Expert Insights

Understanding Which GRC Business Objectives are Most Important to Your Organisation

March 12, 2026 By Dudley Cartwright

In the SAP security and governance landscape, organisations are under increasing pressure to secure their systems, comply with regulatory requirements, and operate efficiently in a constantly shifting digital and risk environment. Yet many companies still struggle to determine which GRC business objectives truly matter to them, and therefore misallocate resources – often dedicating significant time, budget, and effort to areas that do not meaningfully support their broader business goals.

Soterion’s SAP Security & GRC Podcast published an episode dedicated to this topic. Industry experts Dudley Cartwright, Emile Steyn and Quintus Hougaard discuss the five most common GRC business objectives observed in the market today. Their insights highlight the importance of strategic prioritisation in any GRC programme: understanding what to focus on, when, and why.

This article unpacks those five objectives in detail, offering a deeper look at what each means for organisations operating SAP, the risks and opportunities involved, and how companies can establish a more intentional, business-aligned GRC roadmap.


1. Strengthening the Security of the SAP Authorisation Solution

One of the most consistent drivers for GRC transformation is the need for a more secure SAP environment. In most organisations, this pressure is amplified by recurring audit findings—repeated segregation-of-duties (SoD) conflicts, inappropriate system settings, over-allocated access, and general authorisation deterioration over time. 

Why authorisation security degrades

SAP security environments naturally erode due to:

  • User movement between roles
  • Emergency and temporary access not being revoked
  • Legacy role designs that no longer match business processes
  • Manual provisioning practices
  • Business pressures to grant access quickly rather than correctly 

The result is an authorisation model that becomes increasingly insecure each year, leading to higher volumes of audit observations and, eventually, board-level scrutiny.

The modern definition of a “secure” environment

What may have been considered secure 15 or 20 years ago is no longer acceptable. Regulatory frameworks have evolved significantly, and today a secure environment requires:

  • Least-privilege access
  • Clear SoD boundaries 
  • Strong governance of display access to personal data 
  • Correct configuration of sensitive system parameters
  • Continuous monitoring of critical transactions and access trends 

This means organisations must adopt a proactive, continuous approach to access governance rather than relying solely on annual audit cycles.

2. Improving Operational Efficiencies Across GRC Processes

Beyond security, many organisations look to GRC tools and processes to improve efficiency—particularly around the Joiner-Mover-Leaver (JML) lifecycle and ongoing compliance activities. 

The inefficiency of manual processes 

Traditionally, organisations managed provisioning, role approvals, user access reviews, and controls monitoring using spreadsheets, email workflows, and manual sign-offs. This approach is:

  • Time-consuming
  • Error-prone 
  • Lacking in auditability 
  • Dependent on individual administrators

A single user access review could take 10–20 hours for a manager to complete manually. When multiplied across hundreds of users, the inefficiency becomes considerable. 

How automation improves outcomes

Modern access governance tools streamline these activities by providing:

  • Automated provisioning workflows 
  • Role-based assignment using business roles 
  • Centralised user access reviews 
  • Continuous control monitoring (CCM) 
  • Risk simulations prior to granting access 
  • Real-time audit trails 

This not only improves efficiency but increases the accuracy and completeness of compliance activities. When tasks are easier and better supported by automation, business users are more likely to perform them properly—not merely to “tick an audit box”. 

3. Meeting Regulatory and Compliance Requirements

The regulatory landscape continues to expand, and compliance remains one of the primary GRC objectives for most organisations. Requirements such as SOX, J-SOX, GDPR, Popia, and industry-specific standards all place pressure on organisations to demonstrate effective control over access, data, and system usage. 

The growing importance of display access

One of the biggest shifts in recent years is the heightened focus on display-only access. Many older SAP role designs assigned broad display access by default—often across HR, payroll, and financial data. Under data-privacy regulations, this is no longer acceptable.

Companies must now: 

  • dentify roles containing sensitive personal data 
  • Split display access into smaller, controlled role sets 
  • Restrict access to personally identifiable information (PII) 
  • Prove that access is aligned to legitimate business needs 

This may require significant redesign of legacy role structures.

