How To Choose the Right Due Diligence Software

According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach in the United States is a staggering $9.44 million. The U.S. also experiences the most data breaches of any country, with data breaches impacting an estimated 212.4 million U.S. users in 2021. While a lot goes into preventing these data breaches, third-party risk mitigation is one factor that doesn't get as much attention as it should.

If your company shares data with a third-party vendor, then you need to be able to trust that vendor to keep your data secure. Thankfully, the right due diligence solutions can help you execute a due diligence process that will help ensure that the vendors you choose are secure and reliable.

To help you choose the best solution for your company's needs, let's take a look at everything you need to know about due diligence software: how it works, why your company needs it, the key features to look for, and three of the best due diligence solutions on the market today.

What Is Due Diligence?

Due diligence is a risk management process where you evaluate vendors to identify any potential risks that could negatively impact your company before they have access to any of your company’s data. Today, identifying cybersecurity red flags is arguably the most crucial reason for vendor due diligence. However, properly vetting vendors can also enable you to highlight other risks, such as reputational risks, supply chain risks, poor financial posture, and several other vulnerabilities that could end up costing your company.

Why Your Company Needs Due Diligence Software

Vendor due diligence is necessary for modern companies, but it's often a time-consuming and tedious part of the vendor management process. This is especially true when you consider that ongoing monitoring and recurring assessments are key parts of vendor due diligence — not to mention many security certifications like SOC 2 and ISO 27001. This can quickly become overwhelming for companies that rely on multiple vendors.

Vendor due diligence software offers several tools and features that make vetting new and existing vendors far more streamlined and efficient. By providing templates for creating security questionnaires, centralizing your vendor data in a single, user-friendly dashboard, and automating the process of sending security questionnaires, the right due diligence software can make vetting vendors far less of a hassle.

Key Features To Look For in Due Diligence Software

If you want to get as much benefit as possible from your due diligence software, you'll want to look for a few key features. The most important tools and features to prioritize during your decision making include:

Offers an Easy-To-Use Dashboard

One of the key benefits of vendor due diligence software is that it enables a more organized due diligence process. With an easy-to-use dashboard such as HyperComply's vendor dashboard, you can view all your vendors in one place to quickly assess risk and take action. Along with providing a single view of all your vendors, a good vendor dashboard also centralizes all the data, documents, and tools your team will need to complete vendor security reviews.

Includes Questionnaire Templates for Security Standards

Sending vendors a security assessment questionnaire is one of the most common ways to evaluate their security posture. But when required to create these questionnaires from scratch, many companies aren't sure how to proceed. Even if you can develop thorough security questionnaires for all of your vendors, it's still bound to be a tedious task.

Using high-quality templates that come pre-populated with important security questions can reduce your team's workload and ensure that you ask the right questions. As you search for the best due diligence solution, check out the questionnaire templates it offers.

Provides Helpful Security Review Workflows

Following a security review workflow is a great way to ensure you've got all your i's dotted and t's crossed. With security review workflows, you can quickly see what stage a security review is in and exactly what needs to happen next. These workflows essentially walk your team through the process of conducting a security review step by step so that you don't miss any important details. Even if your team already has experience conducting security reviews, these helpful workflows can still make the process more organized and streamlined.

Automates Schedules

Scheduling routine and triggered security reviews for existing vendors can be time-consuming and is vital to maintain compliance with security frameworks like SOC2 and ISO 27001. Fortunately, it's also a task you can fully automate with the right due diligence software. By automatically scheduling security reviews and completing follow-up tasks, due diligence software can eliminate yet another burden from your team's shoulders and help you maintain your SOC 2 and ISO 27001.  

Centralizes Data in One System

Effective vendor due diligence requires you to analyze an awful lot of data. The entire process will be delayed if this data is stored haphazardly. By centralizing all of your vendor data in one location, vendor due diligence software makes it easy to find the exact documents and data you need. This can go a long way toward making your due diligence process more efficient.

HyperComply vs. Whistic vs. Security Scorecard  

Now that we've covered the most important features to look for in due diligence software, let's look at a few solutions that offer all of these features and more: HyperComply, Whistic, and SecurityScorecard.

