Argos Risk, Gatekeeper Partner For Risk Management Services

Argos Risk, which monitors the financial health of other companies, has entered an agreement with software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution Gatekeeper, according to a press release.

Gatekeeper works on automating the onboarding process and offers integration support for hundreds of companies. Director Patrick O’Connor said in the release that the partnership with Argos will be good because it will allow for new up-to-date risk analysis for Gatekeeper’s existing clients.

“Whether alerted to changes in the risk profile of existing vendors or surfacing the information pre-signature to help with decision-making, Argos Risk’s data is a natural fit with the Gatekeeper solution,” he said.

O’Connor said Argos’ technology will serve as a way for companies to properly vet others they are wanting to enter into partnerships with in the future.

Gatekeeper’s own services allow for better tracking of vendor performance and ways to get the best possible value out of a business relationship. It generally allows businesses to keep their scorecards clean and do away with unnecessary risk.

Argos boasts a surveillance program, AR Surveillance, which takes over 10,000 data points into account and provides a risk score for companies’ third-party relationships. The program also sends out updates based on changes like lawsuits, liens, mergers, acquisitions, leadership and other changes that could affect the risk level. The program looks into business practices like financial viability, up-to-date trade payment behavior, overall business health and industry outlook.

Argos President and CEO Lori Frank said the partnership with Gatekeeper had benefits for Argos, too: more access to U.S. customers affiliated with Gatekeeper, and more advanced tools for Argos’ supplier and vendor teams.

The relationships between suppliers and retailers during the coronavirus pandemic have become especially important, and due to the rapidly escalating nature of the pandemic, it hasn’t always been easy for companies to assess risk. Many of them, scrambling to keep up, have instead had to prioritize the partners most important to them.