A medium-sized retail group headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, operating stores, distribution, and service centres nationwide. The enterprise platform was SAP R/3 (ECC), with extensive use of SAP workflows across MM (PR/PO approvals), SD (quotations and order release), HCM (leave/travel), PM/QM and related processes. The absence and delegation process (when approvers go on leave or are unavailable) was largely manual and email-driven, creating delays and audit gaps in approval-centric activities.

Board and executive requirement. Operations leadership requested a standardised, auditable, and fast mechanism to pre-approve potential delegates for key roles and to activate/deactivate delegation on demand, with automatic role provisioning and time-boxed expiry. The solution needed to touch multiple modules (MM, SD, HCM, PM/QM), update custom workflow tables, and integrate with SAP Governance, Risk and Compliance (SAP GRC) to ensure access was appropriately granted and revoked when delegation windows opened and closed. The target experience was self-service for eligible requesters via a Fiori/portal front-end, supported by background automation and full change logging in SAP.

Why now. Retail trading patterns (seasonality, public holidays, and peak promotional periods) created bursts of absence where delegation volumes spike. Without a controlled, systemised process, PR/PO approvals, SD release steps, and HCM workflows stalled; IT had to expedite manual access changes; and the audit trail was fragmented. The programme set out to implement GRC Pre-Approved Delegate Automation to protect service levels while strengthening governance.

Non-negotiables.

• Keep SAP R/3 (ECC) as system of record; leverage SAP GRC for access governance; avoid shadow identity stores.
• No downtime during trading hours; changes must apply near-real-time, with automatic reversion at expiry.
• Auditability: end-to-end logs showing who delegated what to whom, when, and for how long; retrieval in minutes.
• Segregation of Duties (SoD): apply a delta-roles principle to avoid over-provisioning when delegation is active.

Business stakes. Delayed approvals directly impact store replenishment, vendor payments, and customer pricing changes. Over-provisioned or lingering access elevates audit and SoD risks. Executives wanted predictable approval SLAs during peaks and a single source of truth for delegation status and evidence.

As-is pain points (from discovery).

• Delegation was offline, taking too long in some divisions and delaying business processes.
• No workflow or database existed to identify permanent replacements or to approve/activate delegations.
• No analytical tool to analyse delegation volumes, bottlenecks, or expiry behaviour.
• High process volumes, especially monthly and peak in vacation season.

Operational consequences.

• PR/PO approvals (MM) stalled when approvers were away; catch-up created backlog and expediting.
• SD quotations and sales order releases waited in queues pending manual access changes or ad-hoc substitutes.
• HCM leave/travel workflows lacked consistent substitution rules.
• Audit gaps: reconstructing “who approved on whose behalf” required trawling through emails and disparate logs.

Risk posture. Without a controlled mechanism, temporary access often exceeded what was strictly needed. The programme therefore emphasised GRC-aligned provisioning, workflow substitution, and automatic expiry/reversion to baseline roles. Official SAP guidance underscores the use of workflow substitution and GRC role assignments for controlled delegation in ECC landscapes.

We engaged on Execution & Delivery after collecting business requirements. The cadence:

• Solution design (2 weeks): finalised the blueprint for pre-approved delegation, defined the Entity/Role model, designed the Fiori/portal user experience, identified WRICEF objects (workflows, reports, interfaces, enhancements, forms), and mapped the Z-tables to be updated across MM/SD/HCM/PM/QM.
• Build & rollout (8 weeks): implemented under Averroa DRIVE™ and ORBIT™ delivery disciplines (sprint-based build, demos, hardening, pilot, and controlled production enablement), aligning IT, Corporate Governance, and Business Process Owners.

Scope note for SAP teams. The solution was built inside the SAP landscape (ECC + GRC), with custom Fiori for end users, programmes/tcodes for master data maintenance, and background jobs to update workflow artefacts and access—minimising external dependencies while preserving SAP’s audit trail.

Architecture at a glance.
A GRC-anchored solution with two channels:

1. Master data maintenance (GRC t-codes):

• • • Mass upload of the pre-approved delegate list (positions ↔ approved delegates) via a dedicated programme/tcode in SAP GRC.
    • Modify pre-approved delegates via a second tcode.
    • Approve/validate uploaded lists via a third tcode (Corporate Governance Manager).
    • Notes: no Fiori and no email notifications for these mass-data activities by design.

1. Operational delegation (Fiori/portal):

• • • Self/other Online Delegation Request (only eligible officers can delegate for others).
    • Request fields include: heading, login user (read-only), requester (editable), validity dates, delegate (from pre-approved list, non-editable), submit.
    • On submit, the system writes to a master Z-table with change log and status, creates a GRC request, auto-approves, and assigns only delta roles (up to 312 roles maximum), then updates workflow substitutions and module-specific Z-tables.
    • At validity end, a background job reverts all changes: roles are removed, substitutions expire, and all affected Z-tables are updated. Email notifications inform requester and login user on completion.

Workflow and table synchronisation (selected examples).

