Third Party Assurance – ISAE3402/SOC1/SOC2/SOC3 Attestation
Business processes can be outsourced, related risks cannot. It’s logical, but not always that easy. It’s perfectly normal that your clients request proof that their processes and data are secured and managed by you in line with best practices and/or applicable regulations. This type of assurance can be provided through a Third Party Assurance (TPA) report.
In practice, the following variants are qualified as TPA reporting services:
- SOC1 (also known as ISAE3402) with a main focus on service providers in the Financial Sector – read more here;
- SOC2/3 (reported under the international ISAE3000 standard) applicable to providers of non-financial services and focusing on Information Security – read more here;
- Privacy Attestations applicable to every kind of service providers - read more here;
- SOC for Cyber reporting on any organisation’s cybersecurity risk management program; and
- SOC for Supply Chain, relevant for the manufacturing and distribution industries.
As a service provider a TPA report will provide you with a powerful commercial tool to convince your clients of the quality of your services, and the key risks you have underpinned in relation to the service offered. In black and white.
Cost efficiency
Suppose you are a service provider (IT service, Software as a Service provider, payroll processing provider, asset manager, etc.). How can you assure your client(s) peace of mind? Separate audits may offer solace, but they are expensive and put unnecessary pressure on the efficiency of your organisation. On top of that, the workload and costs for these individual audits per customer or service can quickly reach sky-high proportions - both for you and your client. With a TPA report in place, these individual audits are combined into a single audit with the aim to share insights into each process and the manner in which you manage and report risks to your clients. After all, you ultimately want to address as many of your customers’ questions as possible, if not all of them.
Additional resources