How Shared Assurance Supports Procurement, TPRM, Cyber And ESG Teams

When each function manages assurance independently, the result is duplication, inconsistency, and frustration for both buyers and suppliers.

Shared assurance changes this by providing a single, validated evidence base that supports multiple teams at once - without forcing them into the same workflows or decisions.

A Shared Evidence Base, Different Expert Lenses

The goal of shared assurance is not to flatten roles or remove expertise.

Instead, it ensures that:

• All teams work from the same trusted supplier data

• Evidence is collected and validated once

• Each function applies its own judgement, thresholds, and escalation paths

This allows teams to collaborate more effectively - without compromising autonomy.

How Shared Assurance Supports Procurement Teams

Procurement teams are measured on speed to source, continuity of supply, and access to the right suppliers - while still being accountable for meeting risk, compliance, and assurance requirements.

Shared assurance supports procurement by:

• Accelerating sourcing and supplier onboarding by removing repeated due diligence checks at the point of tender or award

• Giving buyers access to pre-validated supplier information, enabling faster, more confident decisions

• Reducing back-and-forth with suppliers by centralising assurance documentation and keeping it up to date

• Allowing procurement to focus effort where it adds most value, prioritising high-risk, high-spend, or business-critical suppliers

Instead of acting as the go-between for suppliers, risk, cyber, and sustainability teams, procurement can run sourcing activities faster and more efficiently - confident that assurance requirements are already met and won’t delay award or onboarding.

How Shared Assurance Supports TPRM Teams

Third-party risk management teams need consistency, defensibility, and audit-ready evidence across the entire supplier lifecycle.

Shared assurance helps TPRM teams to:

• Apply consistent risk assessments across suppliers and business units

• Maintain clear audit trails without manual reconstruction

• Support proportionate, risk-based decision-making

• Demonstrate regulatory alignment across onboarding, monitoring, and review

TPRM becomes easier to scale when assurance is embedded into a shared framework rather than recreated for each supplier.

How Shared Assurance Supports Cyber And Information Security Teams

Third-party cyber risk is one of the fastest-growing attack vectors - and a single supplier weakness can quickly become a breach, incident, or headline.

Shared assurance supports cyber teams by:

• Identifying common security weaknesses across suppliers using consistent, standardised cyber evidence

• Providing visibility into supplier security posture, helping spot deterioration before it leads to an incident

• Freeing cyber teams to focus on prevention and response, rather than chasing evidence and documentation

Cyber teams gain confidence that supplier controls are understood and monitored - without becoming a bottleneck in onboarding, contract renewal, or remediation activity.

How Shared Assurance Supports ESG And Sustainability Teams

Sustainability teams are under pressure to demonstrate real progress, using supplier data that is often inconsistent, incomplete, and difficult to compare.

Shared assurance enables ESG teams to:

• Collect reliable, standardised sustainability and ethical data that allows fair comparison across suppliers of different sizes

• Reduce duplicated ESG requests by aligning sustainability data with procurement and compliance requirements

• Improve confidence in supplier ESG performance, identifying gaps and improvement areas rather than just collecting disclosures

• Support regulatory reporting and stakeholder scrutiny with evidence that is credible, consistent, and defensible

This allows sustainability oversight to scale with the supply chain and drive measurable improvement - rather than remaining a parallel, manual reporting exercise.

Reducing Friction Between Teams - And For Suppliers

One of the biggest advantages of shared assurance is what it removes.

Instead of:

• Multiple teams requesting similar data in different formats

• Suppliers answering overlapping questions for different functions

• Internal debates over which data is “correct”

Shared assurance provides:

• One validated source of truth

• Faster onboarding

• Stronger audit confidence

• More resilient supplier relationships

• Clear ownership of evidence

• Better coordination across teams

This improves supplier experience while strengthening internal alignment.

Shared assurance does not replace functional expertise. It supports it.

Key Takeaway: Shared Assurance Enables Teams To Work Together - Not In Silos

Procurement, TPRM, cyber, and ESG teams all need supplier assurance - but they don’t need separate processes.

Shared assurance provides a common foundation that supports each role, strengthens collaboration, and enables consistent, defensible risk management across the organisation.