Top 5 Features to look for in a TPRM Tool That Help Prevent Third-Party Vendor Breaches

4 minute read

June 2025

by ProcessUnity Research

Third-party vendor breaches are escalating at an alarming rate. In 2023, 61% of organizations reported experiencing a third-party data breach or cybersecurity incident in the past year — marking a 49% increase from 2022.

As third-party ecosystems grow more complex and interconnected, the stakes have never been greater. According to IBM, the global average cost of a data breach reached an all-time high in 2024, peaking at $4.88 million — a 10% spike from the previous year.

The right third-party risk management (TPRM) platform uses data and impactful technology advances to transform your approach from reactive damage control to proactive risk prevention. This blog explores five critical features your TPRM tool must have to prevent vendor breaches, protect your organization, and effectively manage each phase of the third-party risk management lifecycle.

Why Your TPRM Platform Choice Matters More Than Ever

When a third-party breach occurs, the ripple effects extend far beyond immediate financial losses. Organizations face:

  • Business disruption that can last weeks or months
  • Customer trust erosion that takes years to rebuild
  • Regulatory penalties that compound financial damage
  • Competitive disadvantage from operational delays
  • Supplier and partner damage and distrust from other businesses connected to your systems

A robust TPRM platform doesn’t just manage risks — it prevents them from becoming incidents. By leveraging advanced automation, real-time monitoring, and predictive analytics, modern TPRM tools empower your team to identify vulnerabilities before they’re exploited.

Top 5 TPRM Platform Features That Stop Breaches Before They Start

1. Automated Assessment Workflows

The Problem: Manual vendor assessments create bottlenecks that delay onboarding and leave gaps in your security posture.

The Solution: Intelligent automation and AI-powered assessment tools transform workflows from time-consuming manual processes into streamlined, consistent evaluations.

Modern TPRM platforms with automated workflows can reduce onboarding cycle times by up to 85%, eliminating administrative bottlenecks while ensuring comprehensive risk evaluation.

Key Benefit: Your risk team shifts from administrative tasks to strategic risk mitigation, while AI-powered evidence and documentation evaluation tools identify patterns and anomalies that human reviewers might miss.

2. Continuous Monitoring Capabilities

The Problem: Point-in-time assessments provide outdated snapshots in a rapidly evolving threat landscape.

The Solution: Real-time monitoring provides continuous visibility into your third-party’s security posture, catching changes as they happen.

Key Benefit: Instead of learning about third-party issues after they impact your business, you receive immediate alerts that enable proactive response and mitigation.

3. Integrated Risk Scoring

The Problem: Without proper risk-based third-party tiering, organizations either over-monitor low-risk vendors or under-monitor high-risk ones, wasting resources and missing critical threats.

The Solution: Sophisticated inherent risk scoring systems automatically prioritize your attention and resources where they matter most.

Key Benefit: Your team focuses intensive monitoring on third parties that pose the greatest risk, while maintaining appropriate oversight of lower-risk relationships.

4. Regulatory Compliance Mapping

The Problem: Keeping pace with evolving regulations across multiple jurisdictions creates compliance gaps that expose organizations to penalties and operational disruptions.

The Solution: Automated compliance mapping technology ensures all third parties meet required standards while adapting to regulatory changes in real-time.

Key Benefit: Maintain regulatory compliance across your entire third-party ecosystem without needing to manually track compliance, reducing the risk of penalties and operational disruptions.

5. Incident Management

The Problem: When third-party incidents occur, slow vulnerability response times amplify damage and extend recovery periods.

The Solution: Integrated threat and vulnerability management capabilities enable rapid detection, assessment, and response to third-party security events.

Key Benefit: Transform incident response times from months to days or hours, minimizing business impact and containing potential damage.

Choosing the Right TPRM Platform

Beyond the five essential platform features, successful TPRM implementation requires careful evaluation of platform capabilities and customizations that align with your specific needs.

Additional pieces to look for:

  • Scalability: Can the platform grow with your third-party ecosystem? Look for solutions that handle increasing third-party volumes without requiring more spend.
  • Integration Capabilities: Does the platform connect seamlessly with your existing security stack? Effective TPRM requires data sharing across GRC tools, SIEM systems, and other enterprise platforms.
  • Configurability: Can you customize assessments, workflows, and risk criteria without extensive technical resources? Built-in configuration tools reduce implementation time and ongoing maintenance costs.
  • User Experience: Will your team actually use the platform effectively? Intuitive interfaces reduce training time and increase adoption across your organization.
  • AI-Driven Insights: Does the platform successfully leverage machine learning and GenAI to identify risks and trends that traditional analysis might miss?
  • Reporting Capabilities: Can you generate board-ready reports and stakeholder updates quickly? Real-time reporting keeps leadership informed and demonstrates program value.

Platform Comparison Framework: Quickly See How Your Platform Stacks Up

When evaluating TPRM platforms, use this framework to assess how well each solution meets your requirements:

Capability Essential Requirements Advanced Features
Automation Workflow automation, questionnaire distribution AI-powered risk analysis, predictive scoring
Monitoring Real-time alerts, threat intelligence Deep web monitoring, financial tracking
Risk Scoring Multi-factor scoring, customizable frameworks Predictive modeling, peer benchmarking
Compliance Major framework support, gap analysis Regulatory change monitoring, evidence automation
Incidents Detection and escalation workflows Response automation, recovery tracking

Take Control of Your Third-Party Risk with the Complete TPRM Solution

The right TPRM platform transforms third-party risk from a business liability into a competitive advantage. By implementing these five essential features, you’ll shift from reactive incident response to proactive risk prevention.

Organizations that invest in comprehensive TPRM solutions see measurable improvements in:

  • Reduced breach frequency and impact
  • Faster third-party onboarding without security compromises
  • Improved regulatory compliance and audit readiness
  • Enhanced stakeholder confidence in risk management capabilities
  • Lower total cost of risk across the third-party lifecycle

The question isn’t whether you can afford to invest in advanced TPRM capabilities — it’s whether you can afford not to.

Ready to Transform Your Third-Party Risk Management?

Discover ProcessUnity’s all-in-one TPRM platform for true end-to-end third-party risk management. Streamline workflows, access AI-powered assessment tools, minimize the impact of third-party vendor breaches, and take charge of your security throughout the vendor lifecycle.

Learn more about our solutions here or contact us for a personalized consultation.

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About Us

ProcessUnity is a leading provider of cloud-based applications for risk and compliance management. The company’s software as a service (SaaS) platform gives organizations the control to assess, measure, and mitigate risk and to ensure the optimal performance of key business processes. ProcessUnity’s flagship solution, ProcessUnity Vendor Risk Management, protects companies and their brands by reducing risks from third-party vendors and suppliers. ProcessUnity helps customers effectively and efficiently assess and monitor both new and existing vendors – from initial due diligence and onboarding through termination. Headquartered outside of Boston, Massachusetts, ProcessUnity is used by the world’s leading financial service firms and commercial enterprises. For more information, visit www.processunity.com.