Client Success Story - Aker Solutions

We wanted a new system to get on top of our data from our service provider. We had some offers on getting on top of GRC. First of all, it was a long implementation period. They estimated one and a half year to get it in place, and also the cost was high. We implemented Soterion in 2019 as a replacement for the current GRC solution that we had in Aker Solutions. My experience with the implementation was really good because usually how you worked on SAP projects, and I know that they take a long time. And for this time it was like, okay, we had it in one week, and we can utilise the benefits from it. After one day, we can start working with the system. It was a real plug and play, and it was even better than we expected. So that's why we forced through this Soterion solution, because it's given us a lot and it's a huge saving compared to the GRC option.

A growing SAP access risk problem

Aker Solutions implemented SAP in 2004 to 2006. Over the years, employees accrued more roles and authorisations to do transactions. The problem had escalated to the point where they had introduced 1.5million potential access risks to their system.

The Finance Process Improvement & Systems team was looking for a solution to create visibility and transparency. They struggled to know where to begin to address such a large challenge. They already had SAP GRC, but didn’t use it.

We have been struggling for ten, fifteen years with getting some transparency into our data and our risks. By coincidence we came over Soterion and we said okay this sounds like exactly what we need. The biggest benefit is that we can easily monitor our risk every week. We can easily take out risks and see why it's moving by removing roles and so on. And it also enables us to see which access roles in the system we have that actually contributes to risk itself. So we can do changes in the SAP roles in our system based on these reports.

Soterion's GRC solutions expose and reduce risks

When EPI-USE Labs demonstrated alternative SAP GRC solutions provided by their partner Soterion, Aker Solutions immediately realized that these could solve their challenges.

They were especially interested in the Access Risk Manager product. This provides a dashboard to identify where the SAP access risk exposure is located, and identifies employees with access to sensitive data, a critical factor to support their GDPR initiatives. The “What-if” Allocation Simulator allowed them to proactively identify risks before applying the changes in their SAP system.

The second solution they use is Basis Review to inspect their SAP Basis configuration against a set of rules based on industry best practice. This product helps them to establish complete compliance to avoid adverse audit findings.

Through implementing Soterion for SAP, Aker Solutions achieved:

Efficiency
They reduced the resource-hours spent (both internally and externally) in monitoring the roles
Effectiveness
They shortened the process for monitoring user access reporting
Quality
They are focusing on high-risk transactions and increasing time spent on analyses rather than extracting data
Regulatory compliance
Increased compliance and improved auditor trust
Risk mitigation
Increased integrity of key business processes and reduced risk for fraud

About Aker Solutions

Aker Solutions engineers the products, systems and services required to unlock energy. Their goal is to maximize recovery and efficiency of oil and gas assets, while using their expertise to develop the sustainable solutions of the future.

From subsea to surface and concept to decommissioning, their technical expertise and strong partnerships provide energy companies what they need to succeed. Combined with their long history of engineering for the most challenging environments, their approach delivers superior performance for customers and shareholders worldwide.

Aker Solutions traces their origins back to a small mechanical workshop founded on the Aker River in Oslo nearly 200 years ago.