Don't Let Your Vendors Become Your Weakest Link
Assess, monitor, and enforce third-party security so you stay compliant and breach-resilient.
Proactive vendor risk management for SMBs: assess, monitor, and enforce third-party security so you stay compliant and breach-resilient.
Assess Before Access
Approve vendors with evidence, not promises.
Continuous Monitoring
Get alerted when your vendors' risk changes.
Audit-Ready
Documentation aligned to SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and more.
Your Security Is Only as Strong as Your Weakest Vendor
Third-party breaches are rising because attackers target the path of least resistance: your vendors. Without a formal VRM program, assessments live in inboxes, contracts miss critical clauses, and nobody has a live view of vendor risk. When a vendor is breached, you still own the fallout: regulatory exposure, customer churn, and costly incident response.
of breaches involve a third party
average cost of a supply-chain breach
average time to identify vendor incidents
Outcomes That Matter to Executives, Auditors, and Customers
Complete Vendor Visibility
Single inventory of all third parties, ranked by risk.
Evidence-Backed Approvals
Standardized assessments, artifacts, and verification.
Stronger Contracts
Security addenda, right-to-audit, breach notice SLAs, and DPAs.
Continuous Monitoring
Alerts on breaches, expiring certs, risky changes, and news.
Board-Ready Reporting
Show due diligence with defensible metrics and audit trails.
Faster Onboarding
Standard playbooks shrink vendor approval from weeks to days.
Regulatory Alignment
SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR/CCPA mapping baked in.
Incident Support
Escalation runbooks and vendor-specific IR playbooks.
Our Vendor Risk Lifecycle (Rinse-and-Repeat, Auditable)
Build a complete vendor inventory; classify by data access, criticality, and compliance impact.
Security questionnaires, artifact review (e.g., SOC reports, pen test summaries), control validation.
Insert security clauses: breach notice SLAs, audit rights, data handling, DPAs/BAAs.
Ongoing vendor posture monitoring with alerts and issue tracking.
Quarterly/annual reassessments based on risk tier and changes.
Assign owners, deadlines, compensating controls, or exit/replace decisions.
Risk tiers drive assessment depth and cadence. Critical vendors get deeper and faster cycles.
Service Components Included in Every Engagement
Free Resource
VRM "Breach-Proof" Scorecard
Quantify your vendor risk program, uncover maturity gaps, and walk into the next review with a data-backed plan.
Simple Plans That Scale With Your Vendor Footprint
Starting prices shown. Save ~10% with annual billing. Add-ons and overages below.
🟢 Foundation
Foundation - One-Time Assessment
$1,100/mo (billed annually, covers up to 10 vendors)
Best for teams new to VRM or prepping for their first audit.
- Vendor inventory & classification
- Security questionnaires for critical vendors
- Artifact review (as provided)
- Risk scoring & remediation roadmap
- Contract checklist & model clauses
- Deliverables: risk register, remediation plan, executive summary
🔵 Comprehensive
Comprehensive - Program Setup + 12 Months Monitoring
$2,499/mo (billed annually, covers up to 25 vendors)
Best for teams needing ongoing oversight and audit-ready reporting.
- Includes everything in Foundation
- Quarterly reassessments (risk-based)
- Continuous monitoring & alerting
- Quarterly executive reporting & scorecards
- Evidence portal for auditors
- Deliverables: live dashboards, quarterly board pack, audit trail
⚫ Enterprise
Enterprise - Fully Managed VRM
Starting at $8,000/month (includes up to 100 vendors)
Best for regulated or complex environments with many critical vendors.
- Includes everything in Comprehensive
- Dedicated analyst + executive sponsor
- Monthly risk councils & onboarding SLAs
- Vendor-specific incident response coordination
- Contract/SOW support on renewals & new buys
- Custom reporting by business unit, region, or system
🟣 Scale Add-On Packs
- +25 vendors: $6,500/year (Comprehensive)
- +50 vendors: $3,750/month (Enterprise)
- One-off deep-dive assessment (critical vendor): $4,500
- Contract redlines by security (per engagement): $1,500
Overage & Limits
- Foundation: $1,200 per vendor beyond 10
- Comprehensive: $1,000 per vendor beyond 25
- Enterprise: $750 per vendor beyond 100
30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee
Foundation & Comprehensive engagements include a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not satisfied, we'll make it right or refund your investment.
Why Teams Choose Inventive HQ Over DIY or “Tool-Only” VRM
Every path to vendor risk management comes with trade-offs. See how Inventive HQ combines expert leadership with tooling so you get measurable results fast.
DIY + Spreadsheet
Know what this path delivers before you commit.
- What You Get
- Manual tracking
- Hidden Costs
- Labor-heavy, error-prone
- Time to Value
- Slow
Tool-Only
Know what this path delivers before you commit.
- What You Get
- Platform access
- Hidden Costs
- Still need expertise/process
- Time to Value
- Medium
Hire FTE
Know what this path delivers before you commit.
- What You Get
- In-house leadership
- Hidden Costs
- $170k+ salary + tools
- Time to Value
- Slow/Medium
Inventive HQ (Managed)
Tooling, experts, and remediation without the overhead.
- What You Get
- Tooling + vCISO oversight + reporting + remediation
- Hidden Costs
- Predictable pricing
- Time to Value
- Fast
With Inventive HQ, you're not buying software—you’re getting tooling plus a vCISO-led team that runs the program, manages remediation, and reports outcomes back to the business.
If a Vendor Is Breached
We coordinate vendor communications, evidence collection, and regulatory notifications, and plug directly into your incident response playbooks.
VRM “Breach-Proof” Scorecard
Measure maturity, surface hidden exposure, and walk away with ROI-ready recommendations—no spreadsheets or manual scoring needed.
Question 1 of 8
Inventory & Scope
Define the scope of your vendor landscape and risk surface.
How many active vendors does your organization currently manage?
Answer every question to unlock your personalized maturity score and ALE exposure calculation.
Secure Your Supply Chain Before It Becomes Your Liability
Get a tailored VRM program with evidence, monitoring, and audit-ready reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about the Vendor Risk Management
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