Tracie Kosakowski approaches her consulting work in the financial services and fintech space with the mindset of an educator. “I always wanted to be a teacher, and I never realized that it would come full circle with consulting. I love working with entrepreneurs who have great ideas and then helping them [stay compliant].” 

Her teaching style, combined with experience as a bank compliance leader, consultant to banks, and fintech advisor, gives Tracie a unique perspective on third-party risk management. With Venminder as her TPRM tool of choice, Tracie is helping organizations shift vendor management from a tactical burden to a strategic advantage and build compliance confidence — all while continuing to grow and expand their services.  

Challenge

Before using Venminder, Tracie served as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at a financial institution, facing the same vendor management challenges she would later help others address. Like many organizations, the firm relied on Excel spreadsheets to track vendor information — an approach that quickly became unmanageable. “It just wasn’t scalable, and no one wanted to deal with it because it was so cumbersome.”

The lack of an audit trail also meant that hours of hard work could easily be erased. “People could come in and accidentally change things. It's very hard to get a snapshot view of the vendor when you're going over 427 rows because you're trying to operationalize all the data that you've gathered in some way."

The challenges went beyond data management. Tracie’s team struggled to track vendor due diligence documents, manage deadlines tied to risk assessments, and keep a transparent record of decisions. “Excel spreadsheets and email only get you so far. The thing with email is, it’s great up to a certain point — until you have to go back two years and remember who said what to whom.”

Solution

Tracie and her team chose Venminder because they found it scalable, easy to use, and efficient for both the internal team and external partners — an evaluation criterion she still uses for software today. "I don't want to have to read the owner's manual to figure out how to use a piece of software.”

The implementation also brought other key features and benefits:

• Seamless Data Migration: The Venminder team imported the institution’s existing Excel spreadsheets, and "when we opened the software, everything popped up where we needed to be, and it was very obvious where our gaps were and where we needed to do some enhanced due diligence.”
• Intuitive Resources: Tracie and her team quickly took advantage of the sample resources available, including questionnaires and templates. “Starting from scratch is very difficult, but Venminder guides you along the way. You can start with a variety of questionnaires, including both technology-focused and compliance-focused options."
• Gated Document Access: The security permissions allow for specific contacts to easily access private information. “For example, if you have a legal document that is [for] counsel's eyes only and you only want the head of compliance and the head of legal to see that, you can upload that documentation."
• Real-Time Vendor Collaboration: Venminder’s ease of use makes collaboration easy. "If an entity wants to launch a questionnaire to gather data on a partner, they invite that partner into the questionnaire. They get a very easy-to-understand email with a link to the Venminder application, and then it's just answering a bunch of questions like a survey."
• ‘Tremendous’ Ongoing Support: Tracie noted the value of having access to a “real live person” following the implementation and that the Venminder customer support team is always ready and willing to answer questions. “They’re true experts in the system, able to help you find what you need, run reports, navigate data, and more. It’s like having the Encyclopedia Britannica for Venminder in a person. They even follow up afterward to make sure the solution worked as expected.”

Result

The transformation from Excel spreadsheets to Venminder revolutionized how Tracie approaches vendor management — both in her previous banking role and now in her consulting practice — with significant improvements across many areas:

• Streamlined Workflows: Having an automated centralized platform for vendor management has saved Tracie many operational headaches. “It really becomes a day-to-day situation where if you're involved in vendor management, you come in the morning, you have Venminder open, and it'll tell you what you need to do.”
• Efficient Due Diligence: Instead of piecing together data from emails and SharePoint, everything is in one place. With a unified dashboard and detailed views, Tracie can easily see IT, compliance, and data risks and assess vendors with confidence. “The entire due diligence process is much easier and more efficient because you have that easy back and forth with the vendor and the entity, and it's in real time.”
• Improved Audit Trail: With a complete, consolidated view of each vendor — including biographical info, questionnaire responses, and risk assessments — Tracie can demonstrate the full decision-making process and document all stakeholders involved.
• Empowered Strategic Planning. With an automated system that allows her to spend less time on “tactical things,” Tracie can think more strategically. “You're able to sit down and make a holistic decision based on all the data available to you.”
• Maximized Resources: Tracie didn’t have to hire another team member to learn the software, saving valuable time and money. “We could quickly train the team to use this software and be up and running in no time.”
• Regulatory Confidence: “My favorite part is that in my experience, regulators like the idea of the comprehensive solution provided by Venminder in that it allows the institution to provide a very wholesome view and provide a detailed analysis for due diligence of a vendor.”

Looking Ahead

Today, as a consultant working with both organizations implementing Venminder and fintechs responding to Venminder questionnaires, Tracie has seen the platform's versatility across different organizational perspectives and continues to recommend the software to her clients. 

“There are some master class compliance teams out there at different banks who have definitely utilized Venminder to the ultimate. It’s so great to see that and so great to know that they are very much supported by this software and meeting the regulatory requirements.”

Venminder Implementation Tips from Solve Group

Tracie recommends that organizations implementing Venminder should:

• Take the road test. “The [Venminder] team will definitely work with you to take a look at your current vendor set and utilize the software to see how it can improve your current process.
• Ask the hard questions. "Really pay attention during the demos. Really see — do you have to read the owner's manual to figure out this type of software, or can you natively understand it? You can natively understand Venminder."