Compliance as a by-product of good design

An efficient, well-designed, and secure environment naturally supports compliance. When the underlying role model is clean and rationalised, user access reviews become simpler, SoD risk becomes easier to manage, and system settings remain aligned to regulatory expectations. 

4. Achieving Standardisation Across Roles and Job Functions

Standardisation remains a key GRC objective—particularly in large, multi-region organisations. Standardised roles can simplify provisioning, reduce administrative overhead, and streamline compliance activities. 

The benefits of standardisation 

When implemented correctly, standardisation supports:

  • Faster onboarding 
  • More accurate access assignment 
  • Easier user access reviews 
  • Reduced support and troubleshooting effort 
  • Improved transparency across the SAP landscape

By aligning access to job functions rather than individuals, organisations gain a clearer and more consistent structure.

The risks of over-standardisation

However, poorly executed standardisation can create major security vulnerabilities. The difficulty lies in ensuring that standardised business roles do not become overly broad. 

Key risks include:

  • Users inheriting unnecessary access 
  • Increased SoD conflicts 
  • Excessive display access 
  • Reduced flexibility to tailor access for unique tasks

This is often the outcome when organisations rely solely on SAP composite roles without sufficient granularity or flexibility. 

Business roles as a modern alternative 

Many companies are now transitioning to a business-role methodology, which allows: 

  • Partial assignment of business roles 
  • Role tailoring for local or regional variations 
  • Combining access from multiple systems (SAP ECC/S4, Fiori, BW, etc.) 

This hybrid flexibility enables organisations to maintain standardisation without sacrificing security or precision.

5. Enhancing Business Accountability and Ownership of Access Risk

Perhaps the most important—and often most overlooked—GRC business objective is to enhance business ownership of access risks. Historically, business users have pushed access risk decisions onto IT due to the technical nature of SAP authorisations. 

Why business accountability matters

Access risk is fundamentally a business risk, not an IT risk. IT teams may understand the technical mechanisms, but they cannot decide whether a specific risk is acceptable for the business process. 

When business users take ownership:

  • Access decisions are more informed 
  • Risk acceptance becomes meaningful rather than administrative 
  • Compliance activities receive appropriate attention 
  • GRC tools deliver measurable value 
  • Risk mitigation becomes aligned to real-world operations 

Organisations where business involvement is high tend to have the strongest governance outcomes and the most stable authorisation environments. 

How to promote business ownership 

To improve business accountability, organisations must: 

  • Provide user-friendly risk information 
  • Use business-friendly language instead of technical jargon 
  • Incorporate business roles rather than technical role names 
  • Ensure GRC tools present information clearly and contextually 
  • Train business approvers to understand SoD risk and data sensitivity 

When business users understand what they are approving—and why—they engage more willingly and more responsibly. 

Prioritising the Right GRC Objectives for Your Organisation

Not every organisation will prioritise all five GRC objectives equally. For some, security and audit remediation may be urgent. Others may first focus on operational efficiency or standardisation across regions. Mature organisations may shift toward business accountability and continuous monitoring. 

The key is recognising that GRC is a journey. Objectives evolve over time and should be revisited regularly as:

  • Business structures change 
  • Regulations expand 
  • Systems are upgraded or consolidated 
  • Risks shift due to industry or market conditions 
  • Internal resources and competencies grow

Organisations that periodically reassess their GRC objectives are better equipped to allocate resources effectively, build sustainable processes, and extract greater value from their SAP GRC investments. 

Final Thoughts

Understanding which GRC business objectives are most important to your organisation is essential for building a secure, efficient, and compliant SAP environment. Whether your focus is on securing the system, improving efficiencies, achieving standardisation, meeting regulatory demands, or increasing business ownership, each objective supports a stronger governance foundation. 

By approaching GRC with intent—not simply as a compliance requirement—organisations unlock long-term value, reduce risk exposure, and gain meaningful visibility into how access and security support their broader business strategy. 

If you have any questions or would like to see a demo, feel free to reach out to us by emailing [email protected]

You may find this interesting