Challenge

At First State Bank, a small community bank based in Waynesboro, Mississippi, a big hurdle, due to their limited on-staff employees, was meeting the regulatory requirement that involved collecting and evaluating due diligence documentation. The bank was also using Excel spreadsheets to manage their vendors, which they found cumbersome and difficult to maintain.

“Being a community bank, we don’t have enough employees that have the time and the IT background to really evaluate in the manner we need to determine if our third-party providers are doing their proper due diligence in protecting our data. We were also using Excel spreadsheets which were not in-depth and definitely not easy to use,” said Connie Grimes, Vice President of Operations.

Solution

After several months of searching for the right partner, First State Bank chose to partner and onboard with Venminder for software and due diligence reviews.

“During onboarding, Venminder’s team became a true partner to me. They helped me with anything I needed and gave me advice. It was a very, very smooth process. Venminder representatives are almost like an extra employee for me.”

The bank feels by outsourcing reviews they are receiving an overall cost savings as opposed to hiring a full-time employee(s) to conduct the appropriate reviews.

“We use Venminder for reviews of vendor SOC reports and business continuity plans. The analysis we receive have been very beneficial. We are able to quickly go through the reports as opposed to going through say a 120-page SOC report. It allows us to see the areas with a vendor that requires our attention and we need to dig deeper into much faster.”

Result

Making the move to an automated software platform and gaining access to Venminder’s team of experts for due diligence reviews has worked out well for First State Bank’s vendor management program.

“Since partnering with Venminder and implementing all of our new vendor management procedures, we've actually had three exams/audits without any complaints about our vendor management program. I would recommend Venminder to any other institution who are looking for some assistance with their vendor management program.”