A Global Cosmetic Group’s Third-Party Due Diligence Digital Transformation

Is one of your third parties keeping you up at night?

Executive Summary

A leading global cosmetic group faced significant challenges in managing its third-party due diligence process. With up to 400 third-party engagement requests and 300 reputation risk reviews processed annually (including renewals), the company struggled with decentralised operations, language barriers, prolonged due diligence cycles, and resource strain.

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The Challenge

Decentralised Operations: Lack of centralisation resulted in inefficient resource allocation and inconsistent practices. 

Local Language Barriers: Documentation submitted by local markets is often in the local language, resulting in confusion from being lost in translation.

Extended Due Diligence Cycles: The process took three times longer than desired, impeding timely business deals, with renewal of existing vendors taking a particularly long time to be initiated.

Resource Strain: The high volume of requests overwhelmed internal resources.

The Solution

The company partnered with Rule, a best-in-class third-party due diligence provider, to overhaul its processes. Rule implemented a comprehensive solution that included:

Centralised Processing: All due diligence requests were routed through a single, streamlined system. This was possible as Rule was able to provide multi-lingual and multi-jurisdictional support.

Standardised Procedures: Established consistent global standards for risk assessment.

Dedicated Team: Assigned specialised analysts with additional language skills to handle the company’s due diligence requests.

The Result

The partnership with Rule yielded the following results:

Efficiency Gains

  • Due diligence cycle time reduced by 75%, from 30 days to an average of 7 days for high-risk third parties and within 1 day for low risk ones.
  • 98% of all requests processed within agreed service level agreements (SLAs)

Risk Reduction:

  • The number of third parties triaged to follow the high-risk anti-corruption due diligence process increased by 60%, enhancing overall risk management 
  • 100% compliance with regulatory requirements achieved across all regions 

Resource Optimization:

  • Scalable team 
  • Internal resource allocation for due diligence reduced by 50%

Business Impact:

  • 50% reduction in deal delays due to faster due diligence processes and effective communication with requesters and vendors.
  • 25% increase in approved third-party engagements, supporting business growth

Conclusion

By partnering with Rule, the global cosmetic group improved its third-party due diligence process, achieving significant efficiency gains, risk reduction, and enhanced compliance. The streamlined approach not only saved resources but also supported timely business deals and growth. This case study demonstrates the power of outsourcing to a specialised provider in revolutionising third-party risk management.

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