Third–party risk management (TPRM) continues to be a focus area for both regulated and non-regulated entities alike in the operational resilience landscape. The reason being that third parties often introduce added risk to organizations outside the scope of their direct control.
Since the start of the global pandemic, we’ve seen how disruption can alter our third-party ecosystems. Risks that once seemed unlikely – such as global political instability, war, an increase in cyber and ransomware attacks, supply chain disruptions, and increased pressure from regulators – have all made it essential that organizations have better visibility into their vendor ecosystems. Given third parties support strategic and important business services, it is critical to ensure that your organization has its arms around the risks that come with them to ensure the resiliency of your own operations.
The Old Model of Third-Party Risk Management
Organizations who are managing their third-party risk in a manual state can face significant hurdles in their vendor onboarding and ongoing due diligence processes. Scanning the news, social media, and regulatory information can be time consuming for one vendor, let alone the hundreds of critical vendors that some organizations have. These teams often solely rely on vendor questionnaires where the third party may provide incomplete or even inaccurate information. Because the process can be time consuming, diligence screening is generally conducted one time at the point of onboarding. It is also important to remember that third-party risks can change over time, and without automation, you may be missing something critical.
Automate On-going Monitoring with Argos Risk and Fusion
Enter the new age of digital transformation by monitoring your vendor risk data that is tied to your critical business services in real time. The Fusion Framework® System™ software enables you to automate high–volume, low–value tasks that are associated with your vendor management tasks, freeing you up to work on more strategic projects. Additionally, investment in software can help you prove that your organization has taken defensible steps in the event a bad actor gets through your door.
Fusion has further advanced its TPRM capabilities by partnering with Argos Risk. This partnership allows our clients to integrate critical vendor data and risk intelligence, become empowered with a robust data foundation, and provide ongoing risk monitoring in a comprehensive dashboard. Argos Risk enables organizations to monitor and address risk of third-party entities by providing timely, relevant, and intelligent data to support effective risk management efforts for risk professionals to manage third-party risk at an advanced level.
The insights provided by our new third-party risk dashboards heighten business intelligence for your risk program, building resilience into your organization’s supply chain with increased visibility to proactively inform decisions and take necessary action.
Future-proof Your Ecosystem
If your organization is subject to prescriptive financial services requirements, you’re generally expected to monitor vendors based upon the risk that they present to your organization. If your organization does business within the financial services ecosystem, you’re expected to adhere to financial services third-party outsourcing requirements contractually – even if your organization is not directly regulated by the supervisory authority. In any of these situations, the penalties can be harsh, and the reputational damage of letting a nefarious third party through your door can be lasting.
Get Started with a Better Way to Manage Third-Party Risk
Are you leading your firm’s resilience and operational risk (including vendor risk management) initiatives?
Do you want a better way to demonstrate that you’re taking a risk–based approach to managing your third parties?
Do you want to be your organization’s third-party risk and resilience rock star?
Reach out to your Account Manager to learn more about Fusion’s new Argos Risk integration.
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