Case Study • Technology & Consulting
From Six Months to Thirty Minutes: How Dayforce Rebuilt Third-Party Risk Management Around Predictive Data
Dayforce, a global provider of HR, payroll, and workforce management software, replaced slow, self-reported vendor reviews with predictive data from ProcessUnity Risk Index and the ProcessUnity Global Risk Exchange. Its annual Tier 1 assessment dropped from six months to about 30 minutes, and a team of five now manages more than 4,000 vendors without adding headcount.
Global Technology & Consulting · Global
~30 min
Tier 1 Assessment Time
Down from 6 months
2 weeks
Assessment Lifecycle
Down from months
4000+
Vendors Managed
By a team of 5 analysts
1
Unified Program
Cyber + privacy combinedIndustry
Technology & Consulting
Region
Global
Size
9,000+ employees
Regulators
Data Privacy & Security Oversight
Assessment Framework
Predictive data, external risk scanners, and vendor-validated Exchange profiles
Products in Use
The Challenge
Assessment data that couldn’t keep pace with technology risk.
Giles Witherspoon-Boyd, Senior Manager of Cyber Risk at Dayforce, leads the team responsible for Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM). His group owns cyber due diligence and partners with the business on privacy and resiliency. The program evolves constantly: Dayforce’s 24-page standard operating procedure gets revisited every month.
“A technology year is no longer matched up with a normal calendar year,” he says. “Iterations of technology move so quickly that you have to watch companies almost in real time. A SOC report doesn’t do that.”
As a former Qualified Security Assessor (QSA), Witherspoon-Boyd knew the limits of traditional vendor evidence firsthand.
Slow, manual assessments
The annual Tier 1 assessment took six months of back-and-forth, a process he called “an email monster.”
Unreliable self-reported data
Vendors could change assessment answers only weeks after the initial attestation.
Point-in-time reports
SOC reports weren’t built to validate security or privacy controls, and couldn’t keep pace with technology risk.
Lean team, growing vendor base
Five analysts needed to cover more than 4,000 vendors.
Siloed risk domains
Separate cyber and privacy programs meant asking vendors overlapping questions.
Dayforce needed a credible, predictive source of truth that could scale without adding headcount.
Why ProcessUnity
A predictive data layer proven to hold up under real scrutiny.
Four years ago, Witherspoon-Boyd ran a structured evaluation. He put five companies, including Dayforce itself, through several AI-driven predictive risk tools, then contacted each company to ask whether the results reflected reality. ProcessUnity’s predictive data held up where the competing tools fell short, and that evaluation became the foundation of Dayforce’s current program.
In his words: “I like predictive better than the analytic scores, and I like that better than when someone fills out an assessment. You can’t fudge it, but you can answer in an assessment and change the true data.”
- A validated predictive data source. Predictive results matched what the evaluated companies confirmed about their own security posture.
- Dynamic vendor routing. Each vendor’s Global Risk Exchange profile determines how much additional information Dayforce needs and which assessment tier applies.
- Audit-defensible evidence. Predictive and validated Exchange profiles stand up as assessment evidence.
- Combined signals. Exchange data works alongside RiskRecon and Recorded Future signals in one platform.
- A model built to extend. The same approach scales from cyber to privacy and other risk domains.
Implementation
One connected pipeline, not a patchwork of tools.
Dayforce runs its program on the ProcessUnity TPRM Platform, the ProcessUnity Global Risk Exchange, and ProcessUnity Risk Index. New vendors flow in from Dayforce’s procurement software, and each vendor’s Exchange profile, based on its ProcessUnity Risk Index score and vendor-validated responses when available, determines the next step.
“For every new vendor, we pull their Exchange profile into the Platform,” says Witherspoon-Boyd. Then we get a look at who we’re dealing with, and decide if they can skip ahead, or if we want to ask them questions about things we see that are wrong. I don’t want to blanket-send everyone questions.”
- Predictive ProcessUnity Risk Index data as the primary evidence source. Predictive data is the backbone of the assessment process, not a supplement to it.
