Why You Should Tier Your Vendors | UpGuard

# Executive summary This article explains vendor tiering as a structured approach to classify third-party vendors by security risk to optimize Vendor Risk Management (VRM) workflows. It describes why tiering matters, outlines questionnaire-based and automated/manual tiering models (including weighting and automation rules), lists five key benefits (streamlined assessments, business continuity, advanced metrics, automation enablement, and supply-chain security), and provides best practices for defining criteria, combining manual and automated methods, leveraging security ratings, and regularly reviewing tier assignments.