Alignment vs. Excellence: Achieving Third-Party Compliance Maturity

April 5th, 2024 Hannah Tichansky Reading Time: 3 minutes
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Going beyond simply aligning with compliance requirements to achieving third-party risk management (TPRM) excellence requires dedication and time. Organizations must commit to assuring TPRM compliance maturity across their extended enterprise by involving investment in people, ongoing training, and support from senior management. This strategy must also encompass operational excellence and the strategic use of technology to enhance efficiencies, diminish risks, and optimize costs.

It’s also imperative for organizations to commit themselves to continued review and improvement of their third-party compliance program. Organizations face the challenge of staying abreast of constantly changing laws, regulations, and stakeholder requirements.

This is quite the challenge, but it can be met with the proper framework and a dedicated compliance team.

Why Is a Third-Party Compliance Program Important?

Regardless of their industry, all organizations share a crucial goal: to forge an effective compliance program across their third-party ecosystem. While necessary, some businesses need more time, resources, and cross-functional collaboration to identify potential weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.

Yet, it’s an area that must be prioritized. An organization’s flexible shield in the business battleground is a healthy, adaptive TPRM program. As a strategic asset that safeguards the business against potential scandals and legal pitfalls related to third-party activities, it prioritizes the protection of the customer and the bottom line.

Not only does a mature TPRM program mitigate third-party compliance risks, but it also serves as a cornerstone of sustainable business success. A mature program gives the organization a positive reputation in the competitive landscape and reinforces its commitment to ethical standards and corporate integrity.

What Is a TPRM Compliance Maturity Model?

TPRM compliance maturity across the extended enterprise means having standard processes and operating procedures that help corporations:

  • Respond quickly to threats
  • Keep up with regulatory changes
  • Handle workloads efficiently
  • Ensure productive collaboration with stakeholders

Developing a maturity model in alignment with TPRM is the best thing an organization can do to maintain and constantly evolve their programs to ensure third-party compliance of all applicable laws, regulations, customer requirements, etc.

This won’t look the same for every business, as a small diner will have significantly different compliance requirements to adhere to than a large software company, which is why organizations need to take a proactive role in developing TPRM processes that can be extended to their larger third-party enterprise. It is also important to regularly review and update it to account for new trends, concerns, and business objectives.

Building Blocks of a Mature Third-Party Program

You must build a mature TPRM program that ensures compliance within third parties and their activities. Let’s take a look at the various elements that organizations need to take into account:

  • Defined Processes: TPRM processes involving compliance should involve carefully planned and documented procedures that employees, suppliers, and stakeholders understand. These processes must have enough flexibility to evolve and grow as regulations, business climate, vendor relationships, and the organization change.
  • Technology: The right technology can make or break an organization’s TPRM program. An organization can do everything else correctly, but they won’t reach full maturity without the ability to automate certain aspects of their compliance program.

Organizations can assure compliance across their third parties by selecting a centralized platform to manage all of their compliance data rather than working with many programs. An automated system removes friction, provides a single source of records for all third-party data, and gives detailed reports on real-time analytics.

  • Analytics & Reporting: All third-party compliance data must be collected and analyzed in one centralized system to drive meaningful insights and make confident, data-driven decisions. Focus must be placed on mitigating risks, anticipating new ones, and understanding where new ones emerge.
  • Business Value: While maintaining full compliance is essential, it’s also crucial to understand how an organization’s program affects its perceived value by those inside the organization and the organizations who contract with them.

Find Solutions to Exceed Expectations

All organizations want to attain their goals and exceed expectations to become a leader in their industry. The business landscape is tough and often fraught with challenges, but companies can meet these challenges with the right solutions.

Organizations can make the process easier by implementing automation where appropriate and finding an all-in-one software to gather, store, and analyze third-party data all in one place, making strategic decisions across different business objectives.

Speak with one of Aravo’s experts today to learn more about our TPRM solutions.

Hannah Tichansky

Hannah Tichansky is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at Aravo Solutions, the market’s smartest third-party risk and resilience solutions, powered by intelligent automation. At Aravo, she manages all content and thought leadership produced for products and campaigns, and contributes as an author for articles and blog posts.

Hannah holds over 12 years of writing and marketing experience, with 6 years of specialization in the risk management, supply chain, and ESG industries. Hannah holds an MA from Monmouth University and a Certificate in Product Marketing from Cornell University.

Hannah Tichansky is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at Aravo Solutions, the market’s smartest third-party risk and resilience solutions, powered by intelligent automation. At Aravo, she manages all content and thought leadership produced for products and campaigns, and contributes as an author for articles and blog posts.

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