Have you ever wondered if a solution that helps integrate core business objectives, frameworks, user roles, and data in one place exists?
Luckily for you, it does! The solution? SAP GRC.
Read on to learn more about governance, risk, and compliance within SAP systems, as well as where our senior-level SAP GRC consultants can fit in your organization.
What is SAP GRC?
SAP GRC, or Governance, Risk, and Compliance, provides a set of tools designed to help companies integrate compliance activities into their day-to-day operations, offer real-time visibility for more informed business decisions, and enforce customized controls to monitor risks and maintain compliance. From Access Control to Process Control, Security Management, Risk Management, and more, SAP GRC simplifies GRC activities and increases consumer trust in any organization.
What Does GRC Mean for Your Organization?
GRC stands for Governance, Risk, and Compliance, and it is designed to help companies align IT with business goals and objectives to meet industry and government regulations, reduce business risks for non-compliance, exchange information more effectively across systems, and improve overall efficiency for key business processes.
1) Governance
Corporate governance involves the set of frameworks, rules, and policies used to achieve established business goals and objectives, including user roles and responsibilities, conflict resolution policies, ethical accountability, and more.
While governance does act as a sort of “rule book” for companies, it also offers the core functionality needed to connect organizational silos, align activities and goals, and keep all employees and processes “in check”.
Good governance should help your organization reduce redundancies within your data, manage risk, limit unnecessary costs, ensure principled operations, and manage, handle, and validate data sources more accurately and efficiently.
2) Risk Management
From cybersecurity attacks to hacking, fraud, or a worldwide pandemic, risks are ever-present in any organization, regardless of size, location, or industry. But, properly outlined and defined risk management strategies can help identify, mitigate, and remediate any risks, including risk from both internal and external threats.
With an outlined SAP risk management strategy and periodic risk assessment, companies can not only better understand the source of their security threats, but they can also predict potential issues within their SAP system and act proactively to resolve issues and minimize losses.
3) Compliance Management
Compliance deals with rules, laws, and regulations, and it involves outlining compliance processes to ensure companies remain compliant with respective Local, State, and Federal regulations.
Advanced compliance software not only provides functional tools for improved data management and analysis, but it also offers enhanced compliance strategies and continuous monitoring capabilities to keep track of (and meet) key compliance requirements.
What Do GRC Processes Entail in SAP?
GRC frameworks in SAP help integrate enterprise-wide processes, systems, and applications to more efficiently manage governance, risk, and compliance and ensure their established business strategies are aligned with its technology solutions.
By integrating GRC tools with SAP systems and applications, users have the ability to…
- Oversee enterprise risk management strategies and ensure regulatory compliance
- Leverage the internal controls and software support needed to achieve business goals and organizational objectives
- Enhance connectivity between business units through a unified business framework
- Provide secure, authorized access to company resources, tools, and data through defined user management strategies and granular authorization
- Detect access violations and cybersecurity threats with advanced SAP Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) software
- Simplify, manage, and optimize the audit management process for internal and external audits across the organization
Key Capabilities of SAP GRC Process Control
SAP Process Control is a software solution designed to help manage their own internal control environments and improve compliance and policy management.
Here are a few of the key capabilities of the SAP GRC Process Control solution…
Unified Data Repository
SAP Process Control functionality provides a unified solution and single source of truth for policy, control, and compliance data, simplifying the management of multiple regulatory and compliance procedures in the same place.
The unified SAP GRC software not only helps improve process control for organizations in any industry, but it also facilitates cross-function standardization throughout business units and maximizes the value of planning, control, and testing activities within the SAP system.
Enhanced Compliance and Workflow Management
Comprehensive evaluations of internal workflows, configurations, and collaborative tools can help companies maintain optimized control processes, improve regulatory compliance, and reduce overall costs.
The SAP Process Control solution also provides the functionality needed to streamline issue management and establish the most efficient workflows possible. For example, integrating SAP GRC Audit Management capabilities with corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) throughout their SAP system can help improve efficiencies and establish best practice workflows.
Embedded Process Controls
Controls embedded into the SAP Process Control solution provide advanced capabilities that make monitoring core business processes, including IT, procure-to-pay, and order-to-cash, and aligning internal controls with business risks and objectives easier and more streamlined.
Pre-built integrations with the SAP HANA platform also help improve the speed and efficiency of business transactions, monitor business processes in S/4HANA, and maximize the value of the technology, its functionality, and its core integrations.
Main Advantages of SAP GRC Access Control
SAP GRC Access Control is an internal tool that gives users the functionality needed to identify and prevent access and authorization risks, support user life cycle processes from hire to retire, and reduce costs for compliance and control procedures.
