Understanding Suppliers vs. Assets in .legal Data Mapping
This article explains the difference between legal entities (suppliers) and assets, and how they relate in .legal's data mapping.
What is the difference between legal entities (suppliers) and assets?
Suppliers (legal entities) are external organisations that provide goods or services to your company; assets are internal resources or elements that must be mapped and protected. Suppliers are assessed through vendor management (for example: supplier risk, audits, and declarations). Assets are things like systems, applications, or databases that participate in your processes.
How can suppliers and assets be connected?An asset can depend on a supplier. In data mapping, .legal links processes, assets, and suppliers so the same information does not need to be created multiple times. For example, a cloud service can be modelled as an asset with an external cloud supplier attached.
Why model both suppliers and assets?- Suppliers: capture who delivers services or products and support vendor risk management (risk assessments, audits, declarations).
- Assets: capture what must be protected and documented (systems, applications, databases, etc.).
- Linking them preserves relationships and avoids duplicate data entry.
Conclusion Suppliers answer "who provides it"; assets answer "what we use and must protect". Mapping both and linking dependencies ensures vendor relationships and asset protection are documented and maintained consistently.