Vendor risk management, tier by tier.
Onboard, tier, score, monitor. Auto-tiering on intake, SIG / CAIQ / NIST 800-161 questionnaires, SOC 2 auto-parsing, and continuous monitoring across 8 risk categories.
- Risk-based tiering · right-sized due diligence
- Pre-built SIG · CAIQ · NIST 800-161 questionnaires
- SOC 2 auto-parsing · gaps flagged · evidence stored
- Continuous monitoring + breach alerts on Tier 1 vendors
What is vendor risk management software?
Stop sending the 200-question SIG to the logo vendor. Tier vendors at intake, run the right questionnaire for each tier (SIG, CAIQ, NIST 800-161), and let the SOC 2 auto-parser extract findings without a human reading 80 pages. Aligned to NIST SP 800-161 and OCC 2013-29 third-party guidance. Also called TPRM software, vendor risk assessment software, or vendor management software.
You can't treat the cloud-infra Tier 1 the same as the logo vendor. And right now you're trying.
TPRM teams we talk to manage 200–2,000 vendors. Most are still running the same 200-question intake on every vendor and reading SOC 2 reports nobody asked for. Here's what that costs.
Every vendor gets the same 200-question intake. Nobody finishes it.
Tier 3 logo vendors and Tier 1 cloud-infra vendors don't need the same depth. Auto-tiering on intake routes each vendor to the right questionnaire — full SIG, lite CAIQ, or self-attest.
SOC 2 reports pile up unread.
You collect them at renewal. They sit in SharePoint. The auditor asks if you reviewed them. SOC 2 auto-parser extracts findings, exceptions, and CUECs — flags gaps against your control library.
Annual reassessment is annual surprise.
Vendor X had a breach in March. You found out at the November renewal questionnaire. Continuous monitoring fires alerts on breaches, financial distress, and SLA breaches the moment they hit the news.
Every module a modern TPRM team needs — in one platform.
Sixteen flagship modules sharing the vendor inventory, audit trail, and control library. Built around tiering so each vendor gets right-sized due diligence.
Portfolio risk on one screen
Aggregate risk index, top-N vendors by score, due-diligence cadence, SLA breaches — readable in 10 seconds.
Every vendor, every contract
Onboard via SSO from your contract repository. Capture spend, contract end-date, scope, and data-access types.
Auto-tier on intake
Tier 1 critical · Tier 2 significant · Tier 3 standard. Tier drives the questionnaire depth and reassessment cadence.
SIG · CAIQ · NIST 800-161
Pre-built questionnaire libraries you can send as-is or extend. No questionnaire authoring required.
Vendors respond directly
Send a link, vendor logs in, completes the questionnaire, attaches SOC 2. No email chains, no PDF round-trips.
Type 1/2 reports extracted
Auto-extract trust services criteria, exceptions, complementary user-entity controls (CUECs), and gap findings.
Cyber · compliance · physical · reputational · financial · operational · strategic · 4th-party
Each vendor scored across all eight categories. Composite risk plus per-category drill-down.
Beyond cybersecurity
Financial distress, geopolitical exposure, sanctions screening, ESG. Vendor risk is more than just cyber.
Breach alerts in real time
External feeds (BitSight, SecurityScorecard, sanctions watchlists) hit your dashboard the moment they trigger.
Cadence by tier
Tier 1 quarterly, Tier 2 annually, Tier 3 on contract renewal. Reminders + escalations automatic.
Vendor controls → your controls
Map each vendor's SOC 2 / ISO 27001 controls to your internal control library. Spot coverage gaps.
Documented and timestamped
Site visits, video walks, financial review, sanctions checks — every artifact in one audit-ready folder per vendor.
Vendor's vendors, mapped
Capture each Tier 1 vendor's critical sub-processors. Cascade alerts when their suppliers have an incident.
Board-ready exports
Per-vendor scorecard, portfolio rollup, regulatory exam pack (FFIEC, OCC, EBA). PDF + Excel.
Onboard 500 vendors in an Excel paste
Bulk import inventory, contracts, contacts. Customize fields without IT involvement.
"Who reviewed this vendor?" answered instantly
Timestamped log of every questionnaire response, approval, and gap closure. Admissible in regulator review.
Not every vendor needs the SIG. Tier on intake.
Auto-classify each vendor on intake as Tier 1 critical, Tier 2 significant, or Tier 3 standard. Tier drives the questionnaire depth, due-diligence cadence, and monitoring intensity. Auto-tier-up triggers when a vendor's scope or data access expands during the year.
- Tier on intake — Tier 1 / 2 / 3 drives questionnaire + cadence
- Right-size diligence — 200-Q for Tier 1, 60-Q for Tier 2, 15-Q for Tier 3
- Score with libraries — SIG, CAIQ, NIST 800-161 — pre-built and extensible
- Monitor continuously — External feeds + breach alerts for Tier 1 vendors
- Annual on-site or video due diligence
- Continuous monitoring + breach alerts
- Quarterly SLA + financial review
- Annual questionnaire (full SIG/CAIQ)
- SOC 2 Type 2 collected + parsed
- Reassessment on contract renewal
- Lite questionnaire on onboarding
- Annual self-attestation
- Auto-tier-up if scope changes
SIG, CAIQ, NIST 800-161. No authoring required.
