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A practical checklist for third-party risk management platforms

Jill M. Czerwinski, Nate Williams
8/1/2022
A practical checklist for third-party risk management platforms

This checklist can help your purchasing process for third-party risk management (TPRM) technology platforms stay focused and systematic.

The search for the right technology platforms to support your organization’s third-party risk management (TPRM) program can be overwhelming. With so many third-party risk management technology solutions and providers available, it can be hard to know where to begin.

TPRM platforms, also known as vendor risk management software, can help your organization perform vendor risk assessments and mitigate third-party risks in a wide range of areas, including:

  • Legal and regulatory risks that can lead to fines, penalties, and even criminal consequences
  • Financial and reputational risks
  • Operational risks that can affect your organization’s ability to function
  • Cybersecurity risks and data breaches
  • Supply chain vulnerabilities and disruptions

Often, organizations know they need to implement or upgrade their third-party risk management platforms, but stakeholders might not have compiled a detailed list of the capabilities that matter most. Third-party risk consultants can provide useful context for the selection of TPRM technology.

The following self-assessment checklist can help focus the search for the right technology platform.

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Is your organization struggling to track who is responsible for what third parties or even to identify and maintain an inventory of which vendors you have?

If yes, you might need capabilities such as:

  • Documentation of third-party profiles and engagements from onboarding through the entire vendor life cycle
  • Ability to assign ownership of third parties and engagements to specific users and have that information flow to their dashboards
  • Automation of key notifications that trigger based on ownership
Is your organization struggling to track who is responsible for what third parties or even to identify and maintain an inventory of which vendors you have? - Have stakeholders compiled a list of essential capabilities?

Are highly manual due diligence and follow-up processes conducted via email and spreadsheets holding your organization back?

If yes, you might want to prioritize with some of the following features:

  • Dynamic tailoring of questionnaires and questions based on risk areas and other factors
  • A portal that can handle all third-party communications about questionnaires, issues, and tasks
  • Self-service access for additional team members
  • Automatic setting of due dates and real-time triggering of notifications based on lack of timely completion
  • Easily configured workflow capabilities and templates for due diligence completion and issue remediation throughout the vendor life cycle

Is there a disconnect between your contract and risk management processes, resulting in contract execution before the completion of required due diligence?

Is there a disconnect between your contract and risk management processes, resulting in contract execution before the completion of required due diligence?

If yes, you might want to take advantage of a solution that can:

  • Document third-party contracts as unique records with their own attributes, including expiration
  • Track contracts and their renewal dates and provide alerts
  • Accommodate workflows that require the completion and approval of due diligence activities before contract signature
How does your organization’s third-party risk management program stack up? 
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Do you have technology systems in place but struggle to properly integrate their workflows and data integrity?

If yes, you might want to focus on a solution that can:

  • Easily integrate with data feed providers to support ongoing monitoring and information sharing
  • Use information in the third-party profile or engagement to automatically trigger alerts based on changes in the data feed
  • Record the action taken on alerts
  • Integrate with sourcing systems of record or other TPRM governance, risk, and compliance tools, such as a separate issue management solution
  • Enable single sign-on authentication

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Need help with your organization’s search for third-party risk management technology? Let’s talk.

The purchasing process for third-party risk management technology platforms gets so much easier with an experienced guide. Crowe third-party risk management specialists have helped companies in a wide range of industries find the right solutions to mitigate risk and become more efficient.

Get in touch and we’ll take you through a tailored assessment and provide targeted recommendations.

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Jill Czerwinski
Jill M. Czerwinski
Principal, Financial Services Consulting
+1 630 575 4317
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Nate Williams
Nate Williams
+1 317 208 2472