Custom IAM integration with SAP Thick Client for an engineering & construction giant

One of India’s largest diversified engineering conglomerates planned to integrate all of its enterprise applications with a single sign-on solution. However, they encountered a major obstacle on their path to modernization when they could not integrate their SAP GUI (or SAP Thick Client) with any identity and access management (IAM) platform.

The Challenge

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The client was initially exploring a simple single sign-on (SSO) solution

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The organization made repeated attempts internally over nearly a year, trying open-source options like Keycloak and other OEM products, but none could achieve successful integration with the SAP GUI client

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Most of their applications were already integrated with Microsoft Active Directory (AD) on-premises, and Microsoft Entra ID on the cloud, and SSO was provisioned through these two platforms

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They needed a solution that could integrate with SAP while continuing to leverage AD for authentication across all of their applications

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However, their critical SAP applications - both the SAP Web Client and the SAP GUI thick-client - could not be integrated with AD

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It was also important to ensure effective deprovisioning of user accounts in case an employee left the organization, became unresponsive, or had a dormant account

SOLUTION

Akku’s Solution

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  • Akku was deployed to act as the service provider to Entra ID and as the identity provider for all SaaS applications
  • Other applications were reconfigured to enable authentication through Entra ID while routing access through Akku, enabling a unified IAM layer
  • Integration was first completed seamlessly with applications like SuccessFactors, Office 365, and some internal applications, demonstrating Akku’s capabilities and building client confidence
  • SAP Web presented the first key challenge, but after gaining remote access to the application, Akku was successfully integrated
  • For the SAP thick client, a custom agent was developed to enable access through Akku
  • This showcased Akku’s flexibility and the expertise of our implementation support team, overcoming a challenge that no other IAM vendor or the client’s own large, in-house IT team had been able to solve in almost a year
  • With the integration completed, both SAP Web and SAP GUI were fully integrated into the client’s IAM ecosystem
  • Akku was also integrated with SuccessFactors to fetch employee status, enabling automated account deprovisioning
  • Akku also made it possible to identify accounts that have been unused after a specified period of time and notify stakeholders to deprovision the account

Real-world Outcomes

Outcome
  • Applications that could not previously be integrated with AD or Entra ID were successfully onboarded, including SAP Web and SAP Thick Client
  • The client achieved seamless SSO across all applications, including SAP, through Akku
  • Complex, custom integrations were implemented quickly, helping to accelerate the client’s modernization process
  • Access was streamlined for end-users, while administrators gained centralized control through a single IAM layer

With Akku, the client overcame one of their most complex IAM integration challenges through the platform’s inherent flexibility and the unique implementation services delivered by our team of IAM experts

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Custom IAM integration with SAP Thick Client for an engineering & construction giant