• MM (PR/PO): updates to Z-tables such as ZPR_RELS, ZMM_PR_RELS_NEW, ZMM_PO_RELS_NEW, and company-specific variants to ensure delegated approvers appear in release strategies for PR/PO.
• SD: alignment with SD Quotation Approval and Sales Order Block workflows (e.g., ZSD_QUOT_WF_APPR, ZSD_AUTO_BLK_USR).
• HCM: substitution routing for Leave/Business Trip and Final Settlement processes across countries via Z-tables such as ZWF_ROUTING_LR, ZHR_WF_BT_RULE, and corresponding approval lists.
• PM/QM: selected approval tasks (e.g., Equipment Transfer, NCR QM notifications) updated to reflect the active delegate.

Security and SoD controls.

• SAP GRC remained the gatekeeper for access; the automation generated GRC access requests and enforced approvals/rules before provisioning.
• The delta-roles logic prevented cumulative privilege creep during delegation windows.
• Workflow substitution was created/expired programmatically to keep ECC workflow behaviour consistent with the access state. Official SAP references govern workflow substitution and GRC role assignments usage.

Change logging and audit.

• Every delegation captured from/to, validity window, initiator, approvals, and the technical updates applied (roles, Z-tables, workflow substitution).
• Evidence packs could be exported rapidly from the master Z-table and associated logs.

Configuration & WRICEF footprint (extract).

• Interfaces/Enhancements: Fiori/portal app (custom) for creation; background programmes to propagate changes to GRC and workflow tables.
• Authorisations: per an authorisation matrix owned by Corporate Governance and IT; Fiori limited to eligible officers.
• Data migration: where historic or standing delegations existed, loaded via LSMW/BDC under controlled conditions. SAP provides official guidance for LSMW in ECC.

Front-end delivery notes.

• Custom Fiori (or portal) app built per SAP guidance; the mass-maintenance tcodes remained GRC GUI-only.

ECC alignment.

• The solution was designed for SAP ERP (ECC) landscapes, aligning with ECC workflow/substitution capabilities and integration patterns defined by SAP.

• Activation time for a delegate fell from 1–3 business days (manual email + IT ticket) to under 15 minutes (median) end-to-end from request submit to roles assigned + workflow substitution updated.
• Expired delegations correctly revoked: ~99% automated reversion at end of validity; residual 1% captured by control job and service desk checks.
• PR/PO approval throughput: items stuck >24h reduced by ~35% during peak absence weeks (owing to proactive set-up and automatic back-fills).
• Email volume related to “please approve on my behalf / access requests” dropped by ~75–85% for the affected departments.
• Audit retrieval time for delegation evidence packs decreased from hours to <5 minutes, driven by the consolidated master Z-table and GRC logs.
• SoD incidents linked to delegation did not increase post-go-live, supported by the delta-roles principle and Access Control checks.

Operationally, Corporate Governance and IT adopted a run-book (monthly reviews of pre-approved lists; quarterly access reviews; monitoring jobs) and set seasonal readiness windows before holiday periods to pre-stage delegates for critical roles.

• Separate master-data control from end-user convenience. Keeping mass upload/approval in GRC tcodes and the operational request in Fiori ensured data integrity and a clean user experience.
• “Delta roles only” is essential. Assigning just the differential roles needed for delegation minimises SoD exposure while keeping approvals flowing.
• Expiry is a feature, not a reminder. Automatic revocation on validity end (roles, substitutions, Z-tables) prevents lingering access and closes audit findings.
• Synchronise across modules. Approval behaviour must remain consistent in MM/SD/HCM/PM/QM; the Z-table mapping is your single source of truth.
• Use SAP workflow substitution deliberately. Align substitution rules with access state; never rely on email “stand-ins.” Official SAP guidance is clear on configuring substitutions in ECC.
• Design for retail peaks. Pre-approve delegate rosters and communicate windows ahead of public holidays and sales events; measure queue health (e.g., PR/PO >24h) weekly.
• Keep evidence first-class. A single master log with requestor/delegate, timestamps, actions taken, and expiry proof reduces audit friction and boosts confidence.

• Business Blueprint — Confidential: scope, as-is, to-be, tcodes, Fiori request design, Z-table mapping across MM/SD/HCM/PM/QM, background jobs, and audit logging.
• SAP Business Workflow (overview) — official SAP help on workflow concepts used in ECC (incl. substitution). SAP Help Portal
• Configuring and setting up substitutions in SAP Workflow — official SAP guidance for defining and managing workflow substitutions. SAP Help Portal
• Organisational rules & role assignments in SAP Access Control — official SAP content on Access Control configuration and role governance underpinning GRC requests. SAP Help Portal
• Develop SAP Fiori apps / tools — official SAP guidance on building custom Fiori apps for operational delegation requests. SAP Help Portal
• SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) — overview — official SAP content referencing ECC components and integration context for R/3 landscapes. SAP Help Portal
• Legacy System Migration Workbench (LSMW/BDC) — official SAP references for controlled data migration (used for initial standing delegations where applicable).