SAP Risk Analysis


What Is Risk Analysis?

Risk analysis is the assessment of potential risks on the business or market and the likelihood of adverse effects from those events. In a supply chain context, for example, companies model various disruptions to determine their impact and apply risk mitigation strategies to avoid them.

According to Investopedia, risk analysis can be divided between two types: qualitative and quantitative.

Qualitative analysis: Qualitative analysis incorporates a definition of uncertainties, evaluation of the potential impacts, and risk mitigation measures. Examples include SWOT analysis and cause and effect diagrams.

Quantitative analysis: Quantitative analysis relies on statistical modeling and assigning numeric values to potential risks. Within a risk model, those values produce graphical outputs to help determine risk mitigation strategies.

Through both risk analysis approaches, companies can glean an holistic view of their risk profile.

What Is Risk Analysis?

Risk analysis is the assessment of potential risks on the business or market and the likelihood of adverse effects from those events. In a supply chain context, for example, companies model various disruptions to determine their impact and apply risk mitigation strategies to avoid them.

According to Investopedia, risk analysis can be divided between two types: qualitative and quantitative.

Qualitative analysis: Qualitative analysis incorporates a definition of uncertainties, evaluation of the potential impacts, and risk mitigation measures. Examples include SWOT analysis and cause and effect diagrams.

Quantitative analysis: Quantitative analysis relies on statistical modeling and assigning numeric values to potential risks. Within a risk model, those values produce graphical outputs to help determine risk mitigation strategies.

Through both risk analysis approaches, companies can glean an holistic view of their risk profile.

SAP and Risk Management

As more companies migrate to SAP S/4HANA, it’s critical that their risk strategies are integrated within the system. SAP provides risk management solutions that put governance, risk, and compliance at the forefront of business activities.

According to SAP, “stakeholders want to see evidence, on demand and in real time, that an organization which they are backing is managing their financial, social, and environmental activities efficiently, profitably, and responsibly … Any risk management measures must focus on the specific value drivers unique to the business, and these can be difficult for you to identify. Managers must look beyond financial line items to the activities and processes that are integral to the organization’s business model.”

Further Resources for SAPinsiders

Building More Effective Access Control Through Business-Centric GRC. In this article, learn how companies are utilizing access control solutions to identify risk within their user base. These solutions and processes are often technical and driven from audit and IT perspectives with very little input from business users who might find the technical GRC language hard to decipher. That’s where the idea of business-centric GRC comes into play for access control — providing the business with easier to understand, less technical language so that they can better interpret the data.

Application Security Imperiled by Attackers. Application security is being threatened by cyberattacks on the application layer, such as SAP S/4HANA systems, which target valuable resources organizations store there. In this article, learn about new security concepts necessary to protect the “crown jewels” stored in SAP systems. Companies need to deploy real-time detection and response to deal with the rise in attacks against the SAP application layer level.

Vendors that can help SAP customers with risk analysis include: Appsian Security, DXC Technology, EcoVadis, and Onapsis.

1270 results

  1. SAP Access Control Implementation: The Myths, Truths, and Tricks (Part 1)

    Published: 14/December/2015

    Reading time: 22 mins

    Gain an understanding of supported and unsupported functionalities in the SAP Access Control system. See how to configure the system correctly to achieve your defined business requirements. Key Concept Myth often refers to certain assumptions or thoughts about the capability of a tool or product, either positive or negative, with or without an empirical basis...…

  2. Use Result Analysis Functionality to Meet IFRS Requirements of Revenue Recognition

    Published: 14/June/2013

    Reading time: 21 mins

    Result Analysis functionality in SAP can help you meet the requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and other accounting principles for recognizing revenues and costs for long-term contracts. Learn how to: • Use some of the key Result Analysis methods in your SAP system to recognize revenues and costs in a make-to-order business scenario.•...…

  3. How to “Stay Clean” (for Now) with Risk Terminator

    Published: 06/June/2011

    Reading time: 11 mins

    To realize all the business benefits of SAP BusinessObjects Access Control, it is important that you implement compliant user provisioning and enterprise role management (formerly Access Enforcer and Role Expert). However, if you are not ready to do that, Risk Terminator provides a very good interim solution. You can follow these step-by-step instructions for configuring...…

  4. Q&A: GRC Explained: A New Way of Looking at Risk

    Published: 13/January/2011

    Reading time: 17 mins

    ManagementIs the real meaning and importance behind governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) a vague notion in your company? We talked to SAP’s own Norman Marks to get his views on the subject and hear his definition of GRC. Norman Marks is a vice president at SAP and an evangelist for GRC. Before he went to...…

  5. SAP BI Product Convergence Update: What’s Happening Today, What is Coming Next, and What Does It Mean for You?

    Published: 01/April/2017

    Reading time: 65 mins

    SAP’s BI suite continues its course of ongoing product advancements, and there are significant new product releases on the very near horizon. With the pending SP4 release of SAP BI 4.2 due to impact the full BI suite, and the major new release of SAP BusinessObjects Lumira 2.0 (where SAP BusinessObjects Lumira and SAP BusinessObjects Design…

  6. 3 Scenarios for Simulating Risk Analysis Processes with Risk Terminator

    Published: 18/April/2012

    Reading time: 7 mins

    Follow three scenarios that simulate risk analysis for role maintenance and user role provisioning with Risk Terminator in SAP BusinessObjects Access Control 10.0. Key Concept An access risk violation occurs when defined access control policies and procedures designed to enforce control of a user’s capability to perform specific activities in the system are compromised. In...…

  7. Enhance User Access Risk Reporting in SAP Access Control 10.1 with User Master Data Attributes

    Published: 12/March/2014

    Reading time: 9 mins

    Learn how to enhance user risk analysis and user risk simulation analysis by leveraging a custom user group based on user master data (transaction code SU01) attributes. You will also learn how to improvise with custom variants (based on SU01 attributes) when defined custom user groups are not available for your business case or you...…

  8. Combat Excess Growth in SAP Systems: A Guide to the Custom Development Management Cockpit

    Published: 18/June/2010

    Reading time: 17 mins

    ManagerThe Custom Development Management Cockpit (CDMC) helps clean up the system by identifying coding that is no longer in use. Armed with this information, you can apply only necessary changes to the system during processes such as an upgrade. Key Concept Frequent SAP ABAP custom developments, enhancements, and even modifications are normal at companies today....…

  9. Take Advantage of the Support for Multiple Rulesets in SAP Access Control 10

    Published: 30/May/2013

    Reading time: 11 mins

    Learn how to use a business rule to influence the ruleset that is automatically applied to an access request based on defined attributes. Key Concept Request multiple ruleset is a functionality in SAP Access Control 10.0 that can be used to determine the appropriate ruleset to use in risk analysis based on defined conditions in...…

  10. Analyze Your SAP System Readiness for SAP S/4HANA

    Published: 27/December/2017

    Reading time: 13 mins

    Learn how to check your SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) system’s readiness for SAP S/4HANA using SAP’s free Readiness Check tool. Key Concept SAP S/4HANA has a large effect on organizations that implement it. Areas that SAP S/4HANA affects include the data model, user procedure changes, add-on compatibility, and business processes. Organizations implementing SAP S/4HANA...…