SAP Regulatory Compliance

What is SAP Regulatory Compliance?

Every company must work with applicable regulations — laws, rules, and policies — making regulatory compliance a key function of governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) departments. Failure to comply with regulations can bring significant financial penalties. Many lines of business within a company may be tasked with regulatory compliance.

What is SAP Regulatory Compliance?

Every company must work with applicable regulations — laws, rules, and policies — making regulatory compliance a key function of governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) departments. Failure to comply with regulations can bring significant financial penalties. Many lines of business within a company may be tasked with regulatory compliance.

• Finance departments work with accounting and tax compliance. Prominent regulations in this area include the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). There are also accounting standards such as the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for most of the world and Generally Accepting Accounting Principles (GAAP) in the United States.
• Marketing and sales departments must comply with laws, rules, and policies relating to customer data. Notably, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) puts restrictions on the collection and use of personal data. In the United States, California and other states have enacted similar laws, and it is likely that more states will follow suit.
• Human resources (HR) departments face regulations around workplace conduct, employee rights, and employee data. These laws and policies can enforce standards around discrimination and harassment, as well as terms of employment. As with customer data, employee data is subject to GDPR and similar laws.
• Operational areas of the business are subject to safety and environmental regulation. In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) enforces workplace safety regulations. Environmental regulations are growing in importance and often pertain to heavy industries.

Regulatory compliance is handled typically in various areas of GRC. A company like Vertex helps companies with financial and tax compliance. Appsian Security provides data privacy and SOX compliance solutions. GRC-focused companies such as Fastpath offer tools to assist with regulatory compliance.

Key Considerations for SAPinsiders:

• The more areas a company touches — both from a business perspective and geographically — the more regulations that company faces. That creates complicated challenges for regulatory compliance. Further challenges arise around rapidly changing regulations that may have a significant impact on how a company operates.
• When it comes to technology, compliance tools, such as data privacy and protection, are among the most commonly used and being evaluated in our most recent GRC research. Companies are looking to automation to help with regulatory compliance.
• Highlighting the impact on location when it comes to regulatory compliance, 60% of EMEA respondents chose GDPR as a top regulatory priority in that same GRC research vs. 47% of non-EMEA respondents.