Supplier Risk Management

Strategic solutions for a resilient and sustainable supply chain

Dan Spreckley, Senior Manager, Consulting, Carlota Garcia-Pleijlar, Senior Consultant, Consulting and Simran Chana, Senior Consultant, Consulting

Companies increasingly rely on external providers for expertise, services, and technologies to support their operations and help deliver their strategy.

However, according to a UK Government survey, only 11% of businesses have reviewed the risks posed by their tier 1 suppliers, and many find it challenging to engage effectively and cost-efficiently with the growing number of risk and business areas that require closer management and engagement within their supply chain.

Approached in the right way, supplier risk management can make your business more effective, cost-efficient, resilient, sustainable and secure.

For many firms today, developing a truly effective approach means incorporating the management of multiple risks (including sustainability and cyber, for example) while also meeting multiple regulatory requirements - including Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority expectations on supplier risk management and operational resilience, as well as the requirements of the Digital Operational Resilience Act.

While there is no one size fits all approach, supplier management approaches are most effective when they are risk-based and proportionate. Our experience is that overly complex approaches often lead to inefficiency, poor embedding and an ultimately ineffective approach.

A holistic approach can enable organisations to:

'dig up the road once’ – establish a unified approach that meets diverse business and regulatory needs, and that can be evolved over time
improve supplier visibility and transparency to manage dependencies, and support engagement aligned to a range of business and risk objectives
enhance strategic decision-making to improve performance and reduce risks from supplier failures
save costs with a more efficient approach.

Our Consulting team combines deep insurance sector experience, and expertise in risk, resilience, and sustainability, with practical experience in helping firms to assess and develop their approaches to supplier risk management.

We recognise that each business is different, and we collaborate with our clients to identify tailored enhancements and create solutions that maximise value.

Our key services

Framework development and integration

Supporting you to develop a robust supplier management framework that is fit for purpose or integrating new requirements into existing approaches to meet your company’s objectives and regulatory obligations.

Effectiveness review

While most companies have supplier management processes in place, many have struggled to embed a consistently effective approach. We can help you to identify gaps and make recommendations to establish a robust but proportionate methodology that meets broad requirements and can be added to over time.

Integrating sustainability

Providing integrated support operating your supplier risk management framework, or targeted support delivering specific processes within your third-party risk management (TPRM) lifecycle.

Please contact Justin Elks, or your usual Crowe contact for more information.