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CompTIA Security+ 5.3
TechKnowSurge Catalog Interactives The Vendor Management Life Cycle
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The Vendor Management Life Cycle

Outsource the help desk from first need to the end of the contract: put the vendor life cycle in order.

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About this interactive

The Vendor and Supply Chain Management lesson gives vendors and partners a life cycle, and this activity follows one vendor, an outsourced help desk (the lesson's own example of a managed service), through it. Needs assessment: work out what the business actually needs. The lesson's warning: departments that jump straight to a product, skipping this step, end up with something that does not do what they wanted. Vendor assessment: assess which vendors meet that need, and what risks they bring. This is also where the supply chain behind a vendor is considered: the lesson's point is that you are buying from everyone in the chain. Contract negotiation: agree on price, service levels and security terms. Onboarding: get set up with the vendor: accounts, access, handover of how things are done. Management and monitoring: check that the vendor delivers what the contract promised. The lesson's phone-service vendor that could not deliver is the case for doing this. Change: services are dynamic, so changes are managed as they come up, often prompted by what monitoring shows. Termination: at some point the contract ends, and the relationship is closed out.

What you'll learn

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+
5.3 Explain the processes associated with third-party risk assessment and management.

Key terms

Vendor Management Lifecycle
The end-to-end process of assessing, selecting, negotiating with, and managing vendors throughout a business relationship.
Needs Assessment
The process of identifying and defining a business requirement before evaluating or selecting a vendor or solution.
Vendor Assessment
The evaluation of potential vendors to determine whether they can meet an organization's defined requirements.
Contract Negotiation
The process of reaching a mutually agreed upon set of terms and conditions with a vendor before formalizing a business relationship in writing.
Contract Termination
The formal end of a vendor relationship or agreement, marking the conclusion of the vendor management life cycle.
Managed Service
An outsourced IT function or business process delivered by a third-party provider under a contractual agreement.

Topics

Vendor Management Supply Chain Interactive Ordering

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