Send pre-built industry-standard questionnaires from day one. SIG covers banking and healthcare TPRM. CAIQ is the cloud-vendor de-facto. NIST 800-161 covers federal supply chain. Or upload your own custom set. Vendor responses populate composite scoring automatically and SOC 2 reports auto-parse to extract findings, exceptions, and CUECs.
- 8-category scorecard — cyber · compliance · physical · financial · operational · reputational · strategic · 4th-party
- Per-vendor drill-down — questionnaire results, SOC 2 findings, due-diligence artifacts, control coverage
- Portfolio rollup — aggregate risk index, top-N risks, tier distribution, reassessments due
- Regulatory exam pack — FFIEC IT, OCC TPRM, EBA Outsourcing, NYDFS 500 — pre-formatted exports
- Fourth-party heat map — Tier 1 vendors' critical sub-processors and their risk levels
Vendor risk is more than cyber. We score all eight.
data breach, ransomware, credential compromise, insecure APIs
regulatory fit, framework certifications (SOC 2, ISO 27001), data-residency
facility security, access control, BCP/DR sites, hardware supply chain
credit health, going-concern risk, late-payment history, M&A exposure
SLA breaches, capacity, key-person risk, incident response maturity
ESG, news monitoring, social-media incidents, regulatory enforcement
vendor lock-in, alignment, roadmap risk, geographic concentration
vendor's critical sub-processors and their risk profile
From vendor onboarding to audit-ready in five stages.
Most teams onboard their first 50 vendors within their first week. Stage 4 runs continuously. Stage 5 is on-demand the moment your auditor asks.
Onboard the vendor
Bulk-import from your contract repo or invite individually. Auto-classify by data-access scope and contract value.
Tier and questionnaire
Tier 1 / 2 / 3 assigned automatically. Right-sized SIG / CAIQ / lite questionnaire sent to vendor portal.
Score and gap-flag
SOC 2 auto-parsed. Responses scored. Gaps mapped to your control library. Composite risk index per vendor.
Monitor and reassess
Breach alerts + external monitoring fire continuously. Reassessment cadence per tier kicks in automatically.
Report and brief
Per-vendor scorecard, portfolio rollup, regulatory exam pack — board-ready in two clicks.
The 412-vendor program that stopped feeling impossible.
Real TPRM teams. Real onboarding cycles. Real breach-detection wins.
Auto-tiering cut Tier 3 onboarding from six weeks to four days. Tier 1 stays rigorous because it has to.
“We had 412 vendors, no tiering, and a 200-question intake everyone hated. Auto-tiering cut Tier 3 onboarding from six weeks to four days. Tier 1 stays rigorous because it has to.”
“SOC 2 auto-parser changed our review cadence. We used to read maybe one report in five. Now every report is parsed, gaps flagged, and our analyst reviews the flags — not the boilerplate.”
“Continuous monitoring caught a Tier 1 vendor's breach 11 days before they emailed us. Our IR team had a head start. That alone justified two years of license cost.”
If your regulator names it, we map to it.
SIG, CAIQ, NIST 800-161, OCC 2013-29, EBA Outsourcing, NYDFS 500, DORA — every regulator's third-party expectations carry pre-built mappings to the questionnaire library.
Take RiskWatch home before you sign anything.
Three downloads. Use them to evaluate, share with your team, or build the business case for replacing your spreadsheet TPRM.
Vendor Risk Assessment Checklist
Thirty-two pages covering cyber, compliance, financial, operational, and reputational risk per vendor. Use as your tier-classification worksheet or as an SIG-lite alternative.
- 8-category scoring framework
- Tier-classification worksheet
- Executive summary template
3-Tier Vendor Risk Workbook
Pre-built tiering scorecard, lite questionnaire (15 Q), CAIQ-lite (60 Q), full SIG-lite (200 Q), reassessment cadence sheet, and an 8-category scoring formula.
- Tier-classification scorecard
- 3 right-sized questionnaires
- Reassessment cadence sheet
Vendor Risk Platform Buyer's Guide
Vendor scorecard, continuous-monitoring feature comparison, SOC 2 auto-parser benchmarks, pricing by vendor count, and implementation timelines. The shortlist tool for TPRM RFPs.
- Feature matrix · 6 vendors
- Continuous-monitoring comparison
- Pricing benchmarks
Common questions, answered up front.
About VRM, TPRM, vendor tiering, SIG/CAIQ, SOC 2 parsing, and continuous monitoring — and how RiskWatch covers all of them.
What is vendor risk management software?
What's the difference between vendor risk management and third-party risk management?
How does risk-based vendor tiering work?
Which questionnaire libraries are included?
How does the SOC 2 auto-parser work?
What is fourth-party risk?
Does it integrate with continuous-monitoring services?
Is there a free trial?
Tier your first 50 vendors this week.
Start a 30-day free trial — every questionnaire library, the SOC 2 auto-parser, auto-tiering, and continuous-monitoring previews. No credit card required.
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