Vendor-Provided Resources

The State of Third-Party Risk Management 2025 whitepaper provides an in-depth overview of the third-party risk management industry’s current focus, challenges, trends, and recommendations. 

This essential resource is packed with industry statistics and insights, giving you the critical information needed to make confident, informed decisions on topics such as: 

• Program size and structure

• Program investment 

• Vendor landscape 

• Vendor risk assessments and timing 

• Vendor due diligence questionnaires and documentation requirements 

• Third-party risk management metrics

• Fourth-party risk management

• Regulatory focus and exam/audit results

• Third-party risk management challenges

• Top vendor risks (such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence)

• Third-party risk management strategies

• Best practices for 2025

• Third-party risk management ROI

Selecting a new vendor can be an exciting yet daunting task. Your organization must identify the right product or service, assess vendor risks, collect due diligence documentation, and remediate any issues.  

Having a structured process simplifies decision-making and reduces the risks. Follow the steps outlined in this infographic to guide your process.

Download this infographic to learn:

• Key steps to follow

• Considerations for the vendor selection process

As AI becomes more prevalent in vendor products and services, it’s important to understand how to address these risks in your vendor contracts. Vendor AI risk will continue to grow and evolve, but with the right terms and provisions, your organization can better mitigate vendor AI risks.

Before beginning the process of drafting and negotiating the vendor contract with AI-specific language, take some time to plan out your strategy. In this infographic, learn considerations during contract planning and general contract provisions to protect your organization.

Download the infographic to learn:

• 4 vendor AI considerations during contract planning

• Vendor contract provisions to include

• Building an effective strategy

Third-party risk management (TPRM) governance documentation is the foundation for managing vendor relationships. The policy, program, and procedures define the rules, requirements, and expectations for your organizations TPRM program.

This eliminates ambiguity, clarifies stakeholder responsibility, and provides practical instructions for carrying out TPRM processes. These key documents are essential for any third-party risk management program.

Download the infographic to learn:

• What each document is

• The key elements of each document

• Important items to include in each document

High-risk and critical vendors require the most oversight in third-party risk management. While they're often treated interchangeably in organizations, there are several key differences between them.

Most critical vendors are high risk, but not all high-risk vendors are critical. To manage high-risk and critical vendors most effectively, it's important to understand the differences and know how to identify them.

Download the infographic to learn:

• High-risk vs critical vendors

• How to identify high-risk and critical vendors

• Examples of high-risk and critical vendors

Evolving vendor risks, new regulatory expectations, and dwindling budgets bring
challenges to vendor risk management (VRM) programs. Maintaining a successful VRM program can feel like an uphill battle, but with the right strategy your organization can establish a set of processes and procedures to effectively manage vendor risk. 

By incorporating the six elements outlined in the eBook, you can set your vendor risk management program up for success.

Download the eBook to learn:

• Six VRM elements to implement

• Tips to make each element successful

• Considerations to improve your VRM processes

Managing your vendor's performance is a critical step to ensure the vendor is following expectations and delivering products and services to your organization's standards. To accurately measure a vendor's performance, it's important to understand key metrics and strategies to track them. 

This toolkit covers strategies to create and maintain vendor performance metrics and how to use vendor scorecards to track and measure vendor performance. You'll also learn key steps to monitor a vendor's performance over time and how to address issues.

Download this toolkit for:

• eBook: How to develop vendor metrics, service level agreements, key performance indicators, and key risk indicators

• Template: An example of a vendor performance scorecard to use

• Infographic: Steps to monitor vendor performance and how to address issues

Effective third-party risk management requires organizations to identify third-party risks and take steps to mitigate them. But what if those risks change? What if there are new risks that weren't identified at the beginning of the third-party relationship? 

To stay on top of the ever-shifting third-party risk landscape, it's crucial for organizations to monitor risk on an ongoing basis. This isn't just a one-time process, but rather a series of activities that vary based on the third party's risk. 

Download the eBook to learn:

• Key onboarding activities to know before monitoring

• Questions to determine ongoing monitoring requirements

• Periodic and ongoing monitoring activities

• Roles and responsibilities for ongoing monitoring

• Best practices and helpful tips for implementing and improving ongoing monitoring

Mapping out your annual budget for your third-party risk management program can be challenging, especially if goals are unclear, there are competing priorities, or a lack of support from senior leadership. Developing a budget roadmap is one way to tackle these challenges by assessing your program's current status, how resources are used, and the resources needed to mature. 

This eBook will help you understand what to consider when estimating your third-party risk management budget, how to identify what resources are needed, and how to create a budget roadmap. 

Download the eBook to learn:

• Questions and examples to estimate your budget

• Benefits of a third-party risk management budget roadmap

• How to create a budget roadmap and best practices

Whenever your organization partners with a third-party vendor, it’s important to set certain quality standards for the product or service you’re purchasing. If your vendor isn’t meeting those standards, your organization could be dealing with issues like decreased productivity, added expenses, operational disruptions, and reputational damage. 

A vendor’s performance must be closely monitored and tracked to ensure it remains at the expected level outlined in the service level agreement (SLA). Tracking your vendor’s performance through key performance indicators (KPIs) helps ensure the vendor is meeting its SLA, which is an important element in managing third-party risk. 

Download the eBook to learn:

• How to use SLAs and KPIs in your third-party risk management program

• How to align SLAs and KPIs

• Tips and examples for effective SLAs and KPIs

Unlock the future of risk management with Supply Wisdom's DORA eBook! Dive into this essential guide that explores the transformative impact of the Digital Operational Resilience Act on banks, financial institutions, and ICT service providers.

Discover how to enhance your third-party risk management strategies while navigating compliance with ease. With a unified framework and clear legal guidelines, this eBook is your key to mastering data management, securing your supply chain, and staying ahead of cyber threats.

While most third-party risk management professionals understand it's essential to address and manage vendor risk, one crucial activity can be confusing or even neglected – ensuring vendors carry appropriate insurance coverage. Many organizations don't have the necessary knowledge on vendor insurance policies and coverage amounts.  

Understanding insurance can be challenging, as it involves navigating a range of state-specific regulations, complex policy language, and a wide range of coverage options. How can organizations better align their use of vendor insurance coverage as an actual risk mitigation technique?  

Download this eBook to learn:  

• Basic vendor insurance terms to know  

• Common commercial insurance types  

• Examples of which vendors should carry each insurance type  

• Vendor insurance considerations