IT vendor risk management (VRM) software, also known as third-party or supplier risk management software, are solutions that help to mitigate against cyberattacks that affect IT service providers and suppliers causing disruption to your organization.
As a company’s supplier and third-party network becomes more extensive and complex, managing the risk to each of these becomes more and more difficult. The need for a robust risk management solution increase. If a provider in your network suffers a data breach, or is hit by a ransomware attack, it can have knock-on effects for your organization. There is the risk of your data becoming compromised, your operations being disrupted, financial penalties from regulatory bodies, and reputational damage.
IT vendor risk management solutions mitigate these risks, with key features including risk identification and assessment, compliance documentation, ongoing monitoring of risk levels, and incident response planning.
In this article, we’ll cover the top ten IT vendor risk management solutions. We’ll look at the key features offered, pricing where available, and give our recommendations on the best fit for your organization.
Archer is a leading provider of enterprise integrated vendor risk management solutions. The company is widely recognized across the industry. Their integrated risk management solution offers a broad range of vendor risk management solutions, including third-party governance, business resiliency, and corporate compliance. These tools are delivered in a single, integrated platform.
Archer Integrated Risk Management Features:
- Pre-built and customizable risk assessment questionnaires for efficient data gathering
- Continuous, actionable insights on severity of risks through Security Risk Monitoring
- Central repository for documentation of all supplier relationships and contracts
- Performance management with key performance and SLA metrics for third-party services
- Clear view of organizational dependency on third parties for better risk management
Expert Insights’ Comments: Archer is a market leading VRM provider, trusted by users, who report that the service offers granular customizations and strong reporting features. We recommend Archer Integrated Risk Management to enterprises looking for a trusted, comprehensive VRM solution.
BitSight offer a vendor risk management solution built around their security ratings platform, which produces daily security ratings to help organizations onboard and assess new vendors, manage third-party security risk, and conduct due diligence. BitSight’s solutions are used by 20% of the Fortune 500, and they support over 21,000 global customers, meaning they are one of the largest third-party security ratings providers.
BitSight Third-party Risk Management Features:
- Pre-built and custom questionnaires for quick and regular assessment of vendor risk
- Portfolio Risk Matrix for daily risk score calculation for each vendor
- Continuous monitoring of risk across relationships and recommendations for remediation actions
- Objective and quantitative reporting options for accurate risk assessment
- Advisor service with a team of experts to optimize risk assessment and remediation workflows
Expert Insights’ Comments: BitSight is a flexible and scalable VRM solution. Current customers praise the service for its user-friendly, at-a-glance risk scoring, and in-depth reporting which highlights steps that require remediation, with actionable advice. We recommend BitSight as a strong choice for enterprise teams who need accurate and detailed security risk assessments.
ReliaQuest is a security operations provider which helps organizations to detect, investigate and respond to threats across their network, supporting over 700 customers worldwide across six global operating centres. Their Digital Risk Protection solution provides 360-degree visibility into security threats both inside, and outside their organization.
ReliaQuest GreyMatter Digital Risk Protection Features:
- Continuous monitoring of solutions from various code-repositories, criminal forums, and marketplaces to discover threats
- Actionable security insights and context-rich alerts with in-depth reporting
- Integrations with third-party tools and workflows for 360-degree threat visibility
- Clear, easy-to-manage admin dashboard and controls to reduce noise and false positives
Expert Insights’ Comments: ReliaQuest offers a single-plane-of-glass cyber intelligence and threat detection platform. Unlike other providers on this list, it is not solely focused on third-party vendor risk management but provides visibility into threats both outside and inside the security network. This is a strong solution for teams looking for a single platform to enhance visibility across tools and manage both internal and external security risks.
LogicGate is a risk management provider offering an interconnected view of risk across your organization and third-party providers. Their Risk Cloud platform provides a holistic view of technologies across your organization, with integrations to help manage and remediate against risks in your connected technology stack and improve efficiency with risk management and compliance.
LogicGate Global Risk Cloud Features:
- User-friendly drag-and-drop interface for mapping risk management processes
- Automation of risk assessment surveys to improve efficiency and ensure completion within set deadlines
- Conditional workflow rules based on third-party questionnaire response
- Ability to build risk assessment forms and capture supplier risk data with file upload and storage support
- Flexible reporting with fully customizable dashboards, including one-click generation and export of reports on third-party risks throughout the vendor lifecycle
Expert Insights’ Comments: LogicGate is a fully cloud-based vendor management solution. It’s scalable, easy to use, and enables easy integrations with other solutions via API. We recommend this solution to organizations looking for an easy-to-manage VRM solution. It is fully featured with custom workflows, a user-friendly drag and drop interface, and high-quality customer support.
