How semantic contract intelligence is redefining DORA and NIS2 compliance

European regulations on digital resilience are currently transforming not only the compliance landscape, but also our understanding of where operational risks actually manifest themselves within organisations. Both the EU’s DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) and the NIS2 Directive require organisations to provide significantly greater transparency regarding digital supply chains, critical service providers and dependencies.
Operators of critical infrastructure, financial service providers, industrial companies and organisations with complex outsourcing and cloud structures are particularly affected. The key challenge here is increasingly: How can risks in multi-tier digital supply chains even be fully identified and made manageable?
This is precisely where the LEGANTA® contract intelligence platform from SBC Systems GmbH comes in. The approach: contracts are no longer merely archived or managed, but serve as an operational database for risk, compliance and governance processes.

DORA and NIS2 shift the focus to supply chains

With DORA, the European Union is requiring financial firms in particular to demonstrably strengthen their digital operational resilience. At the same time, NIS2 extends cybersecurity and risk management requirements to numerous other sectors – from energy and healthcare to transport, industry and digital services.
Common to both regulations is the increasing focus on third-party risks. In future, companies must not only secure their own systems, but also be able to trace:

• which external service providers are involved,
• what critical services they provide,
• what sub-outsourcing structures exist,
• and what concentration risks arise within digital supply chains.

Contracts thus take centre stage in the regulatory landscape. This is precisely where responsibilities, service relationships, liabilities, security requirements and dependencies are formally defined.

From the contract archive to the semantic risk level

Traditional contract management systems usually focus on documentation, deadlines or approval processes. However, this is hardly sufficient for DORA and NIS2 requirements. What is required is a dynamic, auditable view of digital dependencies and operational risks.
LEGANTA® takes a semantic approach to this. All contract documents – such as supplier, outsourcing or customer contracts – are automatically ingested, analysed and converted into structured data models. According to the provider, this results in a comprehensive semantic representation of regulatory-relevant relationships.
At the heart of the system is the so-called “LEGANTA® OntoSphere”. This acts as a semantic resonance space in which regulatory requirements, business processes and external influencing factors are linked together.
The platform analyses individual contract clauses against more than 2,000 semantic variables. The aim is to provide an objectifiable assessment of risks, compliance gaps and critical dependencies.

Transparency regarding digital service providers

Particularly relevant in the context of DORA and NIS2 is the automated creation of a structured register of all digital service providers.
This includes, amongst other things:

• suppliers and third parties,
• their specific services,
• critical business relationships,
• multi-tiered sub-outsourcing structures,
• as well as potential concentration risks.

This creates significant added value, particularly in the area of critical infrastructure. This is because, whilst many companies have extensive portfolios of contracts, they lack complete transparency regarding the digital dependencies that actually arise from them.
Furthermore, modern supply chains no longer consist solely of direct contractual partners. Cloud providers, platform providers, SaaS services and outsourced operational processes create highly interconnected structures, the risks of which often only become apparent in the event of a crisis.

Semantics instead of Excel lists

The approach also reflects a fundamental paradigm shift in compliance management. Whilst many organisations have hitherto mapped regulatory requirements using manual documentation, table structures or isolated risk analyses, compliance is increasingly evolving into a data-driven, real-time task.
The formula “Form follows Contract”, which LEGANTA® advocates, illustrates this shift: the focus is not on abstract control catalogues, but on a company’s actual contractual relationships.
This creates an operational control layer that directly links risk, responsibility, performance and regulatory requirements. Particularly in conjunction with information security management systems (ISMS) and standards such as ISO 27001 – for example, in the area of supplier relationships under Annex A.15 – this can create new opportunities for integration.
Auditability becomes a strategic factor
Another aspect is gaining massive significance with DORA and NIS2: the ability to provide evidence to supervisory authorities, auditors and management. In future, companies must be able to demonstrate

• how risks were identified,
• which service providers are critical,
• how dependencies are assessed,
• and which risk-reduction measures have been implemented.

This means that compliance is becoming not just a legal or technical discipline, but a strategic governance task. Solutions such as LEGANTA® demonstrate that semantic technologies are increasingly positioning themselves as a bridge between regulatory requirements, IT security and operational corporate management.

Resilience arises from relationships

The true significance of such platforms, however, could extend beyond mere compliance issues. For DORA and NIS2 ultimately mark a fundamental shift in the European understanding of security: away from piecemeal IT security – towards systemic resilience of interconnected value and supply chains.
Contracts thus become far more than mere legal documents. They are evolving into a digital representation of corporate reality – and potentially into the central management tool for security, governance and operational resilience in an increasingly interconnected economy.

SBC Systems GmbH: https://www.leganta.ai/