Reach

Sarah-Jane Peden

Head of Technology Procurement

“Before Omnea, our procurement and risk processes were fragmented across multiple systems—intake, cybersecurity, data privacy, and legal all lived in separate silos. We didn’t have a central source of truth, and there was no orchestration or automation to tie it all together. Our key goals were to accelerate safe adoption of AI and technology. That meant unifying procurement and risk under one roof. Omnea helped us do exactly that.”

Industry

Publishing

Company Size

3,700+

Location

London, UK

Challenge

Life before Omnea

What problems needed solving?

Reach plc. is the largest commercial news publisher in the UK and Ireland, home to 120+ publications and reaching 69% of the UK’s online population every month. To deliver its strategy to deepen audience engagement, commercialize video, and accelerate the use of tech and AI—Reach needed a more connected, agile back office.

Procurement and risk were held back by fragmented tools, inconsistent data, and siloed teams all managing 3,000+ suppliers. Even after deploying a leading intake-and-orchestration provider, critical gaps persisted, particularly in third-party risk management.

Sarah-Jane Peden (Head of Technology Procurement) embarked on a digital transformation journey to remedy this, partnering with Steve Murphy (TISO). The key problems they looked to solve were:

Siloed procurement and third-party risk processes

Procurement intake was managed in one system, but lacking functionality meant third-party risk management had to remain in another tool, creating a disjointed and siloed process.
Manual triggers and communication (Slack, email, spreadsheets) made it hard to track progress.
Risk assessments often lacked visibility of requests, meaning tasks could fall through the cracks or be missing critical context.
There was no clear ownership across steps in the process, leading to bottlenecks, frustration, and a lot of manual intervention.
Internal requestors lacked visibility into process status, leading to frustration, repeated follow-ups, and strained engagement with procurement.
The intake tool in use lacked the depth to handle complex third-party risk workflows.

No source of supplier truth

Supplier data was fragmented across systems. There was no single place to track key information.
Teams couldn’t easily see what risk or compliance reviews had been completed.
Internal and external audit requirements were difficult to meet without a central record.
As the supplier base grew past 3,000 vendors, oversight became increasingly difficult to maintain.

Highly manual supplier engagement

Onboarding was managed via email and spreadsheets, with no structured intake flow.
Requesters were asked to gather and forward supplier details manually, increasing errors and delays.
Risk and privacy forms were shared ad hoc, with no automation or status tracking.
Renewal dates were tracked in static documents, often missed or reviewed too late.
The procurement team was bogged down in admin, rather than focused on value or risk management.

“Before Omnea, our procurement and risk processes were fragmented across multiple systems. Intake, cybersecurity, data privacy, and legal all lived in separate silos. We didn’t have a central source of truth, and there was no orchestration or automation to tie it all together.” Sarah-Jane Peden, Head of Technology Procurement, Reach plc.

Solution

Omnea solved their problems fast

How did Omnea help?

To address the fragmentation and manual effort across procurement and risk, Reach plc chose Omnea to deliver a truly unified platform, bringing intake, supplier management, and third-party risk management into one unified experience.

Embedded and Frictionless from Start to Finish

Omnea replaced disjointed tools with a single system that connects procurement and risk processes end to end. By embedding risk reviews directly into procurement workflows, every request now flows smoothly, reducing the chance of lost context, missed steps, or stalled approvals.

The platform also helped tackle shadow IT and maverick spend, making it easier to route requests through the right governance channels while ensuring critical supplier data—especially anything involving customer information—is handled securely and consistently.

A better experience for everyone involved

For Sarah-Jane and the procurement team, Omnea significantly improved both internal workflows and supplier collaboration. Suppliers access Omnea’s Supplier Portal in one click via a magic link to easily submit information—including cybersecurity and privacy questionnaires—while internal teams benefit from centralized approvals and automated handoffs.

Approvers receive smart notifications, personalized by Omnea AI and can quickly access the context they need, eliminating endless email threads and manual chasing.
Procurement and Risk teams now work from a single, shared view helping to streamline compliance tracking and reduce duplicated work.
Suppliers benefit from a simple, intuitive interface to provide required documentation and respond to requests, improving engagement and reducing friction.

Built-in risk management and continuous optimization

With Omnea, Reach has moved from reactive to proactive third-party risk management. Risk assessments are now embedded into the intake process, with a consolidated view of supplier profiles and a complete audit trail across every review. Compliance tracking has been strengthened, and the Omnea team continues to support the business with ongoing platform optimization.

As a result, Reach now has the infrastructure to scale its procurement operations, manage risk with greater confidence, and maintain control while accelerating the use of technology and AI. .

“Before Omnea, risk lived in its own silo—detached from procurement and difficult to contextualize. Now, everything is in one place. We can see the cyber, legal, and financial risk associated with a supplier in a single view, giving the business real clarity. It’s helped us move from fragmented approvals and spreadsheet assessments to a joined-up process with a clean audit trail. That integration isn’t just efficient—it’s essential for understanding and actively managing risk.” Steve Murphy, TISO, Reach plc.

Outcome

The result

What were the business impacts?

Spend under procurement management (and control)
Tightened controls and engaging processes slashed maverick spend from 30 % to 5 %, and trimmed the long‑tail supplier roster by ~15 %.

Manual processing time cut by more than half
Cybersecurity and risk reviews that previously took up to 5 hours now take as little as 1–2 hours, freeing teams to spend more time on meaningful risk mitigation and less on admin.

70% of risks auto-captured
Supplier risks are now automatically captured via Omnea AI improving data accuracy, consistency, and audit readiness.

From 4 tools to 1 integrated platform
Consolidated 4 channels (intake and orchestration tool, third-party risk management tool, static spreadsheets, and emails) into a single platform saving over £100K annually in licensing costs and streamlining governance.

Audit documentation retrieved in minutes, not days
Centralised, real-time access to supplier records dramatically improved audit responsiveness and reduced the risk of non-compliance.

Scalable intake with full visibility
Requests are now trackable end-to-end, reducing bottlenecks, increasing process ownership, and increasing Reach’s agility in adopting new technology. .

“With Omnea, we’ve reduced manual effort by over 70%, consolidated four systems into one, and automated risk capture. What used to take days now takes minutes and we finally have a single source of truth for supplier data and approvals. It’s not just made us more efficient, it’s strengthened our risk posture and given us the visibility we need to stay ahead of compliance.” Sarah-Jane Peden, Head of Technology Procurement, Reach plc.

Intake

Approvals

Supplier Management

Orchestration