LogicManager is a risk management software provider than enables organizations to monitor and mitigate against risks to protect reputations and avoid data breaches. They have been recognized as a market leader in the governance, risk management, and compliance space by figures across the industry. LogicManager’s third-party vendor risk management solution provides standardized risk assessments for third-party vendors, with automated workflows and risk analysis.
LogicManager Vendor Management System Features:
- Customizable vendor risk assessment questionnaires
- Library of industry-specific questionnaire templates for customization
- Continual assessments for updated risk data
- Broad range of reporting tools, including criticality assessment and Risk Analyzer AI, with robust, customizable reporting and dashboards
- Identification of common risks across vendors for efficient remediation
Expert Insights’ Comments: LogicManager is a flexible and scalable vendor risk management solution. It provides mapped vendor assessments to ensure compliance with internal and external compliance policies, as well as a comprehensive list of integrations with third-party tools. We recommend this as a strong VRM solution, particularly for organizations in the financial sector, prioritizing strong integrations and enforcing compliance policies.
OneTrust is a market leading provider of governance, risk management, and compliance solution, used by more than 12,000 global customers. Their risk management solution enables teams to streamline and automate the third-party management lifecycle, with clear workflows for onboarding, vendor assessment, risk identification, reporting, and offboarding.
OneTrust Third-party Risk Management Features:
- Access to pre-completed, industry-standard risk assessments
- Automatically updated vendor risk data
- Validated assessments with vendor risk scoring via Auto Inherent Risk
- Intelligence for remediation workflows via DataGuidance tool
- Near real-time alerting into new risks for seamless stakeholder notification
Pricing: OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management pricing starts at $500/month (billed annually) for organizations with fewer than 1,000 employees.
Expert Insights’ Comments: OneTrust’s Third-Party Risk Management platform offers scalable, automated vendor risk management capabilities and is ideal for enterprises looking to improve efficiency in their VRM workflows. Users praise the solution for its ease of deployment and configuration, as well it’s comprehensive integrations. We recommend this solution to organizations prioritizing streamlining vendor risk management workflows, while reducing third-party risk.
ProcessUnity provides cloud-based solutions which enable organizations to automate their risk and compliance programs. Their Vendor Risk Management platform reduces risks caused by third parties, vendors, and suppliers across the whole vendor lifecycle, including initial onboarding, with ongoing monitoring and performance reviews. ProcessUnity has been recognized as a leader in the Third-party risk management space by Forrester.
ProcessUnity Vendor Risk Management Features:
- Management of risk at each stage of the vendor lifecycle
- Easy vendor onboarding and vetting with automated initial risk assessments
- Continuously monitored vendor risk levels via regular questionnaires
- Granular customization of risk assessment and remediation workflows
- Custom reporting based on metrics relevant to the organization and sector
Expert Insights’ Comments: ProcessUnity offers a comprehensive VRM solution. The deployment process is straightforward, with pre-built, out-of-the-box configurations, and granular deployment options. Customers report that the solution provides effective risk assessments and describe the platform as easy-to-use and intuitive. We recommend this solution for organizations looking for comprehensive risk scoring and compliance risk management.
Security Scorecard is a globally leading provider of security ratings. Their platform provides continuous ratings for over 12 million companies, across 64 companies. This data is leveraged for third-party risk management, reporting, and cyber insurance reporting. Their third-party risk management solution provides visibility across all of your vendors and risks, with instant security ratings. Security Scorecard is trusted by more than 25,000 global customers.
Security Scorecard Third-party Risk Management Features:
- SecurityScorecard collects data from multiple sources for comprehensive analysis of cybersecurity risks
- Analyzes data for indicators of cybersecurity issues and classifies them into 10 categories
- Assigns a risk score to each organization, with “A” being the most secure and “F” being the least secure
- Enables businesses to send and receive security risk questionnaires, visualize risks across their third-party ecosystem, and send and receive compliance documentation
- Comprehensive reporting and visualization dashboard with integrations, data exporting, and rules-based alerts
Expert Insights’ Comments: SecurityScorecard is the leading provider of security ratings, offering scoring for your organizations own security posture, as well as the third parties that you interact with. Ratings are clearly justified and categorized. We recommend SecurityScorecard to organizations looking for continuous security scoring, with a comprehensive view across your vendor eco-system, in an easy-to-manage and scalable cloud platform.
