The definitive guide part 2: Choosing your due diligence partner
1st Oct 2026
eBook summary
The definitive guide to future-ready third-party due diligence part 2: Choosing your due diligence partner
“Ask a vendor what their AI can do and you’ll get a demo. Ask how it reached its answer and you’ll find out who you’re really dealing with.” – Chris Green, CEO of Xapien
The definitive guide to future-ready third-party due diligence is our three-part series for risk and compliance teams who want to modernise their third-party process without compromising on speed, accuracy, rigour, or control.
Part 2 gives you a practical framework for choosing a due diligence partner, covering how to define your requirements, compare vendors, run a pilot, plan your integration strategy, and build the business case.
Every vendor claims to be AI-powered, fast and transformational. This guide shows you what to ask and how to tell a real answer from a good pitch, with perspectives from Control Risks, EY, KPMG, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, Certa and Fulcrum Diligence.
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What's inside
Foreword by Chris Green, Co-Founder and CEO of Xapien
Part 1 concluded that a purpose-built, compliance-grade solution will best fit most large scale organisations. Part 2 is about the choice that follows: which vendor to partner with and how to evaluate them critically in a market where every provider claims to be AI-powered.
Chapter 1: Defining your requirements
How to understand your current process, map the decisions that carry legal effect and match your use cases to the capabilities you need, with a requirements template and expert insight from Nicola Mollat, Investigations & Compliance Partner at EY, and Laetitia Hoffmann, Head of Strategy & Transformation at Control Risks VANTAGE.
Chapter 2: The vendor evaluation framework
Seven criteria and a scorecard to measure every vendor against, each with a regulator test, from transparency and data foundations to accuracy and integration. Includes the key questions to put to vendors in writing before the demo, with insight from Control Risks, EY, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance and Certa.
Chapter 3: Testing and validation
How to run a pilot using placebo checks on subjects you’ve already investigated, what a regulator will expect you to reconstruct, and how to stress-test ‘global coverage’ claims. With Russell Corn, CEO at Fulcrum Diligence, and Christy Lorgen, Partner & Global Head of Corporate Intelligence at KPMG AS.
Chapter 4: The partnership model
What to look for beyond the product: relationship fit, integration and API strategy in practice, and the contract terms that keep you flexible, from roadmap commitments to exit and portability. With perspectives from EY and Certa.
Chapter 5: Making the decision
How to turn your scorecard and pilot results into a decision your board will recognise, build a business case that goes beyond the licence fee, and agree the essentials before you sign. With Emily Forbes, Third Party Risk Product Lead at Dow Jones Risk & Compliance.
Plus: the framework on one page. A checklist covering every step from requirements to signature.
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