[author: Michael Rasmussen]
The structure and reality of business has changed. Traditional brick-and-mortar business is a thing of the past – physical buildings and conventional employees no longer define the organization. Instead, modern organizations are an interconnected web of relationships, interactions, and transactions that extend far beyond traditional business boundaries. Further, organizations rely on relationships with suppliers, vendors, outsourcers, service providers, contractors, consultants, temporary workers, brokers, agents, dealers, intermediaries, partners, and more, for critical operations. Even the smallest organization can have dozens of relationships they depend on for goods, services, processes, and transactions. In large organizations, this can expand to tens of thousands of third-party relationships with suppliers, vendors, partners, and service providers.
With businesses increasingly relying on a complex network of third-party relationships to thrive, the governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) of third-party relationships is even more critical. Without effective GRC, organizations will fail to manage uncertainty, avoid disruptions,…
