The vendors you work with keep your business running and add value to your operations. However, each new vendor presents potential risks to your business and creates an additional access point to your systems that could be exploited. Vendor risk management (VRM) is the process of monitoring, tracking, and minimizing the risks that come with working with external vendors.  

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As your organization grows, it becomes more difficult to manage your vendor risk manually. Automation can help you scale your vendor risk management, protect your organization from third-party risks, and make more efficient use of the team’s time and resources. Let’s explore how you can automate your vendor risk management.

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3 reasons why you should automate vendor risk management

Here are some of the most important reasons and benefits to automating your vendor risk management process: 

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1. Your tech stack is growing every day: New tools and software are constantly being brought into your tech stack. According to the Zylo 2023 SaaS Management Index Report, the average organization uses nearly 300 SaaS applications. 
2. Shadow IT makes it hard to manage risk: Some tools may have been brought into your organization without following the procurement process which is outside of the security team’s visibility. This means vendors have been brought on without undergoing a proper risk assessment or ongoing monitoring.
3. Manual vendor management is inefficient: Using spreadsheets and other manual processes to manage your vendor risks is time consuming and an inefficient use of your resources. 

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VRM automation software makes managing your vendor risk easy. It enables you to easily scale your onboarding and assessment of new vendors, discover tools that may have connected to your systems outside of normal processes, and makes it easy to monitor and manage all your third-party risks in one place. 

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Automated VRM solutions use real-time monitoring to identify vendors, automate and streamline vendor reviews, assign and track risks for each vendor, and facilitate risk mitigation with smooth workflows so you can minimize your vendor risks reliably.

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What VRM processes can be automated?

VRM software can automate much of the processes associated with managing vendor risk, such as:

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• Detecting vendors connected to your infrastructure—which is particularly valuable to discovering tools that haven’t gone through the procurement process.
• Conducting risk assessments for new vendors during the onboarding process.
• Identifying vendor risks and assigning risk scores.
• Analyzing security documentation to find exactly what you need. 
• Tracking the status of each vendor during a review cycle. 

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The right vendor risk management software can also streamline aspects of the process that can’t be fully automated. A VRM solution could make these processes more efficient: 

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• Creating a vendor review questionnaire that suits your compliance needs and risk appetite.
• Streamlining vendor review workflows, such as requesting documentation from vendors and sending them risk questionnaires.
• Improving alignment and collaboration across teams.

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Best practices for automating vendor risk management

Automating your vendor risk management processes can bolster your GRC program, which can help you minimize risks and use your team’s resources more efficiently. Follow these best practices to get the most out of your automated VRM to enhance your overall GRC framework:

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• Pick the right VRM automation tool: Your automation platform is the foundation of your VRM program. Understand what your organization needs and ensure that you’re selecting the right one for your business. 
• Set up continuous monitoring: Ensure you’re able to leverage the continuous monitoring capabilities of any tool you choose. This looks like a tool with alert capabilities that inform you when there are new vendors connected to your infrastructure, changes to vendor risks, and other important risk updates for your organization to keep an eye on. 
• Integrate VRM automation into existing workflows: Connect your VRM platform to the tools and workflows your teams are already using for maximum efficiency. 
• Centralize your evidence at all times: Compile your security and compliance documentation in one place. This ensures that you’re always ready for an audit and makes it easier to update documents as your policies change. 
• Consider future needs: As you create a plan for automating your VRM program, make it scalable by choosing an automation tool that can adjust and grow with your business.

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Choosing the right automated VRM platform

It’s important to choose the right automated VRM platform to streamline your vendor risk component of your GRC program. The tool you choose should make managing your program easier and more sustainable as your business grows. 

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With Vanta’s Vendor Risk Management solution you can: 

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• Discover and onboard vendors automatically
• Streamline inherent risk assessment
• Source vendor security information without the pain

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Unlike traditional GRC tools, Vanta takes it a step further with automated evidence collection and alerts, AI-powered risk questionnaires, and simplified audit preparation. Take a tour of Vanta’s VRM solution.

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