One of the most challenging aspects of compliance is managing the level of risk inherent in third party relationships. As business processes become inter-connected with partners and critical corporate and client data are shared, the need to validate that proper controls are in place becomes more important. But measuring partner risk can be very time-consuming, requiring a lot of manual effort, and in many cases using tools that were not built to do the job.

Accuvant has developed third party risk management services to help automate the process of measuring partner risk. A laborious project-based approach, generally driven by questionnaires, spreadsheets and manual effort, can be made manageable and measurable through the use of the ControlPath Compliance Suite and the consulting services of the Accuvant Compliance Services practice.

Accuvant uses a five-step process:

• Service providers, partners and customers are enabled within the ControlPath tool.
• Controls are applied to each unique third party from
  ControlPath's extensive control libraries. Additional custom
  controls can also be created.
• Questionnaires are launched directly from ControlPath in order to measure third party compliance with requirements. Risks are tracked within ControlPath.
• Evidence and documentation are collected within ControlPath to create a single repository.
• Accuvant Compliance consultants are deployed to confirm
  findings and provide remediation recommendations to third
  parties.
   

This process is easily repeatable and will allow the organization to:

• View partner compliance status real-time through a dashboard interface
• Manage the ongoing risk status of each third party
• Easily manage the process of remediating control deficiencies at partners
• Reduce the overall cost of measuring third party compliance,
  required by many regulatory mandates

If you would like more information about Accuvant's compliance solutions, please email info@accuvant.com or contact our sales department at 1-800-574-0896.