IT environment and addresses access management across the entire enterprise—spanning both on-premise and cloud-based applications. Here’s how Pathlock Cloud overcomes the limitations of traditional SAP Access Control:
Pathlock Cloud integrates directly with SAP as well as other popular applications, from Salesforce to Oracle and beyond. This eliminates the siloed approach of SAP-centric access controls and ensures that organizations have a single platform to manage access across their diverse ecosystem. Instead of managing SAP and non-SAP applications separately, Pathlock Cloud consolidates them, providing a unified view of user access and risk.
With Pathlock Cloud, organizations can implement and enforce centralized access policies across all applications, whether SAP-based or third-party. This centralization allows for consistent rule sets, streamlined control management, and a unified approach to compliance. Policies can be configured to address risks at both the application level and across applications, which is critical in detecting risks that might arise from cumulative access.
For example, Pathlock Cloud enables cross-application risk analysis, so if a user has access to SAP, Ariba, and Salesforce, any combined risks between these platforms can be monitored and managed centrally. This is especially valuable for protecting against complex risks where users might inadvertently gain conflicting privileges across applications.
As a centralized access control solution, Pathlock Cloud also streamlines the user lifecycle by automating provisioning, deprovisioning, and access updates based on user role or status changes. Pathlock connects to HR systems or other sources of truth to automate joiner-mover-leaver processes, ensuring consistent and timely access management. This proactive approach prevents privilege creep, where users retain unnecessary access as they move across roles or teams, and reinforces a zero-trust model by limiting users to only the access they need.
Pathlock Cloud performs preventative risk checks prior to provisioning, identifying any potential risks before granting access to an application. This proactive risk governance mitigates security issues at the point of access and helps organizations stay compliant by ensuring that only approved, risk-free access is granted. This automated risk analysis and mitigation feature is not available in SAP Access Control, making Pathlock Cloud a more secure and comprehensive option.
Pathlock Cloud offers robust access certification processes across all applications, not just SAP, to help organizations continuously monitor user access and reduce privilege creep. By consolidating usage data and access reports across all applications, Pathlock Cloud provides organizations with a true understanding of which privileges are actively used and which can be safely revoked.
This identity-centric certification approach enables a more effective review process, resulting in higher revocation rates and reduced risk exposure. Traditional SAP Access Control systems are limited to SAP-only applications, which can obscure a holistic view of a user’s total access and activity across the organization’s entire technology stack.
Pathlock Cloud empowers enterprises to break free from outdated, SAP-centric access management limitations and take control of their complex access environments. With Pathlock, organizations gain a fully integrated view of user access across all critical applications, bridging SAP and third-party systems into a single, secure governance platform. This holistic approach doesn’t just simplify compliance—it future-proofs the business by enabling centralized risk management and streamlined provisioning at scale. For organizations navigating a hybrid landscape, Pathlock Cloud is the key to modernizing access governance and reinforcing security across the entire enterprise.
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