Moving away from Spreadsheets for Vendor Management

Over the past several years, regulators have targeted vendor management as one of their top regulatory concerns. With growing dependence on third parties for services, the need for effective vendor management programs has increased. While regulatory framework for vendor management has been in place for years, the detailed expectations and efficiency have been missing. Most organizations have adopted a vendor management process using spreadsheets – which lacks consistency, efficiency, clarity, effectiveness and oversight.

A software solution will help you move beyond spreadsheets and onto a centralized system that will streamline your process and clarify the procedure for everyone involved. Having an automated system will help you manage your vendors more efficiently. Examiners are looking for programs that have automated contract management and due diligence alerts when documents are nearing expirations and also comprehensive assessments, such as risk and controls assessments. An automated system will manage these processes more effectively and efficiently by creating a consistent workflow that a spreadsheet can’t produce. Additionally, a software solution is a more effective way to manage your vendors because it will reduce likeliness of user errors that spreadsheets can cause by keying mistakes or employees not using the correct spreadsheet because there could be multiple copies that are being saved.

With increasing regulations and demands concerning governance and compliance, companies can no longer risk using spreadsheets to manage third-party vendor polices and procedures. By using a centralized vendor management software system, organizations can simplify and standardize their process, effectively managing vendor risk and relationships, and ultimately saving time and money throughout the entire company.