Your time is valuable and chasing down vendor information is time consuming, expensive, and often never done. With increased outsourcing of critical business functions, the chances are your institution shares critical vendors with other many other institutions as well. Regulators and auditors are increasingly focusing more on how vendors and contracts are managed and maintained by institutions. This means that every institution is bearing the full brunt of the cost to meet regulatory requirements for Vendor Due Diligence. Learn more at: www.nafcu.org/quantivate

1. 6 Tips for Choosing Vendor Management Software
Your time is valuable and chasing down vendor information is time consuming, expensive, and often never done. With increased
outsourcing of critical business functions, the chances are your institution shares critical vendors with other many other institutions as
well. Regulators and auditors are increasingly focusing more on how vendors and contracts are managed and maintained by institutions.
This means that every institution is bearing the full brunt of the cost to meet regulatory requirements for Vendor Due Diligence. It is
more critical than ever to make your vendor management implementations easier, faster, secure, and cost effective. What are some of
the things to look for in choosing a comprehensive VM software solution? Below are a few tips that will guide you in choosing the right
solutions for your organization.
Centralized Vendor Information
Managing vendors information (financials, contracts, insurance certificates, etc.) is critical. Many
1 organizations rely on filing cabinets, spreadsheets, and word processing software to manage their
vendor relationships. However, these methods are time consuming and no longer meet growing
requirements from auditors or government agencies. Look for a solution that can provide a
comprehensive and centralized database to store your critical vendor contracts and information.
User-Friendly & Customizable
Managing multiple vendors can be overwhelming since each vendor is unique and one-size does not
2 fit all. Choosing the right VM solution can play a big part in ensuring success. Having a user-friendly
and customizable platform can give you not only at-a-glance information but also the ability to
modify the solution to fit your needs to manage your vendor situation.
TIPS
Ability to Manage Vendor Risk
3 Due diligence requires investigating a vendor’s ability to deliver its promise. On-going due diligence
process for existing vendors considers the following areas: financial, information security, business
continuity, human resources, legal, compliance, operational performance, and reputation. A good
vendor management solution should give you the ability to perform due diligence and score your
vendors by using multiple variables to determine the overall risk of each vendor.
Integration with Other Risk Management Solutions
Integrating data across the organization can be very beneficial for the organization by eliminating
4 redundant activities, processes, and documentation saving valuable time and money. In addition,
integrated solutions also provide consistent data for clear visibility into all risk management
activities. Including, business continuity, enterprise risk management, information security, and
audit management.
Comply With All Regulatory Requirements
There are many contract management and vendor management software solutions available,
5 from ad-hoc software tools (MS Word, MS SharePoint, etc) to robust fully integrated solutions
provided by dedicated software vendors. However, few are designed to meet specific regulatory
requirements (NCUA/FDIC/OTS/OCC). A good vendor management solution should be able to
organize and generate reports for not only management review but also meet the needs of auditors
during compliance examinations.
Choose Web-Based Solutions
The goal of using web-based vendor management software is to improve the availability and reliability
6 of critical business applications while lowering costs. With web-based vendor management you can
work anywhere you have an internet connection, the software is always up-to-date and you don’t
have to maintain expensive systems to run the software.
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