SAP control confidence for UK utilities
Expert assurance for stronger SAP controls and no audit surprises
Your SAP control operations are in safe hands, supporting what you need to do for regulatory and audit compliance.
Build confidence in your SAP control environment
UK utilities are under unprecedented pressure to prove their SAP controls work continuously, transparently, and efficiently. Ofgem, Ofwat, and the UK NIS regulations covering essential services are all demanding clearer evidence of governance, cyber security, and resilience, closely aligned with the principles of the EU’s NIS2 directive. At the same time, major S/4 HANA migrations and transformation programmes are exposing long-standing control weaknesses.
Between tougher regulatory oversight, complex digital transformation, and heightened cyber risk, the cost of weak controls is rising fast.
We help utility companies manage their control operations to a higher standard delivering confidence, assurance, and audit simplicity across SAP ITGC and GRC. We build confidence in your SAP control environment giving you clarity, assurance, and the freedom to focus on your core business.
Save audit hours, prevent control failures and reduce operational risk
Why utilities are re-thinking their control operations
A sector under scrutiny and transformation.
Regulatory scrutiny is rising fast. Boards want assurance that their controls are watertight, auditors expect stronger evidence, and regulators want proof that governance is real, not theoretical.
Meanwhile, technology change is accelerating. As utilities move to S/4 HANA, cloud, and automation, legacy controls can’t keep up. Transformation is the ideal moment to rebuild controls properly; secure, automated, and audit-ready from day one.
The cost of getting it wrong.
When controls fail, auditors have to dig deeper. Research shows that weak controls directly increase auditor workload and cost, something every CFO feels when the bill lands.
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Regulatory pressure
Ofgem and Ofwat are raising the bar for operational resilience, cyber security and governance. Utilities must demonstrate auditable evidence that controls are operating effectively every day, not just at audit time.
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Transformation risk
Major SAP transformations and S/4 HANA migrations are exposing long-standing control and security gaps. These changes are an opportunity to rebuild confidence and embed compliance by design.
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Audit costs
Research shows that when internal controls fail, auditors need to perform significantly more testing and procedural work which directly increases audit hours and therefore the time and cost of delivering the audit.
Utilities that address these gaps proactively reduce audit risk, prevent costly remediation and gain confidence in every control executed
In this environment, we’re seeing utilities on-shoring and strengthening their SAP control operations to improve oversight, reduce audit exposure, and bring critical governance back within their own boundaries.
“Thank you for the support and dedication you’ve shown throughout our audit process. Your support has been critical in the success of our audit outcome, and you’ve been a huge help in navigating through technical deficiencies and findings, especially when it felt like no one could see the wood for the trees”
The hidden cost of weak controls
One control failure. A thousand audit hours.
For one major UK utility, a single SAP control failure led to more than 1,000 hours of extra audit consulting. That’s hundreds of thousands of pounds in unplanned effort, stress and distraction.
Since partnering with us, their SAP control operations have been consistent and reliable.
Auditors haven’t billed a single additional hour. In fact, improvements made this year are expected to prevent more than 2,000 hours of unnecessary audit work.
We don’t just make controls work; we make audit issues disappear.
What we do: control excellence for SAP environments
We run and continuously improve the SAP control operations that keep UK utilities secure, compliant and audit ready. Our UK-based team combines deep SAP, security and audit expertise with decades of utilities experience. Our services combine three core elements:
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Outsourced SAP ITGC Operations and Control Execution.
With Pumpkin in your corner, your SAP controls run reliably and audit-ready, every day, without additional effort from your team. We handle the day-to-day running of your key IT controls, precisely, consistently and with full evidence. Every control is performed, documented and ready for audit, every time.
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GRC Support and SAP Security Managed Services.
We act as the bridge between audit and your business teams, translating requirements, simplifying evidence and reducing friction. From access management to segregation-of-duties and emergency access, we deliver constant monitoring and improvement.
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ITGC Governance and Vendor Oversight.
We help you take back control of your control environment. Our governance frameworks bring structure and visibility, ensuring internal teams and third-party vendors operate to the same high standard of assurance.
We don’t just run your controls. We make them better.
We measure success in confidence, not tickets closed. Our model is designed for utilities who want to move from compliance burden to control confidence.
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Audit assurance
Zero control failures. Issue-free audits. Predictable outcomes. No unexpected audit or follow on costs.
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Operational resilience
Controls that keep working, even as systems evolve and the business goes through transformation and change.
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Continuous improvement
Continuous monitoring, pre-audit testing, quality checks and automation that make controls stronger every month.
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Governance visibility
Clear, simple reporting that your leadership, risk and audit teams can trust.
Why this matters now: regulators, auditors and transformation trends are all pushing in the same direction
Three macro trends are re-shaping how utilities approach SAP control operations:
1. Rising regulatory expectations
Ofgem and Ofwat are tightening expectations on operational resilience and cyber governance.
Utilities must be able to demonstrate, with evidence, that their SAP controls are designed, executed and monitored effectively.
Regulator guidance now emphasises evidence-based assurance for critical systems.
Utilities must prove not only that controls exist, but that they work consistently and are monitored continuously.
2. S/4 HANA and digital transformation
Every major transformation is an opportunity to fix what’s been papered over for years. SAP’s own guidance now recommends rebuilding GRC and security controls during migration to avoid audit risk later.
As utilities modernise core systems, GRC and security controls must evolve in parallel.
SAP and audit firms explicitly recommend rebuilding controls during migration as a chance to get it right.
3. Audit cost exposure
Studies confirm what every finance team already knows: when internal controls are weak, external auditors have more to do and you pay for it. Strengthening your control operations is one of the few levers that cuts both risk and cost.
When internal controls are weak, auditors have to do more work increasing external audit time and cost.
Academic studies confirm a direct link between control weaknesses and additional audit hours.
Together, these forces are making on-shored, high-quality SAP control operations not just best practice but essential for UK utilities to raise standards, increase visibility, and strengthen resilience.
Rising regulatory expectations mean you can’t afford control gaps. Our approach ensures continuous audit-ready compliance.
From firefighting to foresight
Most firms help you respond to control issues and react when an audit issue appears. We help you prevent it altogether.
Our approach is proactive and human. We build relationships with your audit teams, collaborate with your control owners and look for automation and simplification at every step.
We embed pre-audit testing, continuous monitoring and control automation into your operations, turning assurance into an everyday process, not an annual scramble.
Our UK-based specialists bring decades of SAP security and GRC experience, including deep utilities expertise, ensuring your control environment evolves as fast as your business does.
We call it control confidence: knowing that your controls are not just being performed, they’re being improved.
Bring control back home and raise your assurance game
Whether you’re preparing for your next audit, planning an S/4 HANA migration or responding to new regulatory requirements, we’ll help you build confidence in your SAP controls, simplify your audits and eliminate surprises.