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, commercialise 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 managing 3,000+ suppliers. Even after deploying a leading intake-and-orchestration provider, critical gaps persisted — particularly in TPRM. Sarah-Jane Peden (Head of Technology Procurement) led the digital transformation, partnering with Steve Murphy (TISO).

Siloed procurement and third-party risk processes

• Intake managed in one system, TPRM in another — creating a disjointed, siloed process
• Manual triggers via Slack, email, and spreadsheets made progress hard to track
• Risk assessments lacked visibility of procurement requests — tasks fell through the cracks or were missing critical context
• No clear ownership across process steps — bottlenecks, frustration, and manual intervention at every turn
• Requesters had no visibility into process status, leading to repeated follow-ups and strained engagement with procurement

No source of supplier truth

• Supplier data fragmented across systems — no single place to track key information
• Teams couldn't 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

Highly manual supplier engagement

• Onboarding via email and spreadsheets with no structured intake flow
• Requesters gathering and forwarding supplier details manually — increasing errors and delays
• Risk and privacy forms shared ad hoc with no automation or status tracking
• Renewal dates tracked in static documents — often missed or reviewed too late

"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 chose Omnea to deliver a truly unified platform, bringing intake, supplier management, and TPRM into one experience.

Embedded and frictionless from start to finish

Omnea replaced disjointed tools with a single system connecting procurement and risk end to end. By embedding risk reviews directly into procurement workflows, every request now flows smoothly — reducing lost context, missed steps, and stalled approvals. The platform also helped tackle shadow IT and maverick spend by routing requests through the right governance channels.

A better experience for everyone involved

• Approvers receive smart notifications personalised by Omnea AI, with the context they need to act quickly — no more email threads and manual chasing
• Procurement and Risk teams work from a single shared view, streamlining compliance tracking and reducing duplicated work
• Suppliers submit required documentation and questionnaires via a one-click Supplier Portal magic link

Built-in risk management and continuous optimisation

Risk assessments are now embedded into the intake process, with a consolidated view of supplier profiles and a complete audit trail across every review. Reach has moved from reactive to proactive TPRM — with Omnea AI automatically capturing 70% of supplier risks, improving data accuracy, consistency, and audit readiness.

"Before Omnea, risk lived in its own silo — detached from procurement and difficult to contextualise. 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

Maverick spend from 30% to 5% — governance that actually works Tightened controls and an engaging intake process slashed maverick spend by 25 percentage points, and trimmed the long-tail supplier roster by ~15%.

>50% reduction in manual processing time — risk reviews in half the time Cybersecurity and risk reviews that previously took up to 5 hours now take as little as 1–2 hours — freeing teams to focus on meaningful risk mitigation rather than admin.

70% of risks auto-captured — AI doing the heavy lifting Supplier risks are now automatically captured via Omnea AI, improving data accuracy, consistency, and audit readiness across 3,000+ vendors.

4 tools to 1 — £100K+ saved annually Consolidated intake, TPRM, spreadsheets, and email into a single platform, saving over £100K per year in licensing costs and dramatically simplifying governance.

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

"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