5 Ways Our Vendor Management Platform Can Ease the Burden of Managing the Vendor Lifecycle

Are you tired of managing your vendors with spreadsheets? Do you have a different tab for every third party? Does the prospect of a regulatory exam make you break out into a cold sweat?

The reality is that managing vendors manually can be inefficient, costly, and burdensome. A manual program creates redundancies, disorganization, and a decentralized process that cannot be easily reviewed by an examiner or board member.

New Year, New Solution

A new year means a new solution! Here are five ways that ACA Aponix’s Vendor Management Platform can help ease your pain when it comes to managing your third parties:

1. Consolidated vendor management processes – A central location that allows you to manage your vendors holistically, even with different lines of business involved, has become the new standard across industries. A centralized platform can provide you with standardized processes, the ability to identify and monitor third-party risk, and document next steps for resolution of critical items all in one place. Our Vendor Management Platform allows you to manage vendor inventory, contracts, risks, and due diligence reports all in one easily accessible location.
    
2. Streamlined and automated due diligence tasks – Tired of pestering vendors to complete a questionnaire? No worries, our Vendor Management Platform can do the work for you. Unresponsive vendors are easy to keep track of with automatic status updates, tracked conversations, and automatic notifications when results are available for your review. That means no more missed dates, due diligence questionnaires that have fallen through the cracks or overlapped, or worrying about manually updating information (vendor diligence lists, statuses, due dates, reminders, etc.)!
    
3. Increased efficiency – Eliminate manual tasks and use that time for what is really important this year. An automated platform can stop the constant juggling of vendor management activities and shut down the never-ending cycle of managing vendors. Our Vendor Management Platform drives the process, helping your vendor management program become scalable and reliable.
    
4. No more sweating over regulatory exams – Don't expect manually updated spreadsheets to pass examiner scrutiny as a comprehensive vendor management program, especially if the information is missing or inaccurate. Our Vendor Management Platform can create a standard reporting set that is tailored to your individual business and vendor services. Clearly identified risks will highlight areas of concern with the use of a particular vendor and comprehensive tracking is easily maintained for next steps once issues are identified. The platform's comprehensive dashboard makes it easy to track, report, and maintain a vendor management program annually.
    
5. Saved costs – When it comes to your business, nothing is more critical than your revenue. Don’t let your vendors cost you time and money by manually managing contracts, terms, notifications, and due diligence reviews. Let your staff focus on other priorities and simplify the process with our Vendor Management Platform. The platform is utilized by cybersecurity and third-party risk experts that hand-select appropriate questionnaires, send reminders, and evaluate responses. This means less time spent on achieving due diligence and more time spent on decision making once third-party risk is identified.

About the Author

Lindsay Baker is a Principal Consultant at ACA Aponix, ACA’s cybersecurity and risk division. Her primary activities and responsibilities include managing the vendor due diligence activities, including third-party risk assessments, as part of a holistic technology risk evaluation and advisory service for financial firms.

Prior to ACA Aponix, Lindsay served as an Information Security Risk Consultant for HM Health Solutions. HM Health Solutions is a healthcare based technology consulting subsidiary of Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS). In this role, Lindsay’s primary focus was cybersecurity risk management for Highmark BCBS as well as associated subsidiaries and hospital networks. In addition, she managed a successful HITRUST certification for HM Health Solutions.

Lindsay previously was employed by Commonwealth Financial Network, an independent broker/dealer-RIA, serving on the information security team. She advised internal teams as well as external RIAs on all aspects of cybersecurity including new technology implementations and ISO 27001 alignment. She was a featured technology writer for the award winning Commonwealth Business Review.

Lindsay earned a BS in Anthropology and Sociology from Central Michigan University and Information Technology and Security degree from Baker College.