Are you struggling to coordinate efforts between the security team and business stakeholders? Vendor relationship management is a crucial component in the assessment process. Business units see security teams as red tape, causing delays and getting in the way of business overall. Yet, business stakeholders are often essential to helping security teams move swiftly and securely. Engaging your business units is a challenging task. Here are five ways to master vendor relationship management and involve stakeholders to help make security efforts move faster.
In this article, we will discuss the following five methods for stakeholder involvement:
- Give stakeholders process visibility
- Listen to stakeholder input.
- Engage third-party vendors.
- Make your team easily accessible.
- Offer a helping hand.
5 Ways To Improve Vendor Relationship Management
1. Give Stakeholders Process Visibility
Security processes are often black holes to stakeholders. They know they need a security clearance but often need to learn what it means. Educating your stakeholders on your assessment process makes them feel more connected and better informed about where things are. If the process is no longer a black hole, there will be more trust in engaging the security teams. Start allows Business stakeholders to view Vendor profiles in their portal and see exactly where they are in the assessment process.
2. Listen To Stakeholders Input
If there are process breakdowns or criticism from the business, listen to that feedback and be transparent about changes that your team is making to ease those concerns. Is the process taking too long? Is it delaying deliverables? Are there not enough updates? Explaining or sympathizing with your stakeholders often results in more empathy toward your team. This will make the business feel more like a partner to your team and increase collaboration.
3. Engage Third-Party Vendors
Assessments take work. Sometimes, third-party vendors are also resistant to doing what security asks. Your business stakeholders often have established trusting relationships with these vendors. Engaging stakeholders to help move the vendor along or get assistance with communicating with the vendor can result in fewer delays and more transparency. Stakeholders are vital to shorter assessments and better partnerships with third-party vendors. Start allows users to customize email communications to copy stakeholders associated with each vendor. This helps the business to step in on issues, ask the vendor for updates directly, or help push deliverables over the finish line for assessments.
4. Make Your Team Easily Accessible
Forms, questionnaires, and email, the options for engagement are endless. Giving your stakeholders a dedicated place where they know they can reach your security team will help streamline communication and allow a painless submission process. A one-stop shop can decrease confusion and allow for sharing more transparent updates. Start offers a Roster portal where stakeholders can submit new requests, sign up for email updates, and see assessment statuses, all from a single location.
5. Offer a Helping Hand
Security should not halt business. That is part of Start’s vision statement! Showing your stakeholders that you are there to help them build prosperous (and secure) relationships with third-party vendors will only add to your team’s business value. Engaging stakeholders in assessments, giving visibility, and educating the business on the process will help remove some of the daily red tape stigma many security teams face. Show the business your team is an asset that is there to help, not be the reason their projects get delayed.
Vendor Relationship Management With Start
Start was made with vendor relationship management in mind. Security should become part of the business process, not be seen as the red tape that blocks business. Through Start’s Roster interface, your business stakeholders can gain increased visibility into assessments, receive communications between security and third-party vendors and submit new assessment requests, all from one place! Help remove the red tape stigma from your company. Ask for a Start demo today!
