How a Global Financial Services Firm went from Months of Manual Work to Audit-Ready Compliance

CASE STUDY

How a Global Financial Services Firm went from Months of Manual Work to Audit-Ready Compliance

A global financial services organization was struggling with fragmented vendor oversight across multiple systems, spending 16+ hours monthly just on reporting while facing mounting DORA compliance requirements. With a lean vendor risk management team, they couldn't scale their manual processes.

By implementing Clarative as a centralized vendor intelligence platform, they automated what previously took months into weeks, gained systematic ICT vendor classification, and transformed scattered data into audit-ready compliance frameworks.

Note: Cameron is a vendor risk management leader at a global financial services organization. Their name and company details have been anonymized.

Background

Cameron leads the vendor risk management program at a global financial services firm, operating at the intersection of procurement, security, compliance, legal, and regulatory oversight. The role encompasses:

All third-party relationship assessments and classifications
Vendor performance monitoring and SLA tracking
DORA, EBA, MICA, ROPA, and joint state regulatory compliance
Working with security, legal, finance, compliance, engineering, and business owners

The Challenge: Fragmented Systems and Manual Compliance Work

"Before we met you guys, all of this work was done manually," Cameron explains. "It took us months to do some of the things that Clarative is doing instantly."

The organization faced three critical challenges that existing procurement and GRC tools couldn't solve:

Fragmented Oversight Across Multiple Systems

Vendor data and oversight activities were scattered across a procure-to-pay tool, contract repository, incident management platform, and countless spreadsheets.

"This made it difficult to see vendor performance holistically, correlate incidents to contractual obligations, and quickly identify which vendors supported critical important functions," Cameron notes.

There was no single source of truth. Manual data pulls were required to understand criticality, regulatory exposure, and vendor performance.

DORA, EBA, MICA, & ROPA Compliance

Meeting DORA, EBA, MICA, and ROPA requirements for identifying and classifying critical ICT providers required capabilities that simply didn't exist in their current tools.

"There was a gap within our framework and with our governance that we needed to remediate that we couldn't do in any Procure-to-Pay or a GRC tool that currently exists in the market."

The organization needed to classify ICT vendors, identify contractual gaps for remediation, and provide ongoing monitoring, but had no automated way to track uptime, risk events, or performance.

"We had to manually track SLAs, monitor outages, and report on those," Cameron explains. "it took us was probably at least 16 hours out of a month, which is really a lot."

They were expected to report these metrics to boards, GRC teams, and business units for risk appetite assessment and quarterly business reviews. Without a systematic approach to vendor classification, contract remediation, and ongoing monitoring, compliance was nearly impossible.

Why Clarative?

When evaluating solutions, Cameron needed something that could work with, not replace, their existing technology stack.

Filling the Gap Without Ripping and Replacing

"We already have our tech stack that we're not getting rid of. We're in an agreement with some of those," Cameron explains. "So Clarative helped fill that gap. We could use it for a GRC tool if we want, or we can use it for intake if we want."

"The versatility in Clarative is amazing, especially if you already have tools that are your core tools for the organization. You can just use that as an overlay."

Clarative's developer API, which allows users to connect external systems to Clarative data

The platform offered several key capabilities:

Vendor intelligence that overlays existing systems rather than replacing them
Integration across the tech stack to ingest data from Jira, contract repositories, and procure-to-pay tools
SLA monitoring with centralized visibility
AI-powered contract analysis for gap identification and discovery
Regulatory flexibility adaptable beyond just DORA to any regulatory framework

A Team That "Actually Listens" and a Product That Works

"Working with your team has been phenomenal. I've never worked with anyone that actually listened to the challenges that we are facing, but also provided suggestions and guidance on how to remediate those and remedy those."

Beyond the collaborative approach, the product itself delivered. "The AI functionality in Clarative is probably part of the best that I've ever seen in any of the tools," Cameron notes. "I feel like I can consistently count on an accurate response from the tool."

Search Grid, an AI tool for extracting information (such as DORA-related clauses) across vendors

Implementation & Results

Fast Implementation, Immediate Value

"The implementation and rollout was very easy. It was a very structured and collaborative effort around the integrations."

The team worked together to understand available information and identify gaps. Value appeared immediately. "We began seeing value quickly. Once the SLA data, I think that was the first thing that we kind of went through. We saw value quickly when the SLA data and vendor classification were centralized."

Within the first few cycles, they could identify clear performance trends for ICT vendors.

Quantifiable Time Savings

The 16+ hours previously spent monthly on performance monitoring and reporting is now one-click.

"Having this tool felt like adding at least one to two FTEs to the organization because there's a lot of just data management, strategy, reporting, and analytics that goes on with this."

More importantly, the solution reduced duplicative efforts and increased consistency across reviews. "What previously required manual spreadsheets and analysis and cross-referencing across teams can now be reviewed through a consolidated framework and centralized system."

Compliance Across DORA, EBA, MICA, ROPA, and Beyond

The platform enabled systematic identification and classification of ICT providers according to DORA requirements. "Clarative helped us to identify our ICT providers and determine whether they support critical or important function."

The organization streamlined their DORA register with different classifications, function descriptions, and automated vendor categorization based on intake attributes.

Beyond classification, Clarative provided the ongoing monitoring that regulations require. SLA performance and vendor incidents became clearly visible, pushed into Clarative and centralized for continuous oversight.

"There's no tool out there that can do all of these things within one centralized tool."

But the value extended far beyond DORA. "DORA is the MVP of all regulations," Cameron explains. "But you can actually leverage it for any regulatory body. That goes to the versatility of Clarative." The organization leveraged their framework for EBA, MICA, joint state regulators, and Ireland's CDI. The flexibility also extends to GDPR ROPA reporting. "Even creating a ROPA report for all of your vendors is very easy to do within Clarative."

In a Nutshell

For organizations serious about operational resilience, vendor visibility, and reducing manual reconciliation across systems, the investment pays for itself quickly.

"Clarative is a centralized vendor intelligence and resilience platform that connects SLA monitoring, incident visibility, and DORA-aligned ICT oversight into a defensible, structured framework."

Cameron is clear about the value: "If you operate in a regulatory environment and need defensible oversight of critical vendors. The value isn't just efficiency. It's being able to confidently demonstrate SLA oversight and ICT compliance in a way that stands up to regulatory scrutiny."

Key Takeaways

For vendor risk management and procurement leaders facing similar challenges:

Fragmented systems don't scale. When vendor data lives across multiple tools, manual reconciliation becomes unsustainable as regulatory requirements expand.
Overlay beats rip-and-replace. The best vendor intelligence platform works with your existing tech stack, not against it. AI capabilities compound value over time, from standardizing vendor intake to automating due diligence to updating vendor inventory data.
DORA, EBA, MICA, and ROPA compliance require flexible capabilities. Generic GRC and procurement tools can't provide the systematic ICT classification and ongoing monitoring that regulations demand.

This case study is based on an interview with a vendor risk management leader at a global financial services organization. Names and identifying details have been anonymized to protect confidentiality.

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