Bas van den Akker and Dave van Gulik are both managing directors of Trust Alliance. Operating from the centre of Den Bosch (Netherlands), they serve the pinnacle of the market in the Benelux region with high-end, global risk and compliance solutions. Most renowned in their product portfolio is Refinitiv's World-Check, facilitating quick and efficient risk and compliance detection. World-Check is regarded as “the golden standard” for screening and due diligence, trusted and employed by numerous leading organisations globally.

The challenge

Dave: The compliance landscape has significantly evolved over the years. Previously, the world was relatively straightforward. Nowadays, the landscape is complex and dynamic. Due to geopolitical developments such as wars, terrorism, and trade sanctions, organisations are required to conduct more extensive customer due diligence. Organisations failing to do so may face substantial fines and reputational damage. Furthermore, the European Union is constantly introducing new regulations requiring organisations to have complete insight into their entire supply chain and the risks therein. As a company, you are obligated to identify vulnerabilities and misconduct in the entire chain, and take appropriate measures to mitigate these risks. This not only applies to multinationals but also to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged with larger companies and multinationals; they too must comply with these stringent rules.

Bas: Another challenge for organisations is the substantial increase in data, both internal and external. This presents tremendous opportunities for companies, but also challenges. How do you ensure you're not overwhelmed by data, losing sight of the main issues? How do you determine the reliability of data? How do you know which data you're missing? These and other questions are crucial for companies today. It also means that as a company, you need to focus much more on the quality of data. We refer to this as KYD – Know Your Data. Know Your Data – that's precisely what we aim to assist our clients with. For over 13 years, we have been serving the local market in the Benelux region with high-end, global solutions.

Our solution

Bas continues: The addition of 3rdRisk to our product portfolio was a logical choice. 3rdRisk is a high-end solution enabling the mitigation of today's and tomorrow's risks. There is much synergy between 3rdRisk and our other solutions. 3rdRisk is the agnostic platform on which clients can connect our other products, allowing users to keep everything in one easily manageable place, without the need to switch between different systems constantly. This means that the entire process of screening and due diligence, adverse media monitoring, cyber and sustainability is all managed from a central location. This yields rich insights and helps to approach risks from multiple angles.

Dave: The strength of the 3rdRisk platform is that it connects internal and external systems and provides insights that spreadsheets or other systems are unable to deliver. Moreover, the platform engages employees in risk and compliance tasks in an accessible manner. As the platform operates intuitively and is linked, for instance, to Microsoft Teams or Slack, it functions very smoothly and swiftly. Essentially, no training is required to be able to use the platform. 3rdRisk is the pragmatic risk and compliance solution for today’s and tomorrow’s compliance challenges.

The result

Dave: Together with 3rdRisk, we have assisted various clients – from high-profile corporates to businesses in niche markets – in providing valuable risk and compliance insights based on which informed management decisions can be made.

Bas: When it comes to compliance, you can distinguish between must, want, and can. Many organisations conduct compliance because they must. But with 3rdRisk, you see that organisations increasingly want compliance because they can. I see that as a significant gain. For many organisations, investigating ESG aspects in their supply chain is important, not because they must, but because it can enhance their brand strength, thus building a sustainable competitive advantage. 3rdRisk makes this possible in an efficient and effective manner. They even make it a bit more enjoyable by adding gamification elements to the platform.

Why 3rdRisk

Dave: 3rdRisk is our go-to platform for risk and compliance management. Why? Because it's based on the latest standards in our field, highly flexible, intuitive, and pleasant to work with, and (partly because of that) accessible to our clients, from multinationals to large SMEs. It's also important to us that it's a Dutch solution developed for the global market. We increasingly see clients in Europe and beyond opting for European solutions.

Bas: Besides the high quality of the product, we also have a lot of confidence in the team behind 3rdRisk. After all, technology begins and ends with people. The 3rdRisk team always opts for a personal and contextual approach, making them well-suited to help risk and compliance professionals succeed. This is also where the strength of the combination of Trust Alliance and 3rdRisk lies. Irrespective of the use case – third party risk management, internal control or compliance management –  we understand the challenges and pain points of our clients, and the team at 3rdRisk can translate this into pragmatic, affordable solutions.