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During the onset of the Great Depression, tragedy touched the lives of countless families. I remember reading about the widespread job losses, illness, hunger, fear, and the overwhelming hardship that gripped so many across the United States and around the world.
One story that has always struck me more deeply than most from that era is the death of my great-great-grandfather, Marion Buford Davis, in Spartanburg, South Carolina in August of 1929. That day, while working for the railroad, Marion was killed by a fellow employee wielding an axe. The blow crushed his skull, leaving his wife, Sarah Moore Davis, my great-great-grandmother, a widow with five children. One of those children was my grandmother.
She would often share stories of her childhood and how she had to adapt to life without a father. The story that stays with me most is how she found comfort during those dark times. She and her sister, my great aunt, would escape to a place they called “The Grove,” an outdoor sanctuary where they played among the trees, flowers, and soft grass. They called it their “gloriette,” describing it as a magical place where their imaginations could soar and their sorrow could momentarily fade.
When my grandmother experienced an unexpected loss, it was through resilience and a strong sibling bond that she found moments of joy again, often in the comfort of their special gloriette.
Similarly, organizations face their own form of goodbyes when disengaging with third parties. Sometimes these decisions are planned and strategic, driven by cost inefficiencies, performance concerns, or the natural end of a contract. Other times, offboarding is sudden and disruptive, triggered by events such as data breaches, compliance failures, or geopolitical instability.
Regardless of the circumstances, how an organization manages the offboarding of a vendor or third party is just as important as how it initiated the relationship.
Offboarding third parties is a critical, yet often overlooked, stage in the third-party relationship lifecycle. If not handled carefully, it can carry significant operational, legal, financial, and reputational risks. To support a smooth and secure transition, there are several essential steps every organization should take.
The first step in an effective offboarding process is conducting a comprehensive contract and obligation review. Before severing ties, it’s vital to examine the vendor’s contract to determine whether all deliverables and services have been fulfilled. This includes verifying that any final payments or outstanding invoices are properly reconciled, and that any surviving contractual obligations such as indemnities, warranties, or confidentiality clauses are clearly understood and documented.
Taking the time to do this helps prevent legal disputes or financial penalties and ensures the organization remains in compliance with internal and external requirements.
Next, organizations must secure data, intellectual property, and sensitive information. This step cannot be overstated in its importance. Companies should ensure that any data previously shared with the third party is either securely returned or destroyed in accordance with the agreement and applicable data privacy laws. In parallel, access to proprietary systems, shared databases, cloud platforms, or internal portals must be revoked promptly and completely. This is where coordination between the third-party management, legal, and IT teams becomes crucial.
Failing to properly safeguard data at the time of offboarding could lead to serious breaches of security, confidentiality violations, or noncompliance with regulations like GDPR or CCPA.
The third step involves revoking both physical and digital access. If the vendor or third party had any on-site presence, such as keycards, facility access, hardware, or leased equipment, those items must be returned or deactivated. On the digital front, every login, credential, shared password, and API access point should be disabled. Organizations should also consider changing system passwords and conducting an audit to ensure that no points of entry remain open.
This process must be thorough to protect against unauthorized access that could result in data loss or operational disruption long after the relationship has ended.
Finally, the offboarding process should include a formal performance review and a lessons-learned session. As with any relationship, closure is important not just emotionally but operationally. Teams should assess the vendor’s performance over the duration of the engagement, gathering feedback from stakeholders across departments. What went well? What could have been improved? Were expectations clearly set and managed?
Documenting these insights helps refine future vendor selection, onboarding procedures, contract structures, and risk mitigation strategies. It also ensures that any red flags encountered during the relationship are not repeated with future third parties.
Just as my grandmother used her special gloriette to find strength and move forward after a loss, organizations too can demonstrate resilience during transitions, such as when terminating agreements with third parties.
At Aravo, we thoughtfully manage the offboarding stage through a dedicated initiation form and an associated workflow. These capture the official offboarding date, reason for termination, and key details about how the transition team will address any risks during and after the process.
As with any other process in Aravo, the collected inputs can be included in reports and visualized on dashboards. Additionally, every aspect of Aravo’s core offboarding capabilities is configurable, enabling customers to tailor the solution to their specific requirements.
Interested in learning more? Contact Aravo today!
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