Changing Identity Governance for a Post-SAP Era: How Organizations Can Turn the 2027 Deadline into a Strategic Advantage

For many companies, SAP serves as the foundation of their identity management system. SAP Identity Manager (SAP IdM) and SAP Governance, Risk and Compliance (SAP GRC) will no longer be supported by 2027, which is probably a significant project that many people have only recently started to prepare for. There is no designated replacement for SAP IdM, despite SAP announcing a replacement for SAP GRC called the "SAP GRC for HANA 2026."

With more than 440,000 SAP users, many will be impacted by SAP IdM's sunsetting and SAP GRC's successor. To make sure the small details are taken care of, careful planning and preparation are needed for the upcoming switch to a new identity management/governance system. Regarding what to look for in a solution and how to make the migration process easier, some advice might be helpful.

The following crucial factors can streamline your move plan and safeguard your surroundings:

Making Sure Identity Migration Is Easy and Uninterrupted

Every migration's main objective is to cause as little disturbance to corporate operations as possible. This is true regardless of the solution under consideration. Since it can seriously disrupt business operations and affect identity management and security for customers, partners, employees, and other identity account types, it makes sense that companies might be reluctant to begin this process. Many identity management solutions can take ten to twelve weeks to implement.

For obvious reasons, this is not ideal – a disruption in corporate operations can lead to lost revenue, damage to one's reputation, and other consequences. Maintaining "business as usual" and satisfying users, clients, and other stakeholders will be facilitated by a system that permits data access, business continuity, and overall ease of transition.

Easy, Accredited Integration for Changing SAP Environments

To help you stay up-to-date with the constantly growing portfolio of SAP enterprise applications, One Identity Manager and our suite of IAM products offer thorough certified integration with SAP products.

Using Current SAP Knowledge to Make the Transition Smoother

This can be a crucial factor to take into account if you have been using SAP for decades and are familiar with its functionality and user experience. This will enable your migrating team to apply their expertise. This simplifies and expedites the administration of the new solution of choice and makes it possible for that team to launch the new solution more rapidly and effortlessly.

Increasing Efficiency and Security during Identity Management Transition

The ideal chance to clean up your environment to increase productivity and lessen your attack surface going forward is a pending identity management solution migration. Examine your ecosystem thoroughly to find standing rights, duplicate identities, and other possible enhancements that could safeguard and simplify your environment. You can examine your identity ecosystem and make changes before migrating with the aid of certain available solutions.

Providing a Smooth and Safe Identity Migration Plan

As previously said, to guarantee business continuity, there must be as little disturbance as possible to your ecosystem, users, and stakeholders. In addition to the significance of optimizing uptime during migration, integration with other identity environment solutions, both now and in the future, can help close gaps in your identity management and security strategy, lowering your attack surface and preventing breaches.

Your identity management and security strategy will be strengthened, and your risk profile will be lowered by solutions that collaborate to address more complex and wide-ranging issues and provide opportunities for solutions like behavior-driven governance, privileged access governance, and improved Active Directory and Entra ID governance.

Resources and time are necessary for system migrations, neither of which many businesses currently possess in large quantities. Spend some time creating a list of objectives and non-negotiables. Look for solutions that will enable you to accomplish those objectives and offer the value you require going forward, both now and in the future. To guarantee that the transfer is carried out smoothly and effectively, it is best to invest time in planning.

Getting Ready for a Stronger Identity in the Future

Organizations must take immediate action to protect their identity ecosystem as SAP IdM and SAP GRC reach their end of support. Careful preparation, minimal operational disturbance, and the choice of solutions that support both present and future SAP environments are necessary for a successful move. Businesses may lower risk and increase productivity by utilizing their current SAP expertise, adopting certified integrations, and taking advantage of the shift as a chance to improve security and simplify procedures. Strategic planning – assessing priorities, identifying non-negotiables, and selecting instruments that provide long-term value – is ultimately what will determine whether this change is successful. Organizations can use this required migration as a driver for more robust and resilient identity governance if they take the proper approach.