SAP Labs and SAP Security
Over the last year so, new SAP products have entered the market place, promising a competitive advantage over existing functionality, a must have for today’s business.
Sometimes I do wonder whether SAP Labs understand SAP R3 and the real world…web based portals, single sign on, pretty icons, functionality that displays itself in MSExcel, the use of Business Objects and so on are all the rage.
Internet Portals may be fun to develop and experiment with, but the hard-core functionality has to come from a back-end that is proven to do exactly what it is supposed to do. SAP is about systems for business, not 3D graphics for Bollywood.
This brings me on to the key issue of SAP Security, which is so often an after thought in a SAP implementation. SAP R3 has always been a robust model that can be configured mostly with standard functionality to meet client needs; hence we have the terms of Best Practice and SAP Standard.
The new wave of functionality appears to be moving away from these terms, or is this the impression clients have from the implementation partners?
SAP Security has always been built on solid foundations, however, the new wave of functionality, often web based, appears to be ignoring the basics of security. The basic building blocks appear to be an after thought. This is more than just mapping of R3 to Portal based applications, it’s a loss of communication and knowledge transfer.
The latest fads, MDM, c’mon are you serious? A single point that controls SAP security for all SAP applications, how many businesses in the UK understand how to use GRC effectively, who has zero SOD violations? CUA has been around for many years, it promised to make administration easier…if it really does make life easier, why is everyone not using it?
Maybe there is app on the iPad to sort this out? Something for SAP Labs to have a look at, maybe they can introduce something useful to market place that actually works. Wait iPad is an Apple product…who has an Apple Computer at SAP Labs?
