To be an effective third party manager today you have to be extremely risk intelligent, able to answer questions like:
- Who are all of the third parties we do business with and what products and services are they delivering?Which third parties are most important and why?
- Which third parties pose the most risk to the organization, why and how?
- Are third parties performing in accordance with the original agreed-upon terms? If not, what are they doing to improve?
- Is the financial wherewithal of any third party deteriorating such that they may go out of business unexpectedly? If so, what are our contingency plans? and
- Oh, by the way, are we fulfilling all of our obligations to comply with regulatory requirements around third party management?
It’s impractical, if not impossible, for one person to answer these questions without help from each business unit; the risk specialists in security, regulatory compliance, business continuity, and credit; purchasing and legal, finance, product management and even strategy. But to get this kind of help when you are first starting your program requires a lot of meetings, telephone calls, emails, and trading spreadsheets. This buries the team with work and there is little time to figure out what steps you can take to lighten the load while still making your third party governance program better.
This is where RSA Archer’s new Maturity Model initiative comes in. We have created maturity models around third party governance and all of our other solutions to help customers understand the critical capabilities of an effective and efficient program that can be facilitated through the use of Archer. The maturity models are an excellent self-assessment and can help you prioritize your initiatives and refresh your roadmaps. I encourage you to learn more about our maturity assessment initiative and how it might help you with your program.
The bonus… they are free of charge! So, schedule your assessment today by contacting your Archer Sales representative. Learn more about each of our maturity models through our white paper serieshttps://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-44019 !
