What slow vendor security reviews look like in a software company
A vendor security review is the process of checking a prospective supplier's security controls, certifications and data handling before it is allowed to access company systems or data.
Technology companies sell to customers who ask them hard security questions, so they ask the same of their own suppliers. That work adds up. Vanta's 2024 State of Trust Report found IT decision makers spend an average of 6.5 hours a week assessing and reviewing vendor risk.[1] In a company with one security engineer, that is most of a day gone before any product work.
Here is how it stalls. An engineering manager picks a log management tool and asks for a contract. Procurement sends the vendor a 200-question spreadsheet. The vendor's sales rep forwards it to their own security team. Two weeks later the answers come back, half of them pointing to a SOC 2 report nobody has requested under NDA yet. Meanwhile the team signs up for the free tier and starts sending production logs.
IT or Security Lead
Holds a queue of reviews with no way to tell which vendors carry real risk and which are low stakes.
"Everything is urgent, and I'm the only one who can say yes."Engineering or Team Manager
Has budget and a chosen tool but cannot start because the review has no visible status or date.
"Is anyone looking at this, or is it just sitting there?"Procurement Head
Chases questionnaires between the vendor, security and legal by email and cannot close the purchase.
"I've sent three reminders and I still don't know who has the ball."CFO / Finance Leader
Sees tools paid on cards during the wait and renewals signed for vendors that were never reviewed.
"How are we paying a vendor security never approved?"Are security reviews slowing down your purchases?
Tick every statement that is true today. Three or more means the problem is likely costing you real money.
Six root causes behind review backlogs
A slow review queue is rarely about the security team being slow. These are the structural reasons it builds up in fast-growing software companies.
One questionnaire for every vendor
Without risk tiers, a design plugin and a payroll processor go through the same 200 questions. Reviewers spend most of their time on vendors that never needed it.
Reviews start too late
Security hears about a vendor after the team has chosen it and the contract is drafted. Any finding now feels like a blocker rather than input.
The work is spread across inboxes
The request is in Slack, the questionnaire in email, the SOC 2 report in a download folder. Each handoff adds days and loses context.
No single owner for the whole review
Security, legal, procurement and the requester each own one piece. Nobody owns the end date, so nothing moves until someone complains.
Existing evidence is not reused
Past reviews, standard certifications and vendor trust pages are ignored, so work already done elsewhere is redone from scratch.
Reviews are treated as one-time events
Once approved, a vendor is never checked again. Expired reports then trigger a scramble at renewal or during a customer audit.
What slow vendor reviews cost a technology company
The cost shows up in two places at once: people time spent on reviews, and risk that slips through while teams work around them.
The direct cost is reviewer, legal and procurement hours spent on questionnaires, much of it on low-risk vendors. The indirect costs are larger: projects that start weeks late, teams that route around the process with free tiers and cards, vendors holding company data without any review, and a painful scramble for evidence when your own customers audit your supply chain. Point-in-time reviews also miss what changes after approval: Gartner found 83% of organizations identified third-party risks after due diligence and before recertification.[2]
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The expert playbook: six practices that make reviews faster and safer
These practices work with a spreadsheet and a shared folder. Tiering comes first, because it removes the most work.
"I often hear about a vendor the business team loves whose documentation is a mess. Nobody acts on it until something goes wrong. Security reviews end up as the moment all that mess surfaces at once. If the review starts at request time and the documents sit on the vendor record, it stops being a gate and becomes a normal step."Md. Kafil, Co-founder and CEO, Zapro. Former senior product specialist on SAP Ariba Network and procurement transformation manager at KPMG.
Tier vendors by data and access risk
Capture risk questions in the purchase request
Accept existing evidence before sending a questionnaire
Keep one file per vendor
Give each review an owner and a target date
Recheck approved vendors on a schedule
"At Voonik we ran KYC, certificates and annual re-verification for around 15,000 suppliers. I once saw hundreds of them frozen over one missing document. The fix was never more questions. It was knowing exactly which document each supplier owed, when it expired, and asking for it before it became a blocker for the people waiting on them."Daniel Sagayaraj, Co-founder and CTO, Zapro. Previously built and ran supplier onboarding and payments for a 15,000-supplier marketplace at Voonik.
How Zapro moves security reviews into the buying workflow
Zapro starts the vendor review at the purchase request and keeps every questionnaire, report and approval on one vendor record, so security reviews the right vendors at the right depth without chasing email.
| Root cause | Zapro capability | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews start too late | Procurement: purchase requests with approval workflows | Data and access questions sit in the request, so security sees new vendors before a tool is chosen. |
| Work spread across inboxes | Vendor Management: centralized profiles, documents and conversations | Questionnaires, reports and messages with the vendor sit on one profile instead of in email threads. |
| One questionnaire for every vendor | Vendor onboarding templates and Z1 risk flags | Templates match review depth to the vendor, and Z1 flags risk so low-stakes tools move faster. |
| Reviews treated as one-time events | Contract Management: compliance monitoring and expiry alerts | Alerts before contracts and documents expire, with audit-ready records of what was approved and when. |
| No single owner or visible status | Role-based access and a full audit trail | Each reviewer sees their step, the requester sees status, and every approval is logged. |
Zapro connects with Slack, email and SSO with your identity systems, so requests and review updates reach people where they already work. See Zapro integrations and Zapro for Technology.
