Farida Fouad is Head of Legal and Privacy Officer at de Bijenkorf, which is part of the Selfridges Group. De Bijenkorf – meaning ‘the beehive’ – is the most renowned chain of premium department stores in the Netherlands. With flagship stores in Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht as well as smaller stores, it is a true one stop luxury shopping experience, since 1870.

As Head of Legal, Farida is partly responsible for screening and monitoring third parties in the areas of privacy and security.

The challenge

Farida: “At de Bijenkorf, privacy and information security are held in very high esteem. De Bijenkorf has had a professional organisation for managing supplier risks for some time. The whole process was just quite labour-intensive. In the past, we spent a lot of time on manual tasks, such as sending out questionnaires, monitoring progress, and requesting and checking evidence. Considering that supplier risks must be assessed from various disciplines and thus different teams, there was also a strong demand for a platform where different teams could have a structured and current overview of each other's findings and progress. The manual processes complicated this and made collaboration between the different teams less efficient.”

Our solution

De Bijenkorf sought a pragmatic solution that would automate manual activities as much as possible. Without the long and costly implementation processes that often accompany this. In addition, it was important that multiple teams could work together simultaneously, for example, when assessing the completed questionnaires. Another requirement was that the tool would help de Bijenkorf in following up on improvement and action plans, so that de Bijenkorf could manage potential risks effectively.

Farida: “The 3rdRisk platform was operational within a few days, designed according to our brand style and connected to our IT infrastructure. In no time at all, we had our key suppliers on the platform and the first questionnaires sent out. We were able to make good use of the best practices developed by 3rdRisk. This allowed us to show results to our internal stakeholders quite quickly.”

The result

Farida: “Thanks to the 3rdRisk platform, we have been able to further professionalise our supplier risk management process, now have a better overview, and can allocate our time more efficiently. Because we spend less time on manual tasks, we can focus more on minimising privacy and security risks as much as possible. Without the 3rdRisk platform, it would not have been possible to proactively screen and monitor so many different suppliers for potential risks simultaneously.

"Because we spend less time on manual tasks, we can focus more on minimising privacy and security risks as much as possible. Without the 3rdRisk platform, it would not have been possible to proactively screen and monitor so many different suppliers for potential risks simultaneously." Farida Fouad, Senior Legal Counsel de Bijenkorf

Why 3rdRisk

Farida: “What appealed to us about 3rdRisk was their pragmatic approach. We were not looking for a long and costly implementation process and wanted to be able to start quickly. Without overburdening our IT organisation. With 3rdRisk, all this was possible. Additionally, the ease of use was an important reason for choosing the 3rdRisk platform. You don’t need any training to understand the 3rdRisk platform. Everything is self-explanatory. It operates intuitively and smoothly – appearing as though it was developed specifically for de Bijenkorf. Finally, we could really relate to the roadmap presented by 3rdRisk. The platform is constantly evolving. You can see that the platform is continuously improving. They listen well to our feedback, and we see in the platform that something is actually done with it.”

"You don’t need any training to understand the 3rdRisk platform. It operates intuitively and smoothly – appearing as though it was developed specifically for de Bijenkorf." Farida Fouad, Head of Legal and Privacy Officer, de Bijenkorf