How Vendor Risk Management Software Streamlines Your Program

Podcast Transcript

Hi, this is Ramin Zacharia with Venminder.

In this podcast, you'll learn about some ways you can use vendor risk management software to improve your current processes through features like automation, centralization, and configuration. 

Here at Venminder, we have a team of vendor risk management experts who understand how to solve common challenges that come from using manual processes and workflows.

Anyone who is involved in vendor risk management is familiar with the complexities and the workload of managing various tasks, such as completing risk assessments, performing due diligence, and monitoring vendor performance. Each of these tasks are often performed simultaneously for different vendors, which can make it difficult to stay on track with due dates and follow up requests.

Let’s look at 5 common ways vendor risk management software can streamline your processes:

1. First, vendor risk management software offers automation capabilities. Users can automate a variety of administrative tasks, including sending notifications for due diligence reviews, requesting follow-up documentation, and triggering alerts to escalate vendor issues. Automation is also helpful for scheduling reminders so key dates, like mid-term contract reviews, are not missed. 
2. Second, software helps offer a dedicated space to access and store documents. Instead of tracking down vendor contracts or due diligence documents from multiple stakeholders, vendor risk management software provides a single location to store key documents. This makes it easy for all stakeholders to find and reference information for vendors, such as contract terms or risk assessments.
3. Third, vendor risk management software can enhance your program reporting. Many vendor risk management teams spend excessive amounts of time and resources creating reports for the board and regulatory exams. Data must be gathered from multiple sources and documented into an easy-to-understand format. With vendor risk management software, you can create customized reports to capture vendor risk data points that are most relevant to your organization, such as emerging risks or open vendor issues. 
4. Vendor risk management software also allows you to create standardized workflows for each lifecycle stage. The onboarding, the ongoing, and the offboarding stages in the vendor risk management lifecycle require multiple activities that must be performed in a certain order. Some activities, such as risk assessments, are recurring, while others are one-time and may require approval, such as termination of the vendor relationship. Vendor risk management software allows you to create standardized processes for each activity, ensuring steps are not missed and are completed in the correct order. This can help expedite certain processes like onboarding so your organization can take advantage of new vendor opportunities and relationships. 
5. And finally, the fifth is that vendor risk management software can help streamline your ongoing monitoring practices. Vendors must be continuously monitored for any changes in risks and performance, but this can be a challenging activity if the data comes from multiple sources and is managed through manual spreadsheets. Vendor risk management software provides a simple overview of each vendor profile in one centralized location, so that you can see key risk areas at a glance. These high-level views also provide an easier way to compare multiple vendors at once and identify any risks or trends that may need to be addressed with said vendors.

Vendor risk management software can be a worthy investment that streamlines your processes, but it’s also important to understand how to take advantage of the capabilities it provides. 

Consider the following 3 tips to ensure that your organization can realize the full benefits of said vendor risk management software:

• First, it helps to identify your organization’s pain points and areas of improvement. Maybe you have too many manual processes during due diligence, or not enough resources to complete risk assessments on time. Once you know what areas need to be improved and streamlined, you’ll know how to configure the software to meet your needs.
• Second, communicating with the software provider and asking for suggestions and feedback is great. Take advantage of any training they offer and work with your account representative to ensure you’re making the best use of said software. Chances are that other organizations have faced similar challenges that use that software provider, so your software providers can usually offer helpful tips and suggestions that you can execute on.
• And the last tip is to continuously learn and look for ways to improve. Pay attention to new software releases or updates and see where you can continue to streamline your processes. Vendor risk management can always be improved with more efficiencies or new tools and integrations that are designed to manage evolving vendor risk and the evolving vendor landscape.

Whether your organization already uses vendor risk management software, or you’re in the process of researching software platforms, these tips should help your organization make the best use of it. 

Thanks for tuning in; Catch you next time!