Why You and Your Vendors Should Be Thankful for One Another

Especially in light of the hardship this year, it’s more important than ever to focus on the things we are thankful for, both personally and professionally. At Venminder, we are so grateful for the amazing people that make up our company. We’re incredibly grateful for our customers and we’re immensely proud of how our products and services continue to grow and improve.  

As we pause to spend the holiday season with our families and friends, we thought it would be a good idea to remind ourselves of all of the reasons to be thankful for our colleagues in third-party risk management, especially our vendors, who help keep our working relationships great!  

3 Reasons to be Thankful for our Vendor Relationships

1. We’re partners. The ultimate goal when it comes to selecting vendors and creating working relationships is developing a partnership. We invest in the skillset and service offerings a vendor provides, and in return they’re entrusted with our valuable assets and data. We’re all on the same team: their success is our success and vice versa! But, as we continue to set the tone for the partnership, it’s important to be clear around goals for both remediation and control enhancement. While there may be some back and forth to arrive at mutually agreeable standards, it’s all part-and-parcel for establishing a long-lasting partnership based on trust. 
   
   
2. Problems are remediated more quickly. When it comes to addressing roadblocks and assessing control gaps, two heads are always better than one. These are opportunities to use diverse sets of skillsets to solve problems, together, and in a practical way. This is a relationship based on mutuality! Transparency and trust are a must. Take it from us, once those are established, you’ll be forever grateful. 
   
   
3. Together, we strengthen the industry. Strong partnerships built on healthy communication and problem-solving leads to a stronger, third-party risk management industry as a whole. In some ways, we’d like to think of our relationships with our vendors as creating a kind of superhero solidarity: fighting bad actors, upholding regulatory standards, safeguarding business reputations and overall, just minimizing risk, a little bit at a time, every, single day. But, we can’t do it alone, and neither can they. 

Gratitude shouldn’t just be a once-a-year kind of thing. It’s important to remind ourselves regularly that together we continue to make third-party risk management an industry that is united in helping each other mitigate risk the best way possible. Not solely for just our organizations or for our customers, but for the world. Now that is something to be thankful for.

Make sure you are thankful for your vendors all year and have processes in place for ongoing monitoring. Download the infographic.