| 1 | Yes | No |
Is the vendor large enough to handle the current and future levels of operations including administration and support? |
| 2 | Yes | No |
Does the vendor employ and manage all aspects of its operations (if they require subcontractors or third-party staffing to manage and perform some operations, then answer "No")? |
| 3 | Yes | No |
Are there other vendors who can provide a similar product or service? |
| 4 | Yes | No |
Does the vendor have more clients than staff? |
| 5 | Yes | No |
Does this vendor adapt to our operations (if it requires specific changes to company operations creating a reliance on that vendor, then answer "No")? |
| 6 | Yes | No |
Does the vendor provide detailed information or reporting regarding the product or service, enough to allow the company to make its own configuration changes, personalization, or support? |
| 7 | Yes | No |
Does the vendor disclose its associations and partnerships including outsourced operations? |
| 8 | Yes | No |
Does the vendor allow for a flexible contract with no penalties for termination? |
| 9 | Yes | No |
Does the vendor provide adequate Service Level Agreements with acceptable incident response or remuneration? |
| 10 | Yes | No |
Are there any previous law-suits or customer complaints against the vendor citing failure to deliver or breach of contract? |
| 11 | Yes | No |
Does the vendor have poor employee retention? |
| 12 | Yes | No |
Has the vendor recently either downsized or grown considerably? |
| 13 | Yes | No |
If the vendor abruptly ceased doing business/offering their services, would there be unacceptable financial cost, reputation loss, or negative implications? |
| 14 | Yes | No |
Does the vendor use financially adequate pricing and payment terms? |
| 15 | Yes | No |
Is the vendor wholly-owned rather than part of a larger corporate structure? |
| 16 | Yes | No |
Is the vendor the manufacturer of the technology they provide to you rather than a reseller/distributor? |
| 17 | Yes | No |
Is the vendor backed by venture capital or other funding source outside the control of the Board of Directors/Founders? |
| 18 | Yes | No |
Do you need to allow network (electronic) or physical access to the vendor? |
| 19 | Yes | No |
Do company employees need to work in collaboration off-site with staff of the vendor? |
| 20 | Yes | No |
Do the vendor's employees talk about other clients, customers or negatively about the vendor or its products/services? |
| 21 | Yes | No |
Is the vendor's current infrastructure, including personnel and software, adequate to provide an acceptable level of service to the company? |
| 22 | Yes | No |
Does the vendor's privacy or confidentiality policy match its services in operation and advertising? |
| 23 | Yes | No |
Does the vendor's products or services have the same or better capabilities as advertised or demonstrated during a sales call? |
| 24 | Yes | No |
Is the vendor beholden to strict legal or regulatory requirements for its products or services? |
If you want your vendor to increase the trust score, then revisit the 24 questions you answered and find the questions with the answers in red.
Ask your vendor or negotiate to implement additional controls to change the "red" into "green" and increase the trust level.