7-part analysis of risk-monitoring solutions – Vendor profiles roundup and summary

Spend Matters PRO content brings you the most thorough analysis of vendors serving the procurement technology space. In August and September of 2022, our analysts came together to pool their knowledge of vendors that address risk. This collaboration resulted in a seven-part series covering the various types of risk that organizations face and the extent to which certain solution vendors can help them manage and mitigate these risk scenarios.

With part seven published, the series has come to a close. So, here’s a recap of the risk categories and the vendors our analysts considered.

Part 1: Financial Risk & Supplier Risk

The first part examines solutions that endeavor to determine the risk status of a supplier. Our analysts split their attention between vendors that solely monitor a supplier’s financial information to devise an overall risk score and vendors that provide insights into risks adjacent to financial risk, e.g., whether a supplier is on a watch list, how it stands with regard to labor compliance and if there are any injunctions written against it. Typically, these solutions are embedded within other risk products. The vendors this part covers are D&B (Dun & Bradstreet), RapidRatings, Credit Risk Monitor and LexisNexis.

Part 2: Supply Chain Risk

The second part moves from monitoring just suppliers to the supply chains emanating from them as well. Ideally, the vendors map the connections between suppliers and buyers as well as those suppliers to their own suppliers. Such surveillance should pick up external disruptions like natural disasters or civil unrest and alert the customer to any potential impact. Vendors often achieve this by drawing on data provided by government agency list integrations, third-party data feeds, semantic news monitoring and social network sentiment monitoring. The vendors this part covers are Everstream Analytics, Prewave, Resilinc and riskmethods.

Part 3: Supplier Management Non-Suites

The third part looks at solutions that target the supplier beyond the realm of risk. These solutions operate as applications within a suite and can — among other things — provide supplier profiles, ease the onboarding process and track performance. They often address a specific need, as opposed to serving as a holistic management system. However, they integrate with other solutions equally as often. The vendors covered in this part are APEX Analytix, Aravo, Procurence, Sourcemap and QAD Allocation.

Part 4: Supplier Management Suites

The fourth part covers vendors tackling the same issues seen in Part 3, but looks instead at vendors that supply suites, not niche applications. The vendors this part covers are Coupa, GEP, Ivalua, Jaggaer, Medius (Wax Digital), SAP Ariba and Zycus.

Part 5: Contract Risk Management

The fifth part turns from the potential risk posed by suppliers to risks that lie in unexamined contracts. Depending on one’s needs, the solutions offered here vary from simply identifying clauses and to scanning every enterprise contract when a new requirement comes into force to flag contracts that need remediation. The conceptual purpose of these solutions is to identify risks in contracts and to judge whether a contract meets an organization’s requirements. The vendors this part covers are Conga, DocuSign Insight, Icertis, LegalSifter and SirionLabs.

Part 6: Compliance/CSR Risk

The sixth part raises scenarios in which customers may have more niche desires for their suppliers; e.g., a certain level of diversity or sustainability. Some solutions track the level of diversity within a supplier while others track the degree to which suppliers comply with regulations like GDPR. In short, compliance and CSR risk refers to such a wide swathe of issues that there is not enough overlap between solutions for meaningful comparisons. However, all the vendors highlighted here address the need for corporate social responsibility. The vendors this part covers are Achilles, Avetta, EcoVadis, GRMS, Hellios, IntegrityNext and Transparency-One.

Part 7: Fraud Prevention & Services Procurement Risk

The seventh part ends the series by showcasing vendors that attempt to crack down on various forms of payment fraud or to monitor compliance to local regulations when procuring services. The former assists humans in discerning whether an invoice is fraudulent; some boast deep lists of valid businesses and others pool information to see discrepancies. The latter solution types can vary between those that pay a multinational contracted workforce properly, those that supply proper insurance coverage and those that keep payment costs from being unnecessarily high. The vendors this part covers are AppZen, Brightfield, Bunker, CXC Global and Oversight Systems.

To help our readers understand the relative strengths and weaknesses of risk-monitoring solutions, this Spend Matters PRO series looks at what we believe to be the major providers in each area and assesses each for its risk-monitoring data sources, the extent of its current coverage and its specific ability to address risk management areas.

This series is part of Spend Matters PRO offering (subscription-based). Spend Matters PRO gives the deepest analysis of procurement technology, solutions and vendors available in the market. Trusted by CPOs, consultants, investors and solution providers as their procurement technology intelligence partner, PRO members gain access to a wealth of current, in-depth Technology Provider Assessments, market outlooks and research briefs.

Use PRO to inform critical procurement technology and strategy decisions. Subscribe here or login to access all PRO content.