Due Diligence and Ongoing Monitoring

 View Only

  • 1.  Suppliers refusal to answer due diligence requests via a spend management/risk assessment portal or platform

    Posted 11-08-2023 11:42 AM

    We recently implemented a spend management and risk assessment platform. The change management with our suppliers has gone well for the most part. However, we've recently had two suppliers notify us that their legal departments to not allow them to complete our questionnaires via the tool. While part of me wants to respect the decision and assume they've taken a risk informed stance; it is creating challenges in our process, ability to drive workflow, calculate inherent and residual risk and eventually will be an audit finding.  I doubt we're the first company to face this and I'm interested in perspectives, effective challenges put back to suppliers, rationale for forcing then to use your tools or how your organization worked around it. TIA.



  • 2.  RE: Suppliers refusal to answer due diligence requests via a spend management/risk assessment portal or platform

    Posted 11-08-2023 11:52 AM

    I see this all of the time.  Some supplier such as FICO, First Data, Global Payments – TSYS & ProPay, etc. will not respond in a tool. I send them a list of the information/due diligence in an excel and tell them to send me the information and documentation via whatever secure method they prefer.  I think will upload the due diligence into our tool on their behalf.  All have complied in lieu of using the tool.  Hope this helps.

     

     

    Best regards,

     

    Mollie Schiffman, C3PRMP, CSMP, CTPRP

    SWBC Contract & Supplier Management,

    Third Party Risk, Manager






  • 3.  RE: Suppliers refusal to answer due diligence requests via a spend management/risk assessment portal or platform

    Posted 11-09-2023 11:03 AM
    Appreciate the reply. Thanks.
     
     
    Dave Pendroy | Risk Management



    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Suppliers refusal to answer due diligence requests via a spend management/risk assessment portal or platform

    This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous
    Posted 11-08-2023 12:30 PM
    This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous

    Unless you're a vendor's largest client, or one of the largest companies in the world, I'm not sure how you "force" another company to do something. (I've always wanted to be on a call between two of the ten largest companies in the world - just to hear how they negotiate with a near peer and not be able to stonewall everything.)

    It's unfortunate when companies aren't willing to use automated processes, but there are numerous (besides legal) reasons NOT to participate. Vendors have their own workflow efficiencies; we all count on those efficiencies when retaining third parties. Their methods of responding to the flood of questions they receive will have been worked out over time to be most efficient for ----themselves. That efficiency contributes to their overall value proposition for us.