You know it’s coming – Every year, due diligence has a new set of challenges to add to the old ones. Do you have less team members devoted to the task than you used to? Are you up to date on the latest regulations or not quite sure? Are you confident you have enough hands and minds to get the job done, and when you’re finished, did you get it right? Are you positive you’ll pass your vendor management exam?
Now more than ever, it all comes down to having enough time and knowledge to conduct due diligence reviews as thoroughly as is expected. With less people doing more work, you run the risk of not being able to get the job done correctly and be subject to a bad mark.
The four pitfalls of DIY due diligence
Examiners don’t care that you understand your customers’ or members’ needs, or that you continuously help your community. They do care that you provide them specific answers to key questions that require you to do the following:
1) Understand each of the documents you have on hand backwards and forwards, including over 100 SOC reports written in a language that even team members well versed in internet acronyms can’t figure out, scrutinize heavily-formatted BCPs, figure out unclear security statements and complicated financials, plus plow through insurance statements no one is using anymore.
2) Evaluate and assess every possible potential risk every which way, including ways you never thought possible.
3) Decide the extent of your “appetite” for a variety of risk and explain how you would handle or significantly reduce and effectively mitigate each of the potential risks you uncover, regardless of how implausible they may seem.
4) Provide proof to the examiner, via detailed notes on your findings and decisions, to demonstrate you did the work, and did it so accurately that you’ll pass.
If these steps in due diligence aren’t sufficiently painful and nerve-racking, you’re required to do them over and over again for every one of your critical vendors. No wonder your employees are pulling their hair out.
There has to be an easier, better way. Lucky for Maple Street clients, there is.
You don’t have to go it alone. Maple Street is here to help with our Street Smart Vendor Review Kits for your critical vendors.
Included in a Street Smart Vendor Review Kit
- SSAE-18 SOC Review Summary(ies) – for all relevant, received SOC reports
- Favorable/unfavorable auditor opinion
- Description of vendor’s system verification
- Controls testing, failures and vendor’s mitigating actions listed
- 4th parties and related vendor controls descriptions
- UCCs/Complimentary User Entity Controls list + validation tools
- Financial Summary – includes three years of data, if available
- Assets, liabilities, net worth, income and cash flow data captured, if reported
- Current Ratio, debt-to-equity, ROA, net profit margin, operating margin, AP-to-sales ratios calculated, if data is available
- Includes general guidance on interpreting ratios
- Insurance Review Summary – includes list of existing policy and coverage amounts
- Recommended policy types for your relevant contracted services listed
- Standard definitions of policy types and use cases listed for reference
- OFAC Pull – verifies vendor is not on the OFAC list and sanctioned by US Treasury Dept
With Street Smart Vendor Review Kits, you won’t have to endure the tedium of painstakingly reading, sifting, documenting and analyzing the documents. Instead, you can focus on the big picture – reviewing the major risks we uncover and deciding if the risk is acceptable to you and how you’ll handle it.
Don’t miss the deadline to order your Street Smart Vendor Review Kit
Maple Street gathers due diligence at set times twice each year, with dedicated campaigns in the spring and fall. For fall 2023, your order must be placed between July 1and Sept. 1 in order to receive your kit on Nov. 15. These dates align with Maple Street’s due diligence collection cycles and therefore, keep your costs down!
If you’re tired of the drudgery of due diligence, want to give your employees meaningful work, want to have time to exceed your members’ or customers’ expectations and have an effective assessment of your due diligence compiled by Maple Street, you want to have a Street Smart Vendor Review Kit. In fact, your kit will cut down on 90 percent of the tedious, time-consuming work!
Do you want help with due diligence? Maple Street experts will be happy to make the first run of a review, summary and analysis of your due diligence for you. Plus, our Vendor Advantage System® guarantees you’ll pass your exam AND save more than you spend. Give us a call at 800-513-6839, email mssales@maplestreetinc.com or visit www.maplestreetinc.com/learn to learn more.