Finding the right tool for third-party risk management (TPRM) is a unique process for every organization, as the needs and requirements vary across industries, company sizes and teams. So we set out to gather the questions and criteria you might need to decide. Meet our brand new “Buyer’s Guide to Third-Party Risk Management” ebook – which you can download for free!
The ebook is divided into seven capabilities you should look for in a TPRM tool:
- A Great Dashboard
- Trusted Security Ratings
- A “Single Pane of Glass” View
- Specific Use Cases
- Operational Improvements
- Integrations
- Pricing Benefits
As a reminder, TPRM solutions are designed to facilitate and automate the performance of your program. You need to find a tool that will put you on a path to auditable risk management and accelerate your journey to TPRM maturity.
Particularly, it should let you customize and automate the most important workflows (if not all) in order to be scalable. You need the ability to both assess and mitigate the risk associated with third-party relationships, so as to perform continuous monitoring.
Why look for a TPRM solution?
Global business and the supply chain have scaled to a point where your organization might be engaging with dozens, hundreds or thousands of third-parties (which include vendors, suppliers, distributors, manufacturers, etc.). Traditional TPRM processes, like sending emails & spreadsheets to assess third-parties, have become too time consuming and present an obstacle when trying to scale the program.
Traditional procurement and ERP solutions, or Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) platforms are an option to some organizations, but the truth is they overlook some of the individual details, such as active monitoring for each third-party and access to industry standard frameworks.
Dedicated TPRM tools, on the other hand, have a singular focus that allows you to assess the ongoing behavior, performance and risk that each third-party relationship represents to your company. Areas of monitoring include supplier and vendor information management, supplier risk management, information security (infosec) compliance, and performance measurement.
To sum up, when doing research, remember to look for:
- Flexibility to customize assessments according to your business needs and risk appetite
- A clear overview of the risk environment
- A way to streamline your process and facilitate risk assessment and mitigation
- Trusted security ratings and built-in data feed integrations
Ultimately, your tool has to successfully adapt to your specific needs, not vice versa!
To learn more about how ThirdPartyTrust can help you manage third-party risk, request your free trial now:
