Successful Vendor Compliance Is More Than Luck! Vendor Compliance Misconceptions Vendor Compliance has greatly evolved in recent years, responding to changes in case laws and liability. The increasing tide of threats exposes the lack of information, professionalism, and efficiency of the current vendor compliance methods used by Association Management Companies. Recent surveys indicate that only 8% of organizations are part of a vendor compliance program that is auditable and constant throughout the organization, protecting the business and the associations from vendor risk. Why are so many companies taking this risk with standard exclusions on their companies E&O policy for insurance related work? Because that is the way it has always been. Time, Tools and Expertise Historically, vendor compliance has been seen as the responsibility of the community manager position. Community manager executives are beginning to realize that vendor compliance requires more time and a more sophisticated skill set than that possessed by community managers. With a professional compliance company such as Association Services Network (ASN) and the CertTrak vendor compliance program, you’ll have the proper tools and knowledge of a vendor compliance team that can help to improve your organization’s security posture through better execution and decision-making. The Process Vendor compliance is more than just an activity of creating requirements to ensure the vendors insurance, license, and availability of information. Developing and maintaining compliant vendors, and relevant policies and procedures, is a key focus area as well. To effectively manage and promote vendor compliance, a formal approach should be in place for the lifecycle processes of vendor compliance activities. By applying a lifecycle approach, organizations can establish who is responsible for doing what, and activities have been appropriately managed or completed. Technology Integration to Meet Your Company’s Needs Per a recent survey by ASN on “Vendor Compliance in today’s HOA management,” 90% of vendors in their organization were “Non-Compliant” before or soon after deployment of the ASN compliance program. Managers do not have the time, tools or expertise to manage such a program, while most companies may not have the resources to support and staff their current compliance vendor programs. A company like Association Services Network can help solve the problems of vendor compliance responsibilities with overall easy,...
Read MoreWe Love Our Vendors There are three questions a company should ask itself to determine if its Vendor compliance program is on track. Does your vendor compliance program add layers of protection to your management company, your managed associations and your service providers? This seems like an obvious question but one which is easy to lose track of. Have the risks your organization faces increased or decreased over the last year? Clearly not all risks can be forecasted, but at the very least a comparison should be made between known risk exposure along with an honest assessment of whether you are better prepared to deal with them now versus one year ago. For example, by analyzing how many of your vendors are compliant with your current terms and conditions today vs one year ago, you gain a sense of whether your overall vendor risk management approach is moving in the right or wrong direction. Will the vendor’s additional Insured endorsements be enforceable? Do you know if your vendors have a condo exclusion or limitation on the liability policy? Is their contractor’s license in force? Does our Compliance Program offer more than just insurance certificate tracking? There must be a cohesive vision in place to work towards in executing a winning vendor program. One approach is replacing overly vague company mission statements regarding vendor compliance with more achievable objectives, and then ask a professional vetting company to assist you in your objectives. Stagnation in executing a vendor program often stems from setting overly lofty goals at the outset, and then having Boards or operations managers not focusing on the same barometers of success over time, leaving nobody ultimately accountable or doing anything at all. To do this there must be accountability and promotability. Companies that succeed in executing a vendor compliance program usually find ways to eliminate redundant oversight of the program. Does a single person in your company have responsibility for owning a problem or program and reporting on its progress? The more institutional overlap an organization has with multiple people or departments sharing responsibility for the execution of a vendor compliance program and reporting on its success, the less likely that program is to succeed. What is the end result of...
Read MoreVendor Compliance - Turning a Nightmare into Dream In the world of Association business, selecting the right vendor compliance program, can make the difference between success and failure. Would you like the ability to make a vendor recommendation decision with confidence? You will no longer depend on inadequate information you currently have. It will depend on having the right information at the right time. You can search your files and folders for information. But if you want validated, accurate, enforceable information on your vendors, when you need it and where you need it, then you need ASN. Our clients know that ASN is indispensable. Why? Because ASN understands the complexity of the association management industry in its entirety. ASN is independent and impartial and will tell the truth about your service providers. Our clients come from every sector of the HOA industry, from large management business to small management business. ASN's technology makes it easy for end users to service providers. Making ASN uniquely positioned to help your company grow more profitable and more secured, with Asset Protection Vendor Compliance. Association Services Network’s Asset Protection Vendor Compliance Program™ is the only compliance program that specializes in Association Management Vendor Compliance. Use ASN4HOA.COM today for tracking and managing certificates of insurance (COI) for all vendors who work at your company’s associations. The ASN4HOA.COM program provides a paperless, and active Vendor Directory of all vendors’ status of compliance, and it’s accessible to your management team real-time online, 24 hours a day. We do more than just vendor compliance, we give you insight from strategy thru execution on hiring compliant vendors for your associations. ASN delivers the technology and expertise necessary for our clients to make the right decisions, every day. Association Services Network is a best-of-class, easy-to-use, Asset Protection Vendor Compliance Program solution for condos, and associations. ASN provides the easiest Vendor Directory and integration capability to management software available to property managers, leasing agents, boards of directors, and back-office personnel. Quickly and easily access to whatever you need, whenever you need it. Act on the documents and vendor information at your fingertips.AT ABSOLUTELY NO COST TO YOU! Contact us today! Asn4hoa.com/cacm or 949-300-3702 ...
Read MoreCutting Costs or Cutting Corners? Managing costs and keeping them low is necessary for any successful association, yet cutting costs too much or in the wrong areas ends up hindering an association more than helping it. Keep reading to realize cost-cutting maintenance mistakes and learn how to avoid them. Shopping Around While it is important to shop around, do not take shopping around to an extreme. In the short-term, shopping around may be beneficial only by saving your association a few dollars. However, saving a small amount of money is not as imperative as building relationships with vendors you know you can trust, which is what you will get by being consistent with the vendors you hire. It’s much better to develop relationships with a handful of compliant vendors that do-good work and offer fair prices. Hiring Unskilled Workers By presently spending more money finding compliant vendors, your association will save money overall. Although unskilled or unlicensed workers may charge you less for their services, they do so because they do not have the ability to do the job the right way. Consequently, their cheap labor will result in costly repairs when they do not fix your property the right way. Also, injuries to workers without proper insurance could make you responsible for paying for the injuries. An expert repair will last longer and complaint vendors will always make sure to have the proper insurance. Waiting on Repairs Though you may think that waiting on non-essential repairs isn’t costing your association anything, regularly fixing minor repairs actually saves your association money over time. A small repair today may save a disaster tomorrow. Therefore, inspect your property frequently and with a certified vendor list you can get these problems fixed easily before they become huge issues. Although spending money may not feel great, you will be hurting much more if you have a huge repair to make in a few months. Association Services Network is a best-of-class, easy-to-use, Asset Protection Vendor Compliance Program solution for condos, and homeowner associations. ASN provides the Vendor Directory and integration capability management software available to property managers, leasing agents, boards of directors, and back-office personnel. Quickly and easily access to whatever you need, whenever...
Read MoreThe Biggest Misconception About Vendor Compliance Over the years, the role of Vendor Compliance has evolved primarily into a manager reviewing insurance certificates and filing them away for another day, in order to fulfill their compliance management function. There have now been significant changes in case laws that put community management firms in primary positions of liability. Additionally, all community management E&O insurance policies excluded this type of work to be done by company employees. Unfortunately, it is still common for community management executives to be uninformed of all the exposures of risks affecting their enterprise, as well as how these risks may impede business objectives or even survival. The increasing tide of threats, lawsuit cases, and regulatory requirements is rightfully closing this uniformed exposure gap, which has led to changes in executive expectations for vendor compliance programs. These expectations have resulted in change from the same old programs of verifying vendor’s insurance certificates, contractor licenses, and responsible parties. The understanding is that information has been ignored, due to everyday busy schedules and pressing tasks to complete. This vendor compliance myth isn’t new or applicable in every situation. For the foreseeable future, technology will remain essential for security teams to understand from a combined capabilities, management, and limitation perspective. The reality is that the expectations of a security team should be the orchestration of security across people, processes, and technologies to protect information in support of the organization’s business objectives. While the tides are changing, much work remains to be done. Recent surveys indicate that only 8% of organizations are part of a vendor compliance program that is auditable and constant throughout the organization, protecting the business and the associations from vendor risk. Your People It’s imperative that the people tasked with a vendor compliance program in your firm understand the fundamentals and have experience and tools in doing so, whether they are an accounting department staff or community managers. Historically, vendor compliance was viewed as strictly a community manager responsibility. Now, community management executives are beginning to realize that compliance goes beyond the borders of the community manager’s expertise. Therefore, it’s important to provide your management teams with the reliable and easy to use system they need to stay...
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