For many InfoSec teams, the following is an all too familiar scenario: a vendor assessment request comes in, which prompts a sales or procurement lead to pass the documentation off to an InfoSec resource to fill out. The InfoSec resource then has to gather required data from various departments and stakeholders across the organization to fill out the assessment in full, which can take days or weeks, depending on how spread out the information is.

If the above is all too real to your team, it’s time to double down on efficiency and implement new processes that can help streamline your assessment process.

Collaboration = efficiency

What if, instead of leaving it up to your InfoSec team to gather assessment information, you had stakeholders across your organization readily prepared with the data you’re looking for? Internal collaboration between departments (product, finance, sales, etc.) can reduce unnecessary data collection and help reduce manual errors. Instead of leaving it up to your InfoSec resources to hunt down SMEs across departments, opening up your assessment documentation to these SMEs directly ensures your assessment answers are entirely correct every time.

Instead of slow, manual data gathering, a fully collaborative approach means that all internal stakeholders are in charge of keeping their segment of a vendor risk assessment up to date. A change in product access, for example, that requires an update to an assessment section is now the responsibility of the product team, not the InfoSec team. These updates should be made safely and securely and then published for all stakeholders to access. Sales and procurement reps, sharing this information with potential vendors, automatically access the most up-to-date information available.

Building a collaborative vendor risk management process

If you’re ready to say goodbye to manual processes and usher in a new era of collaborative vendor risk management, look no further. With Whistic, InfoSec leaders can open up assessments to key stakeholders, granting edit access only to those resources who need it. Then, when edits need to be made, updates can be published directly to the assessment or questionnaire in question with little to no lag time. When working with vendors, sales and procurement teams always have access to the most up-to-date assessment, eliminating the risk of manual error or sharing the wrong information with vendors.

You can learn more about the Whistic platform here.