SAP GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) is a set of solutions and products that help you manage enterprise resources in a way that minimizes risk, builds trust, and lowers compliance costs. Products like SAP Risk Management, SAP Process Control, and SAP Audit Management let you automate GRC activities, improve control and visibility, monitor risks and enforce internal controls, and coordinate GRC through a unified technology platform.
In this article, you will learn:
Remove GRC Silos & Lower the Cost of Enterprise Application Risk Management
Enterprise Resources Management (ERP) is an integrated system that stores all business transactions in a unified database. The ERP system is typically a central part of the SAP environment. SAP solutions are configured to accomodate a certain business environment, codifying the roles and responsibilities of all employees within the organization.
You can audit your SAP environment using two modules provided as part of SAP GRC: SAP Process Control and SAP Risk Management. SAP audits can assess the risk that sensitive business data might be accessed or manipulated by multiple users in an enterprise. Fraudulent, inaccurate or invalid data entered at any point in your business processes may affect the data accuracy of the entire system.
Auditing capabilities in GRC enable auditors and administrators to:
This section provides an overview of GRC modules provided as part of SAP’s software ecosystem.
To learn about third-party tools you can use to implement GRC in a SAP environment, read our guide to SAP GRC Tools
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This is an enterprise risk management solution that supports identification, analysis and the continuous monitoring of risks, letting you extract detailed insights into risk drivers and their impact on your operations and business reputation.
The solution lets you manage risk using the following steps:
This solution lets you use real-time insights to reduce risks by associating controls. Implement and streamline testing of controls, along with the following steps:
This solution uses mobile-friendly capabilities to streamline internal and external audits and simplify activities like documenting evidence, organizing electronic working papers, and creating audit reports. It fully integrates with SAP Process Control and SAP Risk Management. The solution lets you implement the following steps:
This solution lets you identify and prevent errors and fraud, via accurate, real-time visibility of business data. It can identify anomalous behavior based on predictive analysis and rule sets, detecting patterns that might indicate fraud. The solution lets you perform following steps:
Most businesses are legally required to screen business partners against lists of restricted or denied persons and organizations, which have been flagged by international or government institutions. This solution provides an automated screening mechanism to simplify the process of vetting business partners and reduce the effort and costs associated with third-party due diligence. It lets you:
Automate trading processes to accelerate cross-border supply chains and control costs. This solution helps clear inbound and outbound customs faster and avoid penalties or fines. It provides a unified repository for compliance requirements, letting you centrally manage global trade operations. It lets you:
SAP offers a security information and event management (SIEM) solution that leverages real-time intelligence. It can detect internal and external threats within your SAP environment and help you achieve compliance with audit and data protection regulations.
Here are several log correlation and analysis features of SAP Enterprise Threat Detection:
Here are several automated threat detection and alerting features of SAP Enterprise Threat Detection:
This solution provides several capabilities to help you achieve transparency, governance, and monitoring, to maintain compliance with mandates like GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA.
Security and privacy governance features include:
Data-driven assessment features include:
Data subject rights request features include:
SAP lets you implement identity and access management (IAM) across complex environments, including cloud and on-premises components. SAP Cloud Identity Access Governance provides a user-friendly, dashboard-driven interface.
Access compliance management features include:
Assignment optimization features include:
Control and risk management features include:
SAP GRC Access Control streamlines user access management and validation. It lets you set up automated processes for user provisioning in SAP systems, manage privileged access, and embed preventative policy checks to enforce governance and monitor emergency access.
Learn more in our detailed guide to SAP Access
Related content: Connecting SAP Access Control to Concur, Ariba, SuccessFactors and More
Here are a few ways to effectively perform GRC in a SAP environment.
Effective GRC is a continuous process that requires active management and continuous analysis. Implement regular reviews of access restrictions and resource provisioning. Implement tools and practices to gain visibility over your environment and evaluate risks, including all known scenarios that can result in a breach. Create well-defined rules to reduce risk based on industry best practices and trusted compliance frameworks.
It is important to have a good understanding of the GRC framework at all levels of the organization. There is often a gap between the security concerns of executives and the security concerns of IT and security frontline workers. All parts of the organization must be aligned on the goals, challenges, and priorities of the GRC effort.
It is important to train all levels of employees with GRC responsibilities—do not assume managers or roles like financial or legal know all about GRC, and do not neglect training for junior employees, even if their responsibilities are minimal. Everyone needs to understand their role in achieving regulatory compliance. If you see that compliance issues are ignored at the executive level, seek assistance from outside consultants, who can often help present the issues more effectively and create buy-in.
You can map business-related controls to compliance requirements using frameworks such as NIST, COBIT, and ISO. Ensure that business processes are aligned with these frameworks as much as possible via automation. Automation reduces the GRC burden on IT and audit teams.
For a GRC framework to be successful, it must be fully integrated into the organization’s structure and roles from top to bottom. Implementing GRC for the first time can be challenging, but once it is in place, continuing the process is much easier, as long as you allocate adequate resources for maintenance and ongoing training.
Pathlock is the proven SAP Solution Extension partner, which extends your SAP GRC investment in several critical areas. With Pathlock, customers can:
Interested to learn more about how you can extend your SAP GRC investment with Pathlock? Request a demo of our industry-leading capabilities today!
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