SAP Upgrades Governance, Risk And Compliance Toolset
The new release unifies SAP's GRC applications on a standard platform and provides a common look-and-feel across the applications. It also offers a new graphical tool for defining and depicting risk, and embedded dashboards and Crystal Reports business intelligence tools.
The new software is easier to configure and manage and easier to train managers and employees to use, said Jim Dunham, group vice president of GRC solutions, in an interview.
Part of SAP's BusinessObjects portfolio of business intelligence software, the GRC application suite is popular with ISVs and solution providers who build industry-specific applications on top of the GRC package and provide compliance and risk-management services around them.
The new release already has about 20 such third-party packages, a number that's expected to reach some 100 by the end of this year, Dunham said.
The GRC suite includes BusinessObjects Access Control, BusinessObjects Risk Management and BusinessObjects Process Control. The applications provide policy management and audit capabilities, security controls, and the ability to archive data.
SAP described the new GRC release, which has been in development for nearly three years, as the latest step in the company's roadmap to combine its business intelligence software with its operational business applications.
The new GRC software release follows a major upgrade of SAP's BusinessObjects portfolio of business intelligence and information management applications last month.