CISO’s Guide to Scaling Vendor Risk Management — Without the Burnout
The first ten vendors are manageable. The next twenty? Triple the work. By the time you reach forty or fifty vendors, risk management isn’t just scaling, it’s spiraling. Teams drown in reviews and questionnaires, while critical threats go unchecked.
Instead of enabling the business, compliance starts to feel like a burden.
This guide gives CISOs and security leaders a way out of that spiral. It breaks down how to prioritize with precision, streamline workflows, and build resilience without overwhelming your team. It’s a practical playbook for transforming vendor governance from a compliance struggle into a strategic advantage.
Covered in the guide:
Why traditional vendor risk programs fail as they scale
A tiered decision-tree model for evaluating vendors based on impact and likelihood
A due diligence framework that aligns effort with actual vendor risk
Reassessment schedules that keep risk evaluations timely and defensible
How AI-assisted reviews and continuous monitoring improve visibility
Centralized evidence management for documentation that is ready for audits
How tiered vendor governance turns into a strategic business advantage