1) HyperComply

Designed to streamline the due diligence process for vendors and procurement teams alike, HyperComply offers cutting-edge automation tools and features that eliminate the hassle associated with vetting vendors. With HyperComply, you can look forward to features such as an intuitive vendor dashboard, automated security review scheduling, numerous questionnaire templates, powerful security review workflows, and much more.

Along with simplifying the vendor due diligence process for procurement teams, HyperComply also makes it easier for vendors to complete security questionnaires thanks to machine learning algorithms that can autofill security questionnaires with 90%+ accuracy. By speeding up the process for you and your vendors alike, HyperComply can reduce questionnaire response times and ensure that you receive the information you need to vet your vendors.

Unique Features

• Provides security questionnaire templates based on SIG Lite and CAIQ Lite security standards, as well as the ability to create your own custom templates
• Provides a centralized and intuitive vendor dashboard
• Enables you to automatically build a repository of vendor documentation for an audit trail

Pros

• Designed to simplify vendor due diligence for both vendors and procurement teams
• Excellent customer support; treat customers as partners
• Ability to easily validate pre-populated responses
• Free to use for procurement teams

Cons

• Learning curve for some features
• Limited sorting/filtering functionality in vendor knowledge base

Pricing Model

HyperComply is free to use for procurement teams sending up to 20 vendor reviews per year and offers custom pricing for companies with larger needs. For sales teams completing vendor review questionnaires, HyperComply offers the following plans:

• Essentials plan that offers 12 questionnaires per year and costs $550 per month
• Growth plan that offers 24+ questionnaires per year and costs $1,000 per month
• Custom-priced Enterprise plan that offers 48+ questionnaires per year

2) Whistic 

Like HyperComply, Whistic is designed to streamline vendor due diligence by automating time-consuming tasks and providing detailed security assessment templates. With Whistic, you can build a customized and automated vendor assessment process, access standard and premium questionnaire templates, and easily collaborate with teammates throughout the security review process. 

One especially interesting feature of Whistic is the Whistic Trust Catalog. This database provides information on the security posture of thousands of vendors, enabling you to assess certain vendors without having to send security questionnaires and wait on responses. 

Unique Features

• Whistic Trust Catalog for evaluating major vendors
• High-quality security questionnaire templates 
• Ability to securely connect third-party application via the Whistic API

Pros

• Impressive range of automated risk assessment workflows 
• Well-polished and user-friendly UI
• Excellent technical support available via phone and email 

Cons

• Limited customization and reporting options 
• Can be slow when multiple windows are open

Pricing Model

Pricing information for Whistic is only available upon request. 

3) SecurityScorecard 

SecurityScorecard provides a range of products and services designed to help organizations analyze third-party vendors’ cybersecurity posture and reduce their own cybersecurity risk. This includes vendor security ratings and real-time, data-based insights, automated security questionnaires, cyber risk quantification, and automatic vendor detection. 

Unique Features

• Automatic vendor detection that uncovers your third- and fourth-party vendors so that you always know who has access to your data 
• High-quality reporting center that streamlines cyber risk reporting
• Cyber risk quantification that translates cyber risk into financial impact 

Pros

• Analyzes your own security plus your vendors’ security 
• Alerts users of security score drops and increases via in-app notifications and emails
• Presents security metrics in a way that is easy to understand and analyze 

Cons

• Takes a while to receive risk reports for new vendors  
• Lacks the breadth of tools needed by larger organizations working with hundreds of vendors 

Pricing Model

Security Scorecard offers four pricing plans:

• Free plan for unlimited team members and score change alerts for up to 5 companies that costs $0 per month
• Pro plan for unlimited team members, unlimited score change alerts, plus additional features that costs $400 per month
• Business plan that included additional features and costs $1,000 per month
• Enterprise plan that includes additional features and priority support; custom pricing available upon request

Streamline Your Due Diligence Process With HyperComply

Utilizing vendor due diligence software is one of the best ways to simplify the vendor due diligence process. With security questionnaire templates, automated security review scheduling, due diligence dashboards, and custom security knowledge bases, HyperComply provides everything you need to thoroughly and effectively vet your vendors. 

Get started using HyperComply to send security questionnaires free of charge — sign up here.