Fill in a self-assessment

Welcome to the 3rdRisk docs page!

In this article, we will guide you through the process of filling in a 3rdRisk assessment. Feel free to look at our home page 3rdRisk.com and support.3rdRisk.com, for additional information about this platform. If you still have questions or comments, please reach out to support@3rdRisk.com.

When you are requested to fill in a 3rdRisk assessment, you can just follow an easy 5-step process:

3rdRisk self-assessment process

We provide clients with the option to integrate their corporate branding within our platform. The stylesheet (colours, pictures and logos) of the assessment portal and email correspondences in this article can differ from the invitation you received. In this article, we use the default 3rdRisk setup and branding. The functionalities are still the same.

1. Open invitation e-mail

Click the [Start your 3rdRisk assessment] button from the invite email. You will be directed to our online assessment portal based on your unique and secure temporary link + password.

If you’re having trouble with the button, copy and paste the URL at the bottom of the e-mail into your web browser.

2. 3rdRisk assessment portal

The 3rdRisk online assessment portal is an online environment where organisations can securely fill in their third-party assessments.

Key characteristics of the online assessment portal

  • You can only access an assessment with unique and securely timed generated URLs provided via the personalised invitation email.
  • Communication between you and the assessment portal is encrypted.
  • The assessment results are only accessible by the requestor(s) listed in the invitation email.
  • The complete infrastructure of 3rdRisk, including the online assessment portal, is hosted in the European Union.

Our security approach
You will see the following landing page:

 

3rdRisk landing page assessment portal

Use the passcode provided in the invitation e-mail to continue:

This landing page provides you with a general overview of the assessment that one of your clients/partners requested to fill in:

Landing page explanation

  1. Assessment title and description
  2. The questionnaire(s) that you are requested to fill in
  3. Related contract(s)
  4. Expected completion date
  5. Your named contact person at the organisation that created this assessment
  6. Click on the [Start your assessment] button to start with your assessment.

3. Fill in questionnaires

Forget spreadsheets; via the online assessment portal, you can easily create and fill in assessments:

The assessment page of the 3rdRisk Assessment portal always has the same structure and setup. Only the branding (see start article) and content (questionnaires, domains and questions) differ per assessment.

Assessment page explanation

1. Domain name - Questions can be segmented into different domains

2. Question

       a. Status symbols:

             i. Grey clock - the question is not yet answered

             ii. Green check - the question is answered

             iii. Orange triangle - a required comment or attachment is not yet provided

       b. When selecting an answer, you can quickly see whether the reviewer expects a comment (balloon) or attachment (paperclip).

       c. Also, a banner will be visible when you select an answer where a comment and/or attachment is required:

3. The current questionnaire - an assessment can contain multiple questionnaires

4. The answer field

5. Click on this icon to open the side panel and get more information regarding the question:

6. Provide a comment:

7. Provide an attachment:

  1. You can select different types of documents. This allows the reviewer(s) to analyse your response quickly.
  2. If you select certification or assurance reports, you must provide the Valid till date. The platform will use this date to monitor and timely notify the reviewer(s) when your report or certification is about to expire. The officer can then decide to request a new version from you automatically.
  3. You can only upload pdf, doc, docx, ppt, pptx, xls, xlsx, jpeg, jpg, and png files.
  4. Attachments are securely written to the secure vault of our customer. From a security perspective, you can only remove a file but not download or view it.

8. A visual bar shows the progress on the number of answered questions within this questionnaire.

9. Filter on your answers. Sometimes an assessment contains dozens of questions, and thus you might be unable to answer all questions at once or just by yourself. To continue to a later stage and easily focus on the unanswered questions, you quickly filter these questions by using this filter button.

10. There is a real-time autosave on the assessment portal. This allows you to continue at a later stage easily. When you answered all questions of a questionnaire, you can click on [Next] to proceed to the following questionnaire or the final confirmation page when you answered all questionnaires.

It is greyed out when not all questions are answered, or there is still an outstanding request for a required document or comment. Simply click the filter (9) to view the required actions.

4. Submit

Before submitting the assessment, you are asked to fill in the responder details and provide any additional comments. For the integrity of your answers, the platform also asks you to confirm that you are an authorised representative of the organisation and that your answers are true to the best of your knowledge.

5. Sent

You can click on [Submit your assessment] when everything is filled in.

The platform will close the assessment and provides you with a confirmation via the browser, plus you will also get a confirmation email for your administration. The platform automatically informs the requestor that your assessment is ready for review.

5a. Review cycle

The requestor will review your input within the next few weeks, this can lead to:

  • Additional clarification needed
  • Assessment accepted and closed

Clarification needed

Based on the review, the requestor can request additional details on your provided answers. In that case, you will receive another invitation via email with a new link to the assessment portal. Click on the provided link to open the portal:

When you have responded to all review comments, you can proceed to the final step and fill in/update the responder details.

That's it! The requestor will again review your response. They will either have additional review comments or approve and close the assessment.

Assessment closed

You will receive a confirmation from the platform that your assessment was approved and closed by the requestor.