Here’s a closer look at a few of the main advantages of the SAP GRC Access Control solution…
Access Request Management
Access Request Management (ARM) gives users a workflow-based model to request access to specific functionality or data within the SAP system. When an access request is submitted, it will follow a predefined path through multiple security checks and approval processes before a user is granted access to specific information or permissions.
With ARM functionality, users can customize workflows to best meet organizational needs, automatically log roles and authorizations when access requests are approved, and execute checks for compliance to identify threats before they become an issue.
Emergency Access Management
Emergency Access Management (EAM) gives users access to permissions that allow them to access data and perform activities that are typically out of their levels of control. These “emergency activities” are completed in a secure, controlled, and fully auditable environment by using a Firefighter ID or Firefighter Role for regulated access.
When leveraging EAM capabilities, a Firefighter ID acts as a dedicated user identity to allow enhanced authorizations for users, and a Firefighter Role is a user-defined role associated with specific information related to the Firefighter ID. Activities performed with either Firefighter IDs or Firefighter Roles are logged to maintain security and auditability.
Access Risk Analysis
Access Risk Analysis (ARA) helps companies identify access violations across the organization including, Segregation of Duties (SoD) violations, critical role authorizations, and more. ARA modules also give users the functionality needed to proactively assess risk and take precautionary measures to resolve issues before they become too big.
To monitor access violations, ARA software uses specific rule sets and critical authorization definitions to compare rules with specific authorizations and automatically reports any violations.
Business Role Management
Business Role Management (BRM) helps support the full life cycle of a role within the system, from creation to approvals, updates, naming, and more. BRM provides the functionality needed to create system-independent roles that not only improve engagement for role owners, but also document role testing and conduct risk analysis.
The BRM construct is built and maintained with SAP GRC Access Control, but it can be shared with SAP Identity and Access Management to distribute designated role assignments to various backend systems.
Key Considerations for your GRC Implementation
1) Build (and test) GRC framework
A GRC framework acts as a model for managing governance, risk, and compliance in any organization, and it involves identifying key business activities that help companies reach their goals and maintain informed decision-making processes.
By building a strong GRC framework and conducting small-scale testing in a single business unit or department, your team can more efficiently assess the functionality of the framework before implementing across the entire organization.
2) Review current business processes
When implementing a new GRC software, it’s important to review and assess current business processes, technologies, and integrations to determine what’s working well and what could use a little extra help.
Understanding how your current governance, risk, and compliance processes are carried out can help your team build a plan for the future and choose the right GRC framework and additional tools to meet your needs.
3) Establish well-defined roles and responsibilities
User roles and responsibilities throughout your GRC framework should be well-defined to ensure employees report and address GRC issues correctly and promote accountability across all departments and areas of the organization.
From senior executives to team managers, first time employees, and anything in between, user roles and responsibilities keep everyone on the same page and help teams make the most of their GRC investment.
4) Outline clear data and change management procedures
When it comes to implementing new dynamic GRC tools, change and data management processes are at the top of the priority list.
On one hand, advanced GRC reporting functionality and insights help companies make better decisions, respond to change quickly, and keep up with the competition in an ever-changing business environment.
On the other, data management within GRC reduces duplicative data entries, helps teams manage their data more efficiently by generating and storing all data in a single GRC solution.
Partnering with the Best
Whether you need help outlining compliance objectives for your organization, leveraging SAP Fraud Management software to minimize losses, navigating complex SAP Enterprise Threat Detection solutions to protect and audit important data, or anything in between, Surety Systems is here to help.
And, even better, we’ve included a sample profile of one of our top-notch SAP consultants to give you a better idea of what to expect when partnering with us…
Surety Senior SAP GRC Consultant
- US Green Card Holder
- 17+ years of SAP Security experience; 10+ years of SAP GRC experience
- Considered an SAP Security expert; Heavy background in role-based security
- Well-versed with SAP S/4HANA Security and GRC
- Direct experience with Greenfield Implementations, Upgrades, Redesigns, Reconciliation, Configuration/Reconfiguration, & Day-to-Day Support
- Proficient with Fiori and SAP GRC 12.0
- Excels with SOX Compliance and Industry Best Practices
Your technology. Your priorities. Our expertise. That’s the name of the game with our top-notch consulting services.
Getting Started with Us
Our team of senior-level SAP consultants has the functional skills, technical expertise, and real-world experience needed to lead you to success, regardless of the size, scale, or scope of your SAP projects.
Interested in learning more about our SAP GRC consulting services? Ready to get started on a project with our project managers or module-specific consultants?
Contact us today!
