As third-party relationships in State, Local and Education (SLED) entities increase, so do the requirements for vendor due diligence, cybersecurity risk assessments, compliance oversight and ongoing monitoring. However, the staff and budgets necessary to support these growing responsibilities don’t always keep pace. As a result, SLED teams are often asked to do more with less. One of the most effective ways to keep costs down while staying on top of these risks is through third-party risk management (TPRM) automation.
What Manual TPRM Gets Wrong
Traditional third-party risk management relies on spreadsheets, point-in-time evaluations and manual processes. But such practices are often ineffective and unscalable for the TPRM programs of State and Local Governments.
Spreadsheet-Driven Approach Creates Blind Spots
When every department uses its own spreadsheet to track third-party risks, vendor information gets scattered across multiple files. Cybersecurity, procurement, legal and compliance teams may each have a different piece of information about the same vendor, but none has a complete view due to departmental silos. As a result, it’s easy to overlook important risk indicators.
Manual Processes Increase Administrative Burdens and Slow Down SLED Teams
Manual workflows for onboarding vendors, collecting security documentation and tracking regulatory compliance are time-consuming. Such tasks are another burden on SLED teams, some of which are already understaffed.
Static Assessments Disregard the Dynamic Nature of Third-Party Risks
Traditional TPRM uses point-in-time assessments where you evaluate vendor risk only during onboarding and annual reviews. But a third-party risk can change significantly between assessments. Without continuous monitoring, you may not discover the change until the yearly review, leaving your institution or agency exposed to risks that have been growing for months.
Traditional TPRM Promotes Reactive Rather Than Proactive Risk Management
Old-school TPRM relies on static assessments rather than real-time monitoring. This means you generally identify security breaches only after an incident or during a scheduled review.
Why Automating Third-Party Risk Management Matters Now More Than Ever in SLED Organizations
Manual TPRM can’t keep up with the risk management challenges that SLED teams face today. Here’s why automation is more important than ever before.
Today’s SLED entities rely heavily on external partners to achieve operational resilience and efficiency. However, each third-party partnership comes with a risk that your organization must evaluate and monitor. And the more vendors you work with, the more difficult it is to manage them with manual processes and an understaffed team. Automation simplifies TPRM, no matter how many third parties you’re dealing with.
Resource Constraints and Staffing Challenges
Public Sector entities often operate with limited risk management budgets and lean teams. In a 2026 NASCIO-Deloitte study, for example, State chief information security officers said their budgets are getting tighter. They also struggle to find and retain people with the right cybersecurity skills, leaving teams understaffed and overworked.
In another study by Carahsoft and Broadcom, 86% of cybersecurity decision-makers in U.S. Government agencies said they expect an increase in incidents or data breaches due to budget cuts and headcount reductions.
Managing risks manually in an expanding third-party ecosystem, relying on insufficient resources and personnel, is overwhelming and ineffective. Automation makes it easy to manage vendors at scale without increasing headcount.
How Automation Software Simplifies and Improves the Management of Third-Party Risks
Third-party risk management solutions such as Onspring allow you to automate your TPRM program. But what are the benefits of TPRM automation tools?
Centralized Vendor Risk Data Prevents Silos
A TPRM automation solution provides a central platform to handle all your third parties, compliance requirements and contracts. You can manage the entire third-party lifecycle, from due diligence to offboarding, inside software that scales with your vendor or supplier ecosystem.
Instead of each department having its own TPRM system or using fragmented spreadsheets, cross-functional teams can collaborate in one place. With all vendor-related data in a centralized platform, teams can easily access consistent, up-to-date information without searching across multiple systems or files. They can also generate reports quickly without having to compile information manually from different sources.
Automated Risk Assessments and Workflows Reduce Manual Effort
Assessing vendors manually through email questionnaires, spreadsheets and follow-up requests for documentation is very slow and difficult to scale as the number of third parties grows. To simplify the process, a powerful automation solution lets you:
- Send a discovery survey and engagement risk questionnaire to third parties without leaving the platform.
- Automatically collect survey results, then assign risk scores or trigger follow-up actions. After grading each third party, the tool can rank them by risk rating, criticality, relationship and more, so you can prioritize your efforts where they matter most.
- Obtain third-party documentation, such as SOC 2 and ISO 27001, through the vendor portal in the software, so you don’t have to manually request important paperwork.
- Use AI to review vendor documentation and automatically populate the relevant fields in the third-party risk management platform, eliminating the need for manual data entry.
With risk assessment workflows, SLED teams can focus on responsibilities that require uniquely human skills instead of wasting time on repetitive tasks. Automation makes TPRM manageable and sustainable, even for small teams.
Continuous Monitoring Provides Real-Time Visibility
In Public-Sector supply chain risk management, it’s important to track third-party threats throughout the relationships, not just during the due diligence phase. TPRM automation software enables continuous monitoring, helping SLED teams move beyond static assessments.
Assessments that are only conducted annually or during contract renewals offer just a point-in-time snapshot of a vendor’s risk posture. Continuous monitoring replaces this limited approach with ongoing visibility. Instead of waiting months or even a year to reassess a vendor, SLED teams can track key risk signals in real time throughout the third-party relationship. That way, you can respond to incidents immediately before they escalate.
Building a Sustainable Third-Party Risk Management Program for SLED Teams
A sustainable third-party risk management program should be scalable and effective regardless of your team’s size. Following TPRM automation best practices can help you build a program that grows with the number of vendors in your organization.
1. Prioritize Third-Party Risks
Not all vendors pose the same level of risk. Classify them based on relevant factors to your institution, such as:
- Sensitivity of the data they access
- Criticality of the services they provide
- Level of access to agency systems
Risk-based tiering helps SLED teams focus limited resources on vendors with the greatest potential impact.
2. Standardize Vendor Assessments and Workflows
Automation is most effective when processes are consistent. Create standardized questionnaires, approval workflows, risk-scoring methodologies and evidence requirements across departments. Doing so reduces administrative overhead while ensuring you apply the same rigorous criteria when evaluating vendors.
3. Collect Compliance Evidence Automatically
Automated incident reporting and evidence collection in TPRM tools can reduce manual data compilation and provide timely compliance insights.
4. Review and Refine Your Program Regularly
Vendor ecosystems, regulatory requirements and threat exposure can change with time. Your TPRM program should change with them. Regularly recheck your risk criteria and assessment templates to keep the program effective and align it with your organizational needs.
How to Make Your TPRM Program Scalable and More Effective
Manual third-party risk management limits visibility due to data silos and burdens teams with administrative tasks, making it difficult to scale as your vendor network grows. If you’re on a tight budget or your TPRM team is lean, automation is the best way to manage a growing third-party ecosystem efficiently without overwhelming your staff.
See how automation simplifies vendor risk oversight with Onspring’s platform and book a demo today.
Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider, supporting Public Sector organizations across Federal, State and Local Government agencies and Education and Healthcare markets. As the Master Government Aggregator for our vendor partners, including Onspring, we deliver solutions for Geospatial, Cybersecurity, MultiCloud, DevSecOps, Artificial Intelligence, Customer Experience and Engagement, Open Source and more. Working with resellers, systems integrators and consultants, our sales and marketing teams provide industry leading IT products, services and training through hundreds of contract vehicles. Explore the Carahsoft Blog to learn more about the latest trends in Government technology markets and solutions, as well as Carahsoft’s ecosystem of partner thought-leaders.