- Layered signals from multiple sources. RiskRecon and Recorded Future signals feed the Platform alongside Exchange data, flagging exactly which vendors need attention.
- Cyber and privacy mapped to shared controls. Inherent Risk Questionnaire (IRQ) responses map directly to both cyber controls and privacy assessment questions.
- Exchange profiles as visible feedback. Dayforce shares Exchange profiles and ProcessUnity Risk Index scores with vendors so they see where they stand and what to fix.
Implementation Timeline
Initial Evaluation
Predictive tools tested against real outcomes at five companies. ProcessUnity’s data held up.
Year One
Annual Tier 1 assessment time dropped from about six months to about 30 minutes.
Ongoing
Privacy joined the same workflow, automation expanded, and one analyst became the team’s in-house ProcessUnity expert.
The result is a single, continuously updated view of vendor risk. Procurement intake, assessment, and ongoing monitoring all pull from the same underlying data instead of living in separate systems.
Outcomes & Impact
A faster, audit-accepted foundation for Third-Party Risk Management.
Six months to 30 minutes
The annual Tier 1 assessment now takes about 30 minutes, and the full vendor lifecycle runs about two weeks or less.
Audit-accepted data
Dayforce’s auditors accept Exchange profiles, RiskRecon, and Recorded Future signals as assessment and monitoring evidence.
Scaled without headcount
A team of five manages more than 4,000 vendors.
One program, every domain
Cyber and privacy share one workflow and one set of mapped controls.
What Changed at Dayforce
Audit acceptance, backed by a full stack of signals
Witherspoon-Boyd made the case directly: a vendor’s Exchange profile, predictive or validated, is an assessment. His auditors agreed. Now, Dayforce’s audit defensibility rests on continuously updated evidence, not a point-in-time report.
“Tell me what question you’re going to ask that’s going to be better than the data I’m getting. I’ve never had anyone give me an answer.”
Giles Witherspoon-Boyd, Senior Manager of Cyber Risk, Dayforce
Analysts focused on judgment, not triage
Automated routing and shared cyber and privacy mapping take manual triage off the team. Analysts spend their time investigating high-risk relationships instead of clearing low-risk vendors from a queue.
“I don’t have a team of 20 people to handle our over 4,000 vendors. I do it with a team of five.”
Giles Witherspoon-Boyd, Senior Manager of Cyber Risk, Dayforce
Vendors and stakeholders who engage differently
Dayforce uses Exchange profiles and ProcessUnity Risk Index scores as direct, visible feedback for vendors, prompting those with low scores to improve their ratings. Internal stakeholders clearly understand what’s expected of vendors, and prospects find a TPRM program that holds up under scrutiny.
“We’re able to show them the data about them that exists for all to see, and it’s making the needle move on vendor data and responses.”
Giles Witherspoon-Boyd, Senior Manager of Cyber Risk, Dayforce
Data that drove a real-world save
Using signals surfaced through ProcessUnity, Witherspoon-Boyd warned a partner they were at risk of a data breach. The breach happened not long after.
“That’s the value. I was able to demonstrate that the data should be acted on, and show the value internally that I can do this job with the resources I have.”
Giles Witherspoon-Boyd, Senior Manager of Cyber Risk, Dayforce
What’s Next for Dayforce
We’re moving into different markets that require more governance, and our TPRM program takes more center stage. We’ve been able to use these tools to focus those budgets. I’m using tools and AI and predictive to make it work. It has to be repeatable and make sense. Our whole program is about that concept. It’s repeatable. It makes sense. It’s auditable.
Giles Witherspoon-Boyd
Senior Manager of Cyber Risk, Dayforce
Net Result
Dayforce moved beyond slow, self-reported assessments to a predictive, audit-accepted foundation for Third-Party Risk Management that scales to more than 4,000 vendors without added headcount.
At a Glance
Customer profile and program scope.
Industry
Technology & Consulting
Region
Global
Size
9,000+ employees
Regulators
Data Privacy & Security Oversight
Assessment Framework
Predictive data, external risk scanners, and vendor-validated Exchange profiles
Products in Use
See the ProcessUnity Platform in Action.
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