> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.visotrust.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Vendor Directory

> Browse and search the VISO TRUST vendor directory — a catalog of pre-populated third-party profiles that speed up instant assessments and onboarding.

The **Vendor Directory** is VISO TRUST's catalog of known third-party organizations. It contains pre-populated company profiles that help VISO TRUST build more accurate instant assessments — faster and with less manual input.

## What the Directory Contains

Each directory entry includes:

* Company name, website, and primary domain(s)
* Industry classification
* Headquarters location and company size
* Known compliance certifications (SOC 2, ISO 27001, etc.)

This information is used to pre-populate vendor profiles when you create a relationship and to seed instant assessments with publicly available intelligence.

## Searching the Directory

The directory is accessible when you **Add a Relationship**. Type the vendor's name into the search field and VISO TRUST will suggest matches from the directory.

When you select a vendor from the directory:

* Company details are automatically populated in the relationship
* VISO TRUST can immediately offer to **predict relationship context** based on the vendor's profile
* Instant assessment runs with richer starting data than an unknown vendor

## When a Vendor Isn't in the Directory

If you search and don't find the vendor, select **Create new third-party organization** at the bottom of the search results. Enter the vendor's name and website URL.

<Note>
  Providing a website URL for vendors not in the directory is important. Without a URL, VISO TRUST has limited ability to conduct a public research assessment and the risk analysis will be less predictive.
</Note>

Once you create a new vendor entry, VISO TRUST will begin building a profile for that organization using publicly available information.

## Public Artifacts and Certifications

When VISO TRUST finds publicly available evidence for a vendor — security pages, compliance badges, trust portals, public audit summaries — it uses that evidence to derive initial control coverage:

* **Publicly available artifacts** (full documents VISO TRUST can access): counted as present controls with full confidence
* **Compliance certifications** (certification badges claimed on the vendor's website): counted as partial coverage — lower assurance than a validated report

To get full credit and higher confidence, request the actual certification document (e.g., the SOC 2 report) from the vendor.

<Tip>
  Organizations can control whether publicly claimed compliance certifications influence residual risk scoring. Go to **Settings** to manage this preference.
</Tip>