5 Advantages of Outsourcing Third-Party Risk Management Tasks

Podcast Transcript

Hi - this is Hilary with Venminder. 

In this podcast, you'll learn five benefits of outsourcing third-party risk management processes and activities.

Here at Venminder, our team of industry experts have a lot of experience and understand the best ways to perform effective and efficient third-party risk management.

Third-party risk management involves many activities that can take up a lot of your team's time and resources. Vendor risk is always changing, and the more vendors you have, the more work there is to do, and that can begin to feel really overwhelming, especially for smaller teams. So, to ease the burden, your organization may want to consider outsourcing components of your third-party risk management program to experienced industry professionals. Whether you’re implementing software or outsourcing whole processes, partnering with a third-party risk management services organization has many benefits.

Let's Discuss five of these benefits and how outsourcing could help your organization: 

1. First, it can help you meet regulatory requirements. Legislators and regulators constantly update their guidelines and policies, and your organization must comply. When you outsource your third-party risk management, you're enlisting the services of experts with a thorough and comprehensive understanding of those requirements and who have the risk assessment tools and knowledge to determine if your vendors are compliant.
2. Second, you can automate tasks and processes. Many third-party risk management activities can be seen as time-consuming and tedious. There's a lot to keep track of and remember. Not only are manual processes inefficient, but they’re also very error prone. Third-party risk management software can help you automate processes such as tracking key dates and contract terms, due diligence collection, and ongoing monitoring activities.
3. Third, you can centralize processes and information. As your vendor list grows, so does the amount of data you need to track. A SaaS based third-party risk management tool can replace those outdated file cabinets and multiple spreadsheets by centralizing information in one repository, making it much easier to log and locate data.
4. Fourth, you can maximize your resources. Understaffed programs become easily overwhelmed by demanding workloads, which means important activities aren't getting done on time or even at all. By outsourcing, you can increase your program's capacity without necessarily hiring additional full-time employees. This will free up your team’s time a bit to focus on risk management priorities.
5. Last, but not least, it ensures expertise and increases efficiency. Becoming proficient in third-party risk management takes time, and not all teams are the same. No employee is capable of knowing everything, and an inexperienced staff member might be forced to handle third-party risk management activities without the necessary expertise. Inexperience can cause big gaps in certain areas, such as vendor risk assessments, which can lead to errors and unnecessary risk. Outsourcing to experienced professionals increases efficiency, quality, and confidence that third-party risks have been identified and mitigated.

When it comes to identifying and managing third-party risk, you can't be too careful. Outsourcing can be a viable solution for many organizations interested in addressing gaps and issues associated with their third-party risk management activities. Investing in outsourcing means taking advantage of industry expertise, maximizing your team's time and resources, centralizing your data, automating repetitive tasks, and complying with regulations.

Thank you for tuning in. Catch you next time!