ECOVIS Al Sabti: The evolving landscape of third-party risk management

As organizations grow more dependent on external partners, vendors, and service providers, their risk landscape is becoming more dynamic and complex. To effectively monitor, assess, and mitigate these risks, putting in place a third-party risk management framework is key, write experts from ECOVIS Al Sabti.

The capability to continuously monitor, assess, and mitigate third-party risks is essential to protect organizational integrity, ensure data privacy & security, and maintain operational resilience.

Yet in the current complex and changing stakeholder landscape, that capability is shifting from a simple due diligence exercise to a continuous process of vigilance and oversight. Today, third-party risk management requires a proactive and strategic approach, to ensure that relationships with third parties align with an organization’s risk appetite and long-term objectives.

Key Challenges with Third-Party Risk Management

Lack of Visibility
Many organizations face difficulties in managing the risks posed by third parties centrally. Often, third-party risks are handled in a fragmented manner, leading to suboptimal results. Efforts to mitigate these risks can sometimes be seen as obstacles to progress rather than value-adding initiatives.

Monitoring Ongoing Due Diligence
Ongoing monitoring of third parties’ post-contract can be challenging. Many organizations lack the resources needed to consistently assess risk over the lifecycle of a third-party relationship.

Geographical Differences
For multinational organizations, managing third-party risks becomes more challenging when working with vendors across different regulatory environments, cultures, and legal systems. Ensuring consistent risk management practices globally becomes complex.

Complex Vendor Ecosystems
Managing numerous third-party relationships in a large, interconnected ecosystem presents significant challenges. Complex vendor networks with multiple layers of subcontracting increase the difficulty of tracking and assessing the risks of every vendor involved.

Inconsistent Risk Appetite
Aligning third-party risk management processes with the organization’s risk appetite can be challenging. Some third parties may operate under different risk thresholds, making it hard to maintain consistency across the organization.

The third-party risk offering of ECOVIS Al Sabti

Leveraging our specialized expertise and operational capabilities, we help clients in enhancing their third-party risk management posture, enabling them to demonstrate the strength of their processes without disrupting business operations.

To better support our clients, we have developed a comprehensive and integrated framework designed to meet the needs of all industries.

Our TPRM programs deliver a comprehensive, integrated view, enabling a company-wide perspective on third-party risks. The framework spans all kinds of risks, from strategic and financial to operational and legal.