Governance and Policy ManagementFrom Chaos to Control: Restructuring Vendor Risk Management with Complyan
Third-party risk management is the process of identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks that arise from partnerships with external vendors or service providers. These risks span multiple domains, including cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, financial stability, reputational impact and every aspect relevant to a business.
With more and more dependence on external services, TPRM is no longer just an operational task—it is a critical business function. As organizations rely more and more on external vendors for services, managing the associated risks has grown increasingly complex. Traditional methods of TPRM often involve spreadsheets, manual tracking, and disparate tools that fail to provide considerable insights or scalable solutions. That’s where Complyan steps in to revolutionize the way organizations assess and mitigate vendor risks.
Why is TPRM Critical?
- Rising Supply Chain Attacks: Cybercriminals increasingly target supply chains as an entry point into larger organizations, exploiting vulnerabilities in third-party systems and processes.
- Regulatory Requirements: Frameworks such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, and NIST demand documented vendor risk assessments, making TPRM essential for audit readiness and avoiding hefty fines.
- Operational Disruptions: Vendor failures, such as data breaches or service outages, can disrupt business operations which can lead to financial losses and severely impact the business negatively.
- Reputational Damage: Incidents stemming from third-party vulnerabilities tarnish customer trust and damage an organization’s brand.
- Lack of Direct Control Over Vendors: Unlike internal processes, third-party operations are outside an organization’s immediate control meaning that robust oversight mechanisms to manage risks effectively must not be underemphasized.
- Increasing Complexity of Vendor Ecosystems: As organizations partner with multiple vendors and sub-contractors, managing their associated risks without a structured approach becomes overwhelming.
- Sensitive Data Exposure: Third parties often handle sensitive customer and business data, increasing the risk of unauthorized access, leaks, or misuse if not properly managed.
- Global Supply Chain Dependencies: With globalization, businesses rely on vendors from various regions with differing compliance and risk standards, creating additional challenges in maintaining consistency and oversight.
- Competitive Advantage: Demonstrating a robust TPRM process enhances an organization’s credibility, making it more attractive to customers, partners, and investors.
- Audit and Certification Preparedness: A well-managed TPRM system ensures readiness for audits and certifications, which are often prerequisites for business growth and market entry in regulated industries.
Traditional TPRM Methods and their Shortcomings
Businesses usually have a couple of methods for managing vendors and third parties and even if they are effective, they come with significant limitations. One of these methods is the utilization of vendor questionnaires.
Vendor questionnaires are detailed surveys sent to third-party vendors, asking them to self-appraise and report their security practices, compliance status, and risk management processes. These questionnaires are often tailored to specific regulatory requirements, such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, or GDPR, and cover areas like data protection, access control, and incident response. These are no doubt way better than onsite assessments which often involve physically visiting a vendor’s facility to inspect their processes, infrastructure, and security controls firsthand. The issue however is managing responses from dozens or even hundreds of vendors. There usually is an unreal volume of questionnaires to track since each vendor may hand in multiple questionnaires and tracking the distribution, completion and review of hundreds of questionnaires simultaneously can quickly overwhelm even the most organized compliance teams.
In addition, responses come in at different times, in various formats (e.g., PDFs, emails, spreadsheets), creating fragmented data that can be difficult to analyze or centralize for decision-making leading to an unplanned lack of visibility across responses.
Without a centralized tool to store and manage responses, teams risk duplicating efforts when dealing with overlapping vendor relationships as in cases where one vendor supporting multiple business units might receive multiple questionnaires.
Complyan’s Capability
Complyan offers a modern, automated, and centralized solution to address the shortcomings of traditional TPRM methods while incorporating modern and evolving technologies. How?
a. Centralized Vendor Management: Traditional methods lack a single source of truth for vendor data. Complyan provides a centralized dashboard that consolidates all vendor information, including onboarding status, compliance metrics, and risk levels.
Figure 1: Supplier Risk Management Dashboard
Figure 2: Vendor Management
b. Automated Questionnaire Management: Manually distributing and tracking vendor questionnaires is cumbersome and error-prone. Complyan automates the creation, distribution, and tracking of questionnaires tailored to regulatory frameworks such as ISO 27001, NIST and SOC 2.
Figure 3: Questionnaire Management
c. Advanced Analytics and Reporting: Traditional methods fail to provide actionable insights or visualizations for decision-making. Complyan offers dynamic analytics, such supplier groups (e.g software vendors, software providers etc), deadlines and progress tracking.
Figure 4: Analytics (1)
Figure 5: Analytics (2)
d. Proactive Risk Mitigation: Without real-time monitoring, risks often remain unaddressed until audits or incidents occur. Complyan’s automated alerts flag non-compliance and critical risks, enabling proactive mitigation.
e. Scalability and Efficiency: Traditional methods struggle to scale as vendor numbers grow. Complyan’s workflows are designed to handle hundreds of vendors seamlessly, automating repetitive tasks and reducing manual effort.
The table below summarizes the key differences between traditional methods and Complyan:
Aspect | Traditional Methods | Complyan |
Vendor Data Management | Decentralized, manual tracking | Centralized dashboard with real-time updates |
Questionnaire Distribution | Manual emails, no tracking | Automated, customizable workflows |
Risk Analytics | Static reports, limited insights | Dynamic dashboards with actionable insights |
Compliance Monitoring | Periodic, reactive | Continuous, proactive |
Scalability | Limited by manual processes | Designed to scale with vendor growth |
The Complyan Workflow
Step 1: Onboard Vendors Seamlessly
- Automatically invite vendors via email and track their onboarding progress.
- Statuses like “Waiting for Supplier Action” or “On-boarded” provide clarity on where each vendor stands.
Step 2: Tailored Vendor Assessments
- Assign specific questionnaires based on vendor type (e.g., cloud computing services, critical data processors).
- Align assessments with global standards like ISO, SOC, and NIST.
Step 3: Monitor Risk in Real-Time
- Use dashboards to track compliance levels, questionnaire responses, and vendor criticality.
- Visualize risks using intuitive charts to focus resources on high-risk vendors.
Step 4: Automate Remediation and Reporting
- Receive alerts for overdue questionnaires or non-compliant vendors.
- Generate reports to demonstrate compliance for audits and internal reviews.
Why Complyan is the Future of TPRM
Complyan doesn’t just improve third-party risk management, it transforms it. Complyan enables organizations to stay ahead of risks while meeting compliance requirements efficiently by automating key processes, providing real-time insights, and ensuring scalability. Traditional methods leave gaps that expose organizations to risk. Complyan fills these gaps with its centralized, automated, and data-driven approach, making it the ideal solution for modern businesses.
Ready to close the gaps in your third-party risk management process? Explore how Complyan can revolutionize your vendor oversight strategy. Contact us today!