The building blocks of any compliance program lay the foundations for a best practices compliance program. For instance, in the life cycle management of third parties, most compliance practitioners understand the need for a business justification, questionnaire, due diligence, evaluation, and contract compliance terms and conditions. However, as many companies mature in their compliance programs, the issue of third-party management becomes more important. It is also where the rubber meets the road of operationalizing compliance. It is also an area the DOJ specifically articulated in the 2020 Update that companies need to consider.

Managing your third parties is where the rubber meets the road in your overall third-party risk management program. You must execute this task. Even if you successfully navigate the first four steps in your third-party risk management program, those are in reality the easy steps. Managing the relationship is where the real work begins.

Three key takeaways:

1. Have a strategic approach to third-party risk management.
2. Rank third parties based on a variety of factors including compliance and business performance, length of the relationship, benchmarking metrics, and KPIs for ongoing monitoring and auditing.
3. Managing the relationship is where the real work begins.