Nationwide's third-party risk team had a documentation problem that had become a capacity problem. Analysts spent days, and sometimes weeks, reading vendor material before they could complete an assessment.
The work mattered. TPRM helps protect data, uphold security standards, and evaluate risk across a large network of third-party relationships. But the mechanics of collecting, reading, and recording evidence were taking time away from understanding the risk itself.
Coverbase changed that balance. The team could review clearer, more digestible information, complete assessments faster, and spend more time on the judgments that needed an analyst.
More data was not the answer
The old process combined hundreds of pages of documents, lengthy questionnaires, spreadsheets, and email. Each step required manual effort, and tracking the work across those tools made coordination difficult.
Assessment was often the longest stage of the overall process. Reviewers were thorough, yet still struggled to meet service expectations.
The team had explored tools that could improve the information coming in. What it had not found was a solution that made the actual work of assessment faster and easier.
“The tools available could enhance the data we pulled in, but they didn’t make the work faster or easier. In many cases, they actually added complexity.”
Faster review, with rigor intact
Nationwide evaluated several options before selecting Coverbase. Shad Cummins, Director of Third-Party Risk and Continuity Management, described the priority:
A top priority was reducing the time required to complete risk assessments and accelerating the contracting process with third-party vendors without compromising the quality of our risk evaluations.
Coverbase turned vendor information into output analysts could review, validate, and approve in a fraction of the time previously required. What once demanded weeks of manual effort could now be completed in much shorter timeframes. The team retained responsibility for its decisions while spending less effort digesting the underlying documentation.
After onboarding and fine-tuning, the impact was immediate. Assessment timelines decreased significantly. More assessments could be completed each month, and analysts had more capacity for informed discussions with stakeholders.
Use the time to look further
The benefit extended beyond throughput. With less manual work in each review, the team began evaluating additional types of risk and uncovering issues that had been difficult to investigate in the previous workflow.
Within its first six months using Coverbase, TPRM added capabilities including ongoing monitoring of third-party cyber events, breaches, and emerging risk indicators.
The program could widen its scope without trading away the depth of its assessments.
Confidence in the work, and in AI
Coverbase set a new bar for how the TPRM team evaluates AI tools. Clear output and transparent model reasoning helped the team make confident, well-informed decisions. Greater consistency in meeting service expectations also strengthened collaboration across the business.
Team members who had been uncertain about AI became more confident as they saw practical value. Automation became a way to develop the program's capabilities, rather than a reason to lower its standards.
Assessment cycles got shorter and monthly throughput rose. Analysts gained more time to understand, evaluate, and respond to risk.
“We didn’t have a solution we could buy that really helped our process.”
