Assessing A Vendor — Vendor Due Diligence

Abhijeet Krishna
3 min readDec 4, 2021

You can say that a Vendor is someone who provides, or in other words-supplies goods and services. If you know about the Supply Chain, you will understand that vendors form the last link of the supply chain.

While thinking about approaching a new Vendor, a lot of thoughts and questions pop up about their sales and financial background among others. Keep reading to know more about Vendor Assessment.

Understanding Vendor Due Diligence

Assessing vendors involves finding out all the necessary details about them that could have an impact on a prospective business.

This is where Vendor Due Diligence comes into picture.

A vendor is reviewed thoroughly on various parameters like the nature of their business, incorporation documents, the possibility of financial fraud, legal status and cash flow.

Read More- Top Vendor Management Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Why Vendor Due Diligence

To engage with other businesses, you need to be certain whether their goods and services are genuine or not.

It is like providing the buyer or investor with a seal of trust saying that this vendor will not be much of a liability to them.

Moreover, it helps vendors to paint a clear picture about what kind of risks they can fall into and make decisions about their assets.

Do you know about KYC- Find out here

7 Vendor Due Diligence Practices To Rely On

Here are our top picks for the best Vendor Due Diligence practices that should be done for any new vendor you are planning to engage with.

1. Gathering and Reviewing of Business and Financial Information

Collect every single piece of information of the prospective vendor starting from financial stability to employee conduct. Make sure to go back to those who have recommended the vendor. Proper understanding of the organisation is a must.

2. Operational Risks To Be Noted

It is necessary to understand that there are chances where the vendor could experience a data breach. Strategies and Plans of Action should be planned out for any such occurrences in future accordingly.

3. Legal Risks

Vendors have access to all of the information for the company or organisation they’re providing their services to. With such information, the company is vulnerable to data leakage. Hence, there has to be a thorough assessment of all the legal risks.

4. Analyse Risks in Cybersecurity

Apart from Operational and Legal Risks, the company must also look into the cybersecurity issues beforehand and decide whether they work with the vendor or not.

5. Prioritization of Risk Profiles

Vendors have to be under scrutiny all the time because of all the information they hold. To cut down on the risks mentioned above, they have to be on a tight watch.

6. Constant Monitoring of Vendor Risks

When a clear picture of the risks has been made as told previously, to minimize the risks, they (vendors) have to be observed always.

7. Automation of The Questionnaire Process

The company has to invest in impartial third-party software to view all inside information of the vendor and conclude whether they are fit to work for the company or not.

Avail the best Vendor Due Diligence Services only at Proquest

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Abhijeet Krishna
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Human Resources Specialist at Proquest Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd