Topic starter
12/06/2026 9:01 pm
TL;DR: Vendor management skills matter because supplier relationships now carry access, data-transfer, and offboarding risk, and the article argues that communication, decision-making, and project discipline are needed to keep vendor lifecycle controls effective, according to Zluri. The deeper issue is that vendor management becomes identity governance whenever vendors can receive, use, and keep access longer than intended.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Zluri: “Top 8 Vendor Management Skills & How to Develop Them”.
Key questions
Q: What breaks when vendor offboarding is not verified?
A: Orphaned access survives.
Q: Why do vendor relationships create identity governance risk?
A: Vendor relationships create risk because they often generate persistent access that survives the commercial relationship.
Q: How can teams tell whether vendor access is still justified?
A: Teams should look for a current business owner, a current task, and a current access scope.
Practitioner guidance
- Define vendor access as a lifecycle event Map every supplier relationship that can receive credentials, data, or platform access to a named owner, approval path, and expiry condition.
- Tie offboarding to revocation evidence Require evidence that access was removed, profiles were deleted, and any data transfer was completed before the vendor relationship is marked closed.
- Separate procurement approval from entitlement approval Do not let contract approval imply access approval.
Bottom line: Vendor management becomes an identity security issue as soon as suppliers are granted access or data transfer rights.
Explore further
View Full Forum → | NHI Foundation Course → | Our Services → | Read the full analysis →
This topic was modified 6 days ago by NHI Mgmt Group
12/06/2026 10:50 pm
Vendor management is lifecycle governance the moment suppliers can touch systems. The article's own examples of vendor access, deprovisioning, and offboarding show that supplier management is not only about relationships or spend. Once access exists, the programme must answer the same questions used in identity governance: who authorised it, what it covers, and when it ends. Practitioners should therefore treat vendor management as external identity lifecycle control, not as a purely commercial process.
A question worth separating out:
Q: Who should own vendor access closure and account deletion?
A: Ownership should sit with the team that approved the relationship, with IAM or security enforcing the removal step. Procurement can close the commercial side, but it should not be the only group responsible. Account deletion, access revocation, and data retention handling need named accountability before the vendor relationship is considered finished.
👉 Read our full editorial: Vendor management skills expose the real lifecycle control gap
This post was modified 6 days ago by NHI Mgmt Group