Jun 8, 2021
•1 minute read
SAP Risk Management
SAP Risk Management focuses on how organizations identify, assess, monitor, and respond to business, financial, operational, security, and compliance risks across SAP environments. It sits within the broader SAP GRC landscape, where risk management connects with process control, access control, financial compliance, threat detection, identity management, and privacy governance. The topic is especially relevant to teams managing SAP S/4HANA, SAP HANA, cloud, hybrid, and multi-system landscapes where risk visibility must extend across business processes, controls, users, and data. The business value lies in helping compliance, audit, finance, IT, security, and operations teams prioritize risk, automate monitoring, and make decisions.
What is SAP Risk Management?
SAP Risk Management is a capability within the SAP Governance, Risk, and Compliance suite that helps enterprises identify, assess, analyze, monitor, and manage risk in a structured way. It gives organizations a centralized framework for defining risk strategy, documenting risk events, evaluating impact, assigning ownership, and tracking mitigation activities across SAP-enabled processes. SAP customers use risk management alongside GRC capabilities such as process control, access control, compliance monitoring, and audit support to improve visibility, reduce manual effort, and strengthen governance.
SAP Risk Management focuses on how organizations identify, assess, monitor, and respond to business, financial, operational, security, and compliance risks across SAP environments. It sits within the broader SAP GRC landscape, where risk management connects with process control, access control, financial compliance, threat detection, identity management, and privacy governance. The topic is especially relevant to teams managing SAP S/4HANA, SAP HANA, cloud, hybrid, and multi-system landscapes where risk visibility must extend across business processes, controls, users, and data. The business value lies in helping compliance, audit, finance, IT, security, and operations teams prioritize risk, automate monitoring, and make decisions.
What is SAP Risk Management?
SAP Risk Management is a capability within the SAP Governance, Risk, and Compliance suite that helps enterprises identify, assess, analyze, monitor, and manage risk in a structured way. It gives organizations a centralized framework for defining risk strategy, documenting risk events, evaluating impact, assigning ownership, and tracking mitigation activities across SAP-enabled processes. SAP customers use risk management alongside GRC capabilities such as process control, access control, compliance monitoring, and audit support to improve visibility, reduce manual effort, and strengthen governance.
How do enterprises use SAP Risk Management?
Centralizing enterprise risk visibility
Enterprises use SAP Risk Management to consolidate business, financial, operational, compliance, and security risks into a common view. This helps teams compare risks consistently, prioritize response activities, and understand how risk affects SAP-driven business processes.
Automating risk monitoring and reporting
Organizations use risk management tools to automate repeatable monitoring, alerts, workflows, and reporting. In SAP environments, this can reduce manual GRC work and help teams focus more time on risk strategy, analysis, and remediation.
Connecting risk with controls and compliance
SAP customers use risk management alongside SAP Process Control, SAP Access Control, and related GRC tools to connect risks with controls, access policies, SoD rules, and audit evidence. This supports stronger compliance and clearer accountability.
Supporting S/4HANA and cloud transformation
As organizations modernize SAP landscapes, risk management helps teams evaluate new controls, data exposure, access risks, integration points, and process changes. This is especially important in hybrid environments that combine SAP S/4HANA, cloud applications, and legacy systems.
Where does SAP Risk Management emerge in SAPinsider research?
State of the Market GRC in SAP Environments shows that SAP customers are modernizing GRC as regulatory complexity, digital transformation, and audit fatigue increase. The report found that 60% of respondents are automating GRC processes, while 53% are centralizing control workflows to improve efficiency and visibility.
Least Privilege 2.0: Controlling Risk in a Dynamic EnvironmentA growing landscape of laptops and smartphones, widespread internet access, and remote workforces throughout the world have increased the need for risk and identity management and has changed how security models should operate. Continuing to focus on only two dimensions, the “Who” (users and user groups) and the “What” (roles and authorizations), leaves organizations vulnerable to new and emerging security threats. Today, businesses must consider a third dimension to user access risks: the “When.” How can companies better control the assignment of access rights related to tasks, rather than unilaterally granting privileges to users?
In this session, join Appsian’s SAP Security experts as they discuss how SAP ERP customers can address and manage Least Privilege in today’s digital world, while explaining why access governance is critical to SAP security and how organizations can take steps to minimize their risk exposure.
Attend this session to learn how to:
- Strengthen Least Privilege by incorporating context into controls
- Minimize risk exposure while enabling flexible, user-friendly access
- Protect critical data and transactions in untrusted environments
- Adapt to changing security and compliance requirements
Beyond SOX: Addressing non-financial risks through SAP configuration and sound supporting processesWhile many organizations focus on compliance during an SAP implementation, often related to financial reporting and regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), they might be underutilizing optional SAP controls that could provide extreme value to their SAP system and supporting processes. How can you apply SAP configuration and sound supporting to minimize and mitigate operational and strategic risks? This session will take a deep dive into missed and misunderstood controls and processing, while sharing configurations and practices that can make your organization run more efficiently, reduce time spent on non-value-added work, and mitigate risk.
Attendees will:
- Hear specific examples of underutilized or misused controls covering the SAP Basis system (i.e. table logging), vendor/customer master (i.e., dual control), procurement (i.e., tolerances), sales (i.e., incompleteness), GRC (i.e., the firefighter process), and more
- Learn about some of the most commonly seen control misunderstandings and the risks created by actions such as using only % or absolute values in tolerances
- Obtain tips on how to create the business case for resolving these control gaps and enabling these controls, using simple data analysis procedures through SAP Query to the BI Warehouse to quantify risk exposure and value
- Understand who in the organization should be involved in recommending and validating control changes, and how to set up an appropriate cross-functional team to ensure decisions are sound and don't introduce other risks
- See how, once identified, tools like SAP Audit Management or SAP Process Control can be used to track the remediation status of these gaps to completion
Jun 8, 2021
•1 minute read
Beyond SOX: Addressing non-financial risks through SAP configuration and sound supporting processesWhile many organizations focus on compliance during an SAP implementation, often related to financial reporting and regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), they might be underutilizing optional SAP controls that could provide extreme value to their SAP system and supporting processes. How can you apply SAP configuration and sound supporting to minimize and mitigate operational and strategic risks? This session will take a deep dive into missed and misunderstood controls and processing, while sharing configurations and practices that can make your organization run more efficiently, reduce time spent on non-value-added work, and mitigate risk.
Attendees will:
- Hear specific examples of underutilized or misused controls covering the SAP Basis system (i.e. table logging), vendor/customer master (i.e., dual control), procurement (i.e., tolerances), sales (i.e., incompleteness), GRC (i.e., the firefighter process), and more
- Learn about some of the most commonly seen control misunderstandings and the risks created by actions such as using only % or absolute values in tolerances
- Obtain tips on how to create the business case for resolving these control gaps and enabling these controls, using simple data analysis procedures through SAP Query to the BI Warehouse to quantify risk exposure and value
- Understand who in the organization should be involved in recommending and validating control changes, and how to set up an appropriate cross-functional team to ensure decisions are sound and don't introduce other risks
- See how, once identified, tools like SAP Audit Management or SAP Process Control can be used to track the remediation status of these gaps to completion
Jun 8, 2021
•1 minute read
Automating risk management at the speed of threatsWith an increase in malicious cyber activity, organizations are racing to secure their mission-critical applications powered by SAP. An increase in exploitable vulnerabilities means your essential applications, the data running through them, and your operations as a whole are at risk. In this session, we will highlight the current risks organizations are facing and share how automating risk management can help you keep pace with emerging threats. Attend this session to:
- Understand the need for automated visibility into the risk posture of your systems
- Create a broader risk management program that includes a view of mission-critical assets needing protection
- Learn how to mitigate SAP risks to your data and applications
Jun 8, 2021
•1 minute read
Increasing Threats Highlight the Need for Robust Enterprise Risk ManagementIn the face of challenging micro and macro events, companies need to be able to anticipate and better manage risks that impact their core business objectives. Additionally, legacy business models and IT landscapes don’t contain all of the capabilities necessary to manage risk across the entire enterprise. For example, intelligent technologies like robotic process automation are not available in older ERP systems. As a result, there is an urgent need for a new approach to risk and compliance by incorporating governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) and security in digital transformation initiatives.
