Segregation-of-duties analysis apparatus and method

[0018]The present invention is directed to a method and system for SOD analysis that uses Euler or Venn diagrams—including variants such as Spider diagrams and Johnston diagrams—or their equivalents, such as Karnaugh maps, to depict potential Segregation of Duty (SOD) problems or violations and unauthorized access across a business's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications. It is contemplated that the SOD analysis will be carried out using a user interface running on an end user computer 910 (FIG. 9), which retrieves relevant data and data sets from a back-end server 950 storing the ERP database, and which interacts with a SOD analysis engine running on the end user computer 910 or, more preferably, a separate high speed computer 960 optimized for rigorous data crunching and analysis.

[0019]It is also intended that the current invention interact with typical ERPs, such as those systems marketed by SAP AG® headquartered in Walldorf Germany, Oracle Corp.® of Redwood Shores, Calif.