Audience
The course is aimed at anyone responsible for providing assurance that appropriate governance and controls is being exercised over the management of third party suppliers. In addition this course will help risk managers, supplier managers and anyone else tasked with managing their business through an internal audit of third party management.
Prerequisites
None.
Duration
2 days.
This course is available on site only. Please call for details.
Course Objectives
Outsourcing to third parties is now deeply established and continues to grow in both good and bad economic times. The outsourcing of non core functions such as IT, HR and finance is common and the drivers include cost savings, access to world class capabilities, process efficiencies as well as strategic benefit through partnering.
Extensive reliance on third parties can provide a number of benefits and opportunities but also increases the risk profile of an organisation. A significant proportion of third party contracts do not go to term or fail to deliver for a variety of reasons.
The management of key third party relationships requires skills and resources that are often either scarce or too thinly spread. The challenge for the auditor is to fully understand the third party risk profile within their organisation and provide timely independent assurance to senior management that appropriate controls are being exercised by, and over, their suppliers.
The objectives of this course are to enable participants to:
- Understand why third party relationships fail.
- Perform a risk assessment for a third party relationship.
- Develop an assurance plan for the life of a major contract.
- Conduct a range of sourcing and supplier assurance reviews.
- Evaluate new deals, contracts and service level agreements.
- Integrate third party reviews into the annual audit plan.
This course includes hands on exercises, real life examples and case study material to illustrate the key points.
Course Content
The business risks posed by outsourcing and third party relationships.
The phases of the contract lifecycle and associated risks and key controls.
Industry trends and hot topics e.g. off-shoring, near-shoring, multi-sourcing.
The challenges posed by joint ventures and partnerships.
Key IT outsourcing risks such as performance, business continuity, security and data privacy.
The legal and regulatory environment as it affects third party arrangements.
Third party governance and control frameworks.
Third party management capability and sustainability.
Scope and conduct of assurance reviews:
• Supplier arrangements embedded within core business processes.
• Sourcing and supplier management functions and frameworks.
• New deals due diligence.
• Contractual clauses.
• Deep dive supplier controls assurance.
• Regular audits of key supplier arrangements.
• Service, supplier and commercial management.
A focused assurance programme mapped to the contract lifecycle.
Integrated assurance plans.
"Quick wins" for the auditor.
The course content can be tailored to run in-house and focus on specific client risk areas and requirements.