Vendor audits are a nightmare – here's how to make them less time-consuming
Doing one vendor audit is manageable. Doing them at scale is a different problem entirely. Chasing vendors for information, following up on half-answered questionnaires, losing track of who responded and who didn't… it adds up fast.
The solution isn't working harder. It's having a programme with structure, overview and control. Here are five things that make a real difference.
1. Start with a complete vendor list
This sounds obvious. It isn't.
A simple list of all your vendors – with a clear label for which are data processors – is the single most important foundation of any vendor audit programme. Without it, you cannot prioritise. You cannot decide where your audit resources will have the most impact. You're just guessing.
In practice, this list often doesn't exist, or it's incomplete and out of date. If that's where you are, start here before anything else.
2. Know which vendors are critical
Once you have your list, the next step is understanding which vendors matter most.
For data protection, that means the systems posing the greatest risk to data subjects. For information security, it's the systems that pose the greatest risk to the organisation or wider society. Your classification system needs to be flexible enough to reflect both – different labels for different contexts.
Criticality drives everything else: audit frequency, audit method, and how much attention each vendor gets.
3. Decide on method and timing upfront
Not all vendor audits look the same. A critical system might require you to work through an ISAE 3000 or ISO audit report every year. A low-risk vendor might just need a brief email every two years to confirm they're still operating in line with your contract.
The key is deciding the method and timing when a vendor is onboarded, not when the audit is due. Put it in your system as a recurring task and move on. Common audit types include physical audits, external auditor reports, questionnaires, vendor statements, and no audit at all for low-risk suppliers.
One word of caution: be realistic. It's easy to set ambitious standards when you're planning ahead. Base your decisions on the resources you actually have, and use objective criteria – number of data subjects, sensitivity of information, risk level – to govern the process.
4. Automate everything you can
Even with a solid overview in place, the execution phase is where things fall apart. Emails go out. Some vendors respond. Some respond partially. Some don't respond at all.
Build your system so that reminders, follow-ups and status tracking happen automatically. At any given moment, you should be able to see who has responded, who hasn't, and who needs a nudge – without having to manually track it.
5. Actually evaluate what comes back
This one gets skipped more often than you'd think.
Questionnaires go unevaluated. External audit reports sit unread. The information arrives and then nothing happens with it.
The information you collect from vendors is only as valuable as what you do with it. Build evaluation into the process from the start – that's where the real and proactive risk management happens.