May 28, 2021
•2 minute read
How to Manage Enterprise Risk in Remote and Digital EnvironmentsAs organizations migrate to SAP S/4HANA as part of their digital transformation effort, they should prioritize governance, risk, and compliance (GRC). The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) has developed a Three Lines Model to help with that journey. First-line roles include operation and support functions; second-line roles encompass corporate risk, compliance, and quality assurance functions; and third-line roles cover internal audit and independent assurance functions.
GRC strategies need to be employed across all three lines to establish a more effective risk management program. The model necessitates role alignment, communication, coordination, and collaboration, with all the roles operating simultaneously. This becomes even more important for organizations with the move to remote work in response to the global pandemic.
Integrating GRC and SAP S/4HANA is a critical component in bridging the gap between the three lines. “Transforming organizations shouldn’t think of SAP S/4HANA and GRC systems as separate items; they should be thinking that they need an SAP S/4HANA system with embedded GRC capabilities,” says Michael Heckner, Senior Director of GRC Solution Marketing at SAP. Ultimately, organizations should embed GRC in their core business platforms for digital transformation success.
Read this article and learn:
- What the IIA’s Three Lines Model is and how it can ensure that GRC is a priority in your organization’s digital transformation;
- How you can bridge the gaps between the three lines, particularly in a remote work environment;
- The importance of embedding GRC in your organization’s SAP S/4HANA migration;
- The seven steps to take to ensure risk protection for your intelligent enterprise.
May 5, 2021
•12 minute read
GRC Strategy and Risk ManagementThere are many unforeseen risks that can impact your business. How do you manage and develop strategies to better understand and manage your risk portfolios? How can you prepare for unforeseen risks before it is too late? This track helps you refine your overall strategy and explore key solutions and technologies that can support you in planning, reporting, compliance, and remediation activities. Learn how to prioritize investments to protect key assets while managing risk in real time. Examine the impacts of key strategic projects you may be embarking on related to SAP S/4HANA, the cloud, or other technological or organizational changes.
Jan 14, 2021
•2 minute read
Things that Go Bump in the Night: What your Admins are up to when You aren’t LookingSAP administrators are often thought of as gatekeepers who hold the keys to accessing a company’s SAP systems. While they often prevent users from gaining access to sensitive information, their own position comes with risks that they themselves could commit security breaches. In this session, we will discuss the different ways SAP admins expose your company to fraud — whether accidental or intentional. Topics include:
Reviewing mistakes made by security teams when setting up user roles
Assigning debugger access in production
Using custom tables to gain access
Oct 20, 2020
•1 minute read
5 Strategies for Faster Risk Remediation in SAPIf left undone, remediating access risks can be tedious, time-consuming, and even costly. Companies can avoid running into these negative consequences by viewing remediation tasks as necessary and approaching them with the same urgency they would apply to discovering violations. This blog post explains 5 strategies to help reduce remediation work.
Read this blog post and learn:
- How to effectively manage remediation work and reduce risk as a result;
- Who should be involved in remediation work—beyond just security, IT, audit and compliance stakeholders; and
- Five components that you should include in your access control and remediation strategy.
Oct 8, 2020
•3 minute read
GRC: Case study: How Honeywell increased risk visibility and improved efficiency with its enterprise risk and controls strategyLearn how Honeywell has driven standardization of controls and processes, improved efficiency, reduced costs, and increased organizational risk visibility using SAP Process Control and SAP Risk Management. Click this link to view the slides from this session — GRC2017_Chirico_Casestudyhowhoneywell_V2. Karen Chirico If you have comments about this article or publication, or would like to […]
Mar 10, 2019
•1 minute read
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