Businesses always have to be ready to mitigate the risks of unexpected behaviour from external parties.<\/p>\n
Most companies depend on a multitude of other entities for their business to function \u2013 including vendors, manufacturers, suppliers, agents, distributors, franchisees, and more.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, increased reliance on outside parties multiplies the challenges involved in building processes to effectively manage and mitigate the potential risks in these relationships.<\/p>\n
These risks include customers holding your company accountable for the actions of your partners, which could have dire consequences for your business.<\/p>\n
For example, your company could experience backlash from a third party\u2019s inferior-quality service, supply chain issues as a result of poor contingency planning, or data breaches resulting from inadequate security practices.<\/p>\n
One example of this is the recent data breach at a large credit services provider, which allegedly exposed the personal information of millions of South African banking customers.<\/p>\n
This event has sent banks into damage control, with customers confused and paranoid over whether they needed to change passwords to protect their accounts.<\/p>\n
Events like these could result in regulatory and legal violations, reputational damage, and financial volatility.<\/p>\n
The onus is on your business to be in the best possible position to survive the disruptions which manifest from third-party risks.<\/p>\n
While unfavourable outcomes cannot be predicted with complete certainty, businesses should be proactive in mitigating the possible risks these parties pose.<\/p>\n
However, the mitigating steps themselves should be subject to scrutiny, as in some circumstances it is the consequence of a consequence that bears a more significant impact than what was preceded.<\/p>\n
Whether it is the assessment of a risk or dissemination of a policy, there may be positive or negative knock-on effects that fall outside the ambit of intent.<\/p>\n
How you prepare for such consequences will determine their impact on your organisation\u2019s objectives.<\/p>\n
CURA\u2019s Enterprise and Operational Risk Management software solutions enable organisations to effectively and efficiently manage the risk of loss resulting from human error factors and external events.<\/p>\n
With CURA, organisations can create an automated, repeatable process that includes risk assessment and analysis, as well as the implementation of risk controls.<\/p>\n
As a result, businesses are better prepared to accept, mitigate, and avoid risk in their operations – even those that could arise from unintended consequences.<\/p>\n
These solutions are available as standalone applications or add-on modules to a more comprehensive implementation based on the\u00a0CURA Enterprise GRC Platform<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n With integrated reporting and dashboards, full audit support, and more, the\u00a0CURA Enterprise GRC Platform is the complete solution for governance, risk and compliance requirements.<\/p>\n