Why Vendor Monitoring is Important to the Vendor Management Process

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What is vendor monitoring, and why is it important to the vendor management process? Vendor monitoring, also known as ongoing monitoring, involves overseeing the vendor’s performance to determine if the vendor is performing as required by the service levels and contract terms.

The Third Party Risk Management Guidance states that ongoing monitoring enables a banking organization to:

  1. Confirm the quality and sustainability of a vendor’s controls and ability to meet contractual obligations.
  2. Escalate significant issues or concerns, such as material or repeat audit findings, deterioration in financial condition, security breaches, data loss, service interruptions, compliance lapses, or other indicators of increased risk.
  3. Respond to such significant issues or concerns when identified.

Strunk’s Vendor Manager software enables you to continuously monitor and manage your vendor relationships. The software allows you to configure ongoing monitoring activities based on the risk profile of each vendor. You can set reminders for when the ongoing monitoring item needs to take place.

Within the monitoring section of Vendor Manager, financial institutions can establish categories and metrics to document vendor performance findings and any necessary remediation measures. Strunk’s Vendor Manager’s monitoring section generates reports that highlight potential risks or significant issues requiring attention from senior management and the board of directors. This framework also provides feedback to your organization and ensures compliance with all regulatory expectations.

An independent certified public accountant has examined Strunk’s operations and found them to be in compliance with the AICPA’s Trust Service Principles. It was determined that Strunk meets the Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy criteria for SOC 2 established by the AICPA.