UpGuard Vendor Risk is third-party vendor risk management solution that enables users to monitor and audit risks from third-party vendors, in order to mitigate against data breaches and comply with legal regulations. UpGuard is trusted by hundreds of global customers and was named a Representative Vendor in the market by Gartner.
UpGuard Vendor Risk Features:
- Comprehensive monitoring and assessment via vendor security ratings, domain security ratings, and custom vendor attributes
- Ongoing risk assessments, a library of security questionnaires and a custom questionnaire builder
- Automated remediation workflows and a remediation planner, with a managed remediation option
- Granular reporting and insights, with templates, roles and permissions, auditing, and third-party integrations with a range of tools and an API
- Comprehensive, easy-to-use dashboards and risk assessments – data is sorted into one of six risk categories in real-time
Pricing: Starter pricing begins at $18,999 per year, which covers risk assessments for up to 50 vendors, with 3 admins. Enterprise pricing for unlimited vendors is available upon request.
Expert Insights’ Comments: UpGaurd offers a comprehensive, feature-packed vendor risk management solution. It provides granular security ratings and risk assessments, with clear categories for different types of security risks, including website risks, email security, phishing and malware, and reputation risk. We recommend this solution for organizations looking to build a comprehensive VRM solution, which improves benchmarking and clarity in security ratings.
VenMinder is a third-party risk management provider that enables organizations to improve their vendor risk management procedures, reduce due-diligence workloads, and streamline the onboarding process. VenMinder is a dedicated VRM provider, used by over 1,000 global customers across a range of industries, from SMBs to Fortune 100 organizations. As well as a software vendor risk management platform, VenMinder also provides assessments, a managed service, and continuous monitoring.
VenMinder Features:
- Custom risk assessment questionnaires, with the ability for unlimited users to contribute questions and create risk rating reports
- Streamlined management, with oversight and issue management features to enable admins to manage vendor risk more efficiently
- Continuous high-level monitoring of risks for any vendors you work with, via global threat intelligence data providers
- Advanced workflows to drive efficient and consistent process for onboarding new vendors
- Easy-to-manage, granular reports and dashboards with automated scheduling – these include documents received, due-diligence tasks, and risk levels
Expert Insights’ Comments: VenMinder offer a leading VRM solution, which streamlines vendor risk assessments and provides comprehensive high-level monitoring of risks. Users report that the solution provides excellent customer support and user community groups for sharing advice and best practices. We recommend this solution to organizations looking to build consistent workflows with custom risk assessments, particularly those who may be considering a managed service option.
What Is IT Vendor Risk Management?
IT vendor risk management (VRM) is the process of evaluating, monitoring, and managing risks associated with third-party IT services and technology. IT vendor risk management solutions synthesize all available data, then analyze it to understand the risks it poses. By understanding these risks, you are in a better position to mitigate against them.
These risks can include:
- Security risks: A lack of security preparation can lead to data breaches, financial loss, and reputational damage
- Financial risks: Financial loss can occur if suppliers are unable to pay for the services they provide, or you provide them
- Legal risks: You may be held responsible for the usage of your data if your vendors are breaking legal or industry regulations
Why Is IT Vendor Risk Management Important?
Most organizations today rely on third-party vendors, across a wide range of use cases. These solutions might include using a third-party CRM system to track sales, digital marketing firms that manage website development, or a third-party app to manage an online e-shopping portal. These services can be integral to the running of your business – but they do come with a degree of risk.
For example, if a third-party CRM application is compromised in a data breach, your company, or customer data stored there, could also be at risk. Similarly, if it suffers an outage, you could ultimately end up losing money by missing sales opportunities that may otherwise have succeeded.
A VRM solution can help organizations to mitigate these risks. They can evaluate different solutions in order to help you choose which organization to partner with. Once you have decided on a solution, they can provide continuous monitoring so that if there is downtime or a security breach, you can quickly mitigate and remediate. They provide reporting and intuitive dashboards to help you monitor the vendors you work with.
What Features Do IT Vendor Risk Management Solutions Offer?
Common features offered by vendor risk management solutions include:
- Continuous risk assessments through the whole vendor management life cycle
- Reporting and analytics, which can be easily exported
- A dashboard for storing contracts and important documents
- Collaboration and access management tools
- Automation of key tasks, including alerting when risks are detected
- Integrations with other tools to create customized workflows
