Vendor Risk Review for Automated Back-Office Workflows (QA)

Vendor Risk Review for Automated Back-Office Workflows (QA)

1. 01

   Map every automated workflow to the specific vendor or tool that executes it

   Create a spreadsheet listing each automation, the responsible platform, and the data it touches. This becomes the baseline for all subsequent risk checks.

2. 02

   Verify the vendor's security posture and compliance certifications

   Request SOC 2 Type II reports, ISO 27001 certificates, and any industry-specific attestations. Confirm they cover the regions and data types your agency handles.

3. 03

   Assess the vendor's data retention and deletion policies

   Ensure the vendor deletes client data when the engagement ends and does not retain it for model training without explicit consent. Document these policies in your client contract.

4. 04

   Check the vendor's uptime and support SLAs against your delivery commitments

   Compare the vendor's promised uptime (e.g., 99.9%) with your retainer's response-time guarantees. If the vendor's SLA is weaker, build manual fallback procedures.

5. 05

   Review the vendor's AI output accuracy and hallucination controls

   Ask how the vendor handles retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and whether they provide audit logs. For finance tasks, require a human-in-the-loop review step.

6. 06

   Test the vendor's integration with your existing stack before full rollout

   Run a pilot on a small, non-critical workflow to confirm data flows correctly and error handling works. Document any custom code or middleware required.

7. 07

   Document the vendor's exit process and data portability options

   Confirm you can export all client data in a standard format (CSV, JSON) and that the vendor offers a reasonable transition period. This protects your agency if you switch tools.