Customer Success Story
AG Drives Cost Savings with SAP Embedded GRC
In just 16 weeks, AG partnered with a leading European Energy company to successfully migrate from a costly standalone GRC system to SAP S/4HANA's embedded GRC systems. This transformation led to substantial cost savings, improved data integrity, and enhanced compliance with evolving regulations.
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Executive Summary
Partnering for Success: A GRC Transformation with AG
In today's ever-shifting energy landscape with robust security, streamlined processes are paramount for success. This case study explores how a prominent energy transition company, teamed up with AG, a leading SAP Gold Partner, to achieve these goals through the implementation of embedded GRC within their SAP S/4HANA system. Headquartered in Scotland, our client is a prominent player in the European gas market. Operating across twenty oil and gas fields with a workforce of approximately 700 employees, our customer prioritises operational excellence. Their core focus lies in completing gas production, transitioning assets towards decommissioning, and exploring innovative solutions like carbon capture and storage.
The client faced challenges in maintaining robust security and streamlined processes while managing complex standalone GRC systems. These legacy systems were costly to maintain and hindered the company's ability to adapt to evolving regulatory requirements and business needs. Our proposition of a strategic migration to embedded GRC within the client's SAP S/4HANA system. This innovative solution aimed to simplify GRC processes, reduce costs, and enhance overall security.
AG employed a phased implementation approach, prioritising core functionalities and gradually integrating additional features. The project team leveraged their deep technical expertise and strong project management skills to ensure a smooth transition in just 16 weeks.
The Challenges
- Effective utilisation: Our client was using a standalone GRC system alongside its existing S/4HANA landscape and was looking for effective utilisation of SAP.
- Legacy Systems: The client faced high maintenance costs and total cost of ownership (TCO) with their standalone GRC system, which was not integrated with SAP S/4HANA.
- Regulatory Compliance: Evolving regulatory requirements necessitated a more integrated and efficient approach to GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance).
- Complex Migration: The introduction of additional functionalities to redesign the GRC roles during the project added complexity to the process. This required AG to adjust the project scope, change the configuration, and migrate data to manage client expectations.
A Proactive Approach to Future-Proofing Security
With the SAP GRC Access Control roadmap announcement, this energy company had standalone GRC systems and would require migration to the embedded solution within S/4HANA to maintain access control functionality and reduce infrastructure costs. AG proactively addressed this shift and implemented the embedded GRC for a more streamlined and secure future.
Traditional standalone GRC systems, while effective, can create data silos and increase complexity. This can make it challenging to gain real-time insights into potential risks and compliance issues. Previously our client had a standalone GRC system to manage risk and compliance within its SAP landscape integrated with S/4HANA. Due to its three-system landscape, they faced high monthly maintenance costs. AG identified the opportunity to leverage embedded GRC functionalities within S/4HANA for improved efficiency and cost reduction.
Transforming Efficiency
Efficiency Gains
Cost Savings
Efficiency Gains
Compliance
The Solution
- Assessment and Planning: AG conducted a thorough evaluation of the existing GRC landscape, identifying inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement. To minimise deviations, a detailed project plan was put in place.
- Deep Dive Analysis and Planning: Conducted an in-depth analysis of the existing (as-is) and future (to-be) landscapes, including system sizing, technical user assessment, and workflow configuration.
- Phased Implementation: The project followed a step-by-step approach, migrating core functionalities first and expanding with additional features over time, ensuring a smooth transition.
- Design and Preparation: AG's team leveraged the SAP GRC and SAP S/4HANA expertise to address technical challenges to ensure a successful migration.
- Extensible Resource Management: AG adapted to resource constraints by leveraging the team's existing knowledge and collaborating effectively to overcome challenges.
- GRC Role Redesign: AG's team simplified the role structure, reducing the number of roles from 80 to 15, streamlining access and improving security.
- Testing, Training, and Go-Live: AG adopted a standardised testing approach, including unit testing, integration testing, and user acceptance testing (UAT). To ensure a successful go-live, the team conducted hands-on user training sessions and developed comprehensive user manuals to help the team use the Embedded GRC in S/4HANA.
AG's Approach for Seamless Migration
AG’s agile project management approach, combined with deep SAP expertise, ensured that the GRC migration was completed on time and within budget. Regular updates, phased migrations, and hands-on user training were key components of the seamless transition. A thorough assessment of their existing GRC landscape, encompassing system size, user needs, and workflow configuration, clearly outlined the project scope. AG implemented a detailed project plan with regular meetings to minimise disruptions and maintain stakeholder alignment.
Beyond technical expertise, AG demonstrated agility in resource management. Potential resource constraints were successfully tackled by capitalising on existing team knowledge and fostering a collaborative environment. Additionally, the project scope was expanded to encompass a GRC role redesign, which significantly streamlined access management by reducing the number of roles from 80 to 15. Finally, a standardised testing approach incorporating unit testing, integration testing, and user acceptance testing (UAT) was implemented to ensure the migrated system's quality and functionality.
AG's Lift-and-Shift Migration Strategy
AG's lift-and-shift migration strategy involves transferring the core system components – configurations and workflows to the new SAP S/4HANA environment. Essentially, the existing system is "lifted" and "shifted" to a new infrastructure, minimising modifications to the application itself.
AG's team of technical experts tackled several challenges by building a global security framework for roles within Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC) directly within their SAP S/4HANA system. This streamlined approach standardised business processes, automated access and role management, ensured ongoing compliance with regulations in place and ultimately bolstered data security across business operations.
The Results
- Efficient Migration Planning: Developed a comprehensive 16-week migration plan, ensuring a smooth transition and thorough testing procedures.
- Cost Savings: Eliminated the infrastructure costs associated with the legacy system saving approximately 50% annually.
- Optimised Landscape: Successfully merged GRC functionalities into S/4HANA, streamlining the IT infrastructure to utilise the latest functionalities.
- Role Redesign in SAP: Redesigned the outdated GRC roles within the S/4HANA system for better access control, future upgrades and enhancements for evolving business needs.
- Efficiency Gains: Streamlined GRC management led to 50% reduction in process time for risk assessments.
- Enhanced Functionality and Compliance: Migrated Access Risk Analysis (ARA) and Emergency Access Management (EAM) functionalities to SAP S/4HANA & BW to maintain 100% compliance with new regulations.
16-Week Plan for Smooth Migration
AG, as an SAP Gold Partner, implemented its Lift-and-Shift migration strategy to ensure a seamless transition from the standalone GRC system to embedded GRC within S/4HANA; AG meticulously developed an agile 16-week migration plan. The detailed roadmap outlined each stage of the process, minimising disruptions to our client’s day-to-day operations. The plan prioritised migrating core functionalities, followed by a phased integration of additional features. This approach allowed for thorough testing procedures at each stage, mitigating risks and guaranteeing a smooth transition in the planned time. By adhering to this well-defined plan, AG ensured the project's success within the designated timeframe.
The successful migration of the client's SAP GRC system to an embedded S/4HANA environment showcases AG's ability to deliver SAP projects with precision and efficiency. Through close collaboration and a deep understanding of the client's specific needs, we delivered a solution within a tight timeframe that met all project objectives, including improved integration, increased efficiency, and cost savings. This successful project demonstrates AG's commitment to client satisfaction and reinforces our position as a trusted partner for similar undertakings.
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