A 30, 60, 90 day plan
Days 1 to 30: Sort it
- List every open review and its age
- Define three risk tiers with security
- Collect past reviews into vendor files
- Name procurement as review owner
Days 31 to 60: Speed it
- Add risk questions to purchase requests
- Accept SOC 2 and trust pages first
- Set target cycle times per tier
- Show review status to requesters
Days 61 to 90: Sustain it
- Add expiry reminders for reports
- Rereview high-tier vendors due this year
- Publish monthly cycle time by tier
- Tune tiers from reviewer feedback
KPIs to track progress
| KPI | How to calculate | Review |
|---|---|---|
| Review cycle time | Median days from request to security decision, by tier | Monthly |
| Open review backlog | Number of reviews open longer than the tier target | Weekly |
| Low-tier share | Reviews completed at the lowest tier divided by all reviews | Monthly |
| Unreviewed vendors in use | Vendors paid in the period with no completed review | Monthly |
| Evidence currency | High-tier vendors with an unexpired report or certificate divided by all high-tier vendors | Quarterly |
| Duplicate reviews | Reviews started for vendors that already have a current review | Quarterly |
Go deeper with our guide to vendor management system guide.
What a Zapro customer saw after moving this work into one workflow
"Implementing Zapro improved our vendor coordination significantly, leading to a substantial reduction in costs and faster vendor onboarding."Akhil Sikri, CTO, Zolo
Why Zapro for this challenge
Slow security reviews are a routing and record-keeping problem more than a staffing problem. Zapro puts the review at the start of the purchase and keeps the evidence on the vendor record, so the right vendors get the right scrutiny and everyone else moves.
Built around the vendor record
Profiles, documents, conversations and contracts sit together, so a second request or a renewal reuses the last review.
Z1 flags risk early
Zapro's AI layer reads requests and flags risk, helping security focus on vendors that touch sensitive data.
Audit-ready by default
A full audit trail of approvals and changes helps when your own customers ask how you vet suppliers.
Security teams can trust the platform
AES-256 encryption, WAF, DDoS protection, granular role permissions and GDPR-aligned practices protect the vendor data you store.
When Zapro may not be the right fit
- You need deep continuous security scoring, external attack surface scanning or a full GRC suite. A dedicated third-party risk tool may fit better, alongside procurement.
- You onboard only a few new vendors a year. A shared folder, a tier rule and a calendar reminder may be enough.
- Your security team wants to run reviews entirely outside the buying process. Zapro works best when reviews start from the purchase request.
Frequently asked questions
What is a vendor security review?
A vendor security review is an assessment of a supplier's security controls, certifications and data handling before it is allowed to access your systems or data. It usually includes a questionnaire or existing evidence such as a SOC 2 report, a check of data flows and access, and an approval by security or IT.
How long should a vendor security review take?
It depends on risk. A tool that holds no company data can often be cleared in a day or two. A vendor that stores customer data or connects to production may need a few weeks. Set target times by tier and measure against them, rather than applying one timeline to every vendor.
Do we need a security questionnaire for every vendor?
No. Tiering vendors by the data and access they need lets you skip or shorten the questionnaire for low-risk tools. For higher tiers, ask for existing evidence first and send targeted questions only on the gaps.
Who should own vendor security reviews?
Security or IT should own the risk criteria and the final decision. Procurement is often best placed to own the process end to end: collecting documents, chasing the vendor and keeping the record. The requester owns explaining what data and access the tool needs.
How do we stop teams using tools before the review finishes?
Make the review start at request time and keep it short for low-risk tools, so waiting is rarely painful. Restrict SSO and production access to approved vendors, and review card spend monthly for new software. Platforms such as Zapro connect the request, review and purchase so status is visible to everyone.
About the experts behind this page
Sources
- Vanta via Business Wire, Vanta State of Trust Report 2024: Increasing Risks Require Going Beyond the Standard, 2024
- Gartner, More Than Eight in 10 Organizations Discover Third-Party Risks After Due Diligence Period, 2019
Editorial note: this page is published by Zapro, which sells procurement software. Best practices are written to work with any tool, and figures are cited to their original publishers. Last reviewed 29 September 2026; next review due March 2027. See how the Procurement Challenges Directory is researched and reviewed.