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Tips for Internal and External Collaboration When Assessing Vendors

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All too often, vendor security assessments result in a roadblock during the vendor partnership process, leading to weeks or even months of back-and-forth collaboration before a deal can be signed. In today’s fast-paced, open-source world of data sharing, these kinds of roadblocks are highly frowned upon by high-performance SaaS organizations. To establish a reputation as a security leader in your space, you must be able to collaborate and communicate effectively with vendors and your internal team alike.

Tips for internal collaboration

First, your team must be able to communicate effectively internally to be on the same page when it comes to vendor assessments and vendor security management in general. There are a few ways to promote internal collaboration and visibility around vendor assessments:

  • Work with sales/procurement teams to introduce vendor security assessments early in the sales process.
  • Give key internal stakeholders access to your vendor security protocols and controls.
  • Educate all employees from day one on the importance of data privacy, security, and process so that nothing slips through the cracks.

Efficient external collaboration processes

On the other hand, external collaboration can sometimes be even more critical, especially if the vendor assessment processes on either side are exceptionally lengthy or drawn out. One of the easiest, most important ways that InfoSec teams can streamline the vendor assessment process is by being completely transparent and open with the new vendor in question. Here are a few tips for efficient external collaboration:

  • Publish your security posture and/or assessments publicly so your vendors can see this information before formal vendor security conversations begin.
  • Instead of relying on email communications and spreadsheets to manage assessments and questionnaires, leverage a cloud-based solution that can be accessed and updated in real-time to keep both parties on the same page.
  • Check back in on an ongoing basis with your existing vendors to ensure security controls are up-to-date and that there are no gaps anywhere to prevent threats.

Ready to get started?

If your InfoSec team is not currently leveraging a vendor risk management solution, now is the time. As more and more vendors adopt open-source data sharing models, now is the time to switch and stay up to date with the latest technology and processes.

With Whistic, your InfoSec team, key internal stakeholders, and external vendor contacts can all have access and visibility into your vendor security protocols and controls. With cloud-based access, your team can easily make updates and then publish this information across all of these groups, promoting visibility, transparency, and collaboration throughout the entire vendor risk management process.

You can learn more about adopting a flexible vendor risk management solution here.

Vendor Assessments