Vendor Risk Management

Know Your Risk Before Signing a Vendor Contract

When using third-party suppliers, your data security and regulatory compliance are only as good as your vendor’s. If you outsource certain aspects of your operations, a vendor risk assessment and management program are important to obtain or maintain compliance, and to protect your profitability, brand reputation and limit your liability.

You’ll rest assured when you work with Essendis advisory consultants because they:

Have experience managing the vendor risk process with Fortune 500 companies, bulge bracket banks and nationally ranked healthcare providers, so they know the right questions to ask third-party suppliers.

Make sense of the different technology and service delivery processes from a variety of vendors.

Provide independent, practical and actionable evaluations to help your team understand and mitigate vendor-specific risks.

Can work with your vendors to craft a Plan of Action & Milestones (POA&M), Corrective Action Plan (CAP) or custom remediation plan to request features or processes that align with your requirements.

Experience Backed By Industry Expertise

Big Four experience that includes the most advanced training on audit methodology and top-tier cybersecurity certifications: CISA, CISM, CISSP, CCSP, PCIP, HCISPP, CPA.

We’re abreast of the latest changes in the cybersecurity and legal environments through membership in the AICPA, the SANS Institute, the PCI Council, (ISC)² and ISACA.

Discuss what vendor risk management could look like for your organization.

Connect with an Expert

A Risk-Based Approach to Managing Suppliers

To assess a vendor’s security posture and operations, Essendis can conduct an initial vendor evaluation or, for a deeper analysis, have the supplier complete a detailed questionnaire — upwards of 1,000 questions — that provides critical insight into a supplier’s adoption of key cybersecurity concepts, including:

Physical security of the facility.

Environmental security — natural or man-made environmental threats to the facility.

Data transfer and retention.

Secure system development lifecycle.

Data encryption.

System interconnections — how, if at all, does the system communicate with other systems.

System availability — processes for redundancy, backup, disaster recovery and more.

Administrative and user system access.

Flexible Solutions to Guide Your Vendor Risk Management Program

Choose from the following service offerings to effectively evaluate and mitigate your vendor risk:

Bronze

Individual assessments

A single vendor assessment, which is ideal for companies that occasionally work with new vendors.

SILVER

Assessment Bundles

Save when you invest in packages of 5, 10, 20 or more. Bundles are perfect for businesses that work with multiple new suppliers each year.

GOLD

Managed Vendor Risk

All vendor assessments are conducted under one monthly fee. The managed vendor risk program is best for companies that require a large number of vendor assessments each cycle.