New Shared Assessments Resources for Complex Supply Chain Risk Management

The Shared Assessments Program, the member-driven leader in third party risk assurance, today issued “Complex Supply Chains – Gaining Visibility into Nth Party Governance,” a new best practices resource for Third Party Risk Management. This paper details the concerns and proactive measures around Nth parties that can be used to gain a holistic view and a tangible grasp of the viability, measurable scope, and practical impacts of the use of Nth parties – insight that is essential for robust TPRM.

“It’s important for organizations to think about the possibility of Nth parties and the risk they may impose from the very beginning of their outsourcing process,” notes Angela Davis Dogan, Founder & CEO of Davis Dogan Advisory Services, LLC. “This paper does a great job at offering some guidance on how to think about Nth parties and incorporate them in the organization’s risk management processes.”

Context is key. Practitioners need to closely consider what concerns need to be taken into account when they grapple with what risk each provider poses. To gain a stronger, more proactive and scalable means of improving visibility and transparency:

  1. Adopt a “Trust, but Verify” approach to risk intelligence.
  2. Conduct a higher level of assessment that goes deep across a wide breadth of services.
  3. Evaluate contracts from the product/service/systems level to assure controls are appropriate.
  4. Remain engaged with business units across the enterprise to heighten awareness of what is coming up on their radar.

The circular nature of supply chains impacts delivery and availability throughout the entire chain. Taking a proactive stance now will provide many opportunities, including being ready to respond to regulatory changes that are beginning to reverberate across industries.

About the Shared Assessments Program

As the only organization that has uniquely positioned and developed standardized industry resources to bring efficiencies to the market for enterprise risk management for more than a decade, the Shared Assessments Program has become the trusted source in third party risk assurance. Shared Assessments offers opportunities for members to address global risk management challenges through leadership, best practices, tools, training and special interest groups. Join the dialog with peer companies at www.sharedassessments.org.