The PVM Program is Changing

What is this Program? The Professional Vendor Member Program is the voluntary process in which ACCT grants a Business to Business member recognition for their vended services. To receive this recognition, each service area must meet the predetermined criteria, including business and standards compliance.

What we are doing:  This accreditation program and its criteria have been redesigned to improve areas of competence, quality assurance, and effectiveness for its members and the end users receiving the vended services. The Vendor Accreditation Program Design Task Force has worked diligently over the past couple of years to reimagine and develop the program requirements, documents, and administration, incorporating substantial feedback and comments from all stakeholders. This ensures the program exceeds the expectation of the industry. We are currently in our final stretch of program approval. The Draft Vendor Accreditation Manual has been sent to the Board of Directors for content approval.

What does this mean: Since we are going through approval processes for this newly invigorated program, the Board has already approved the following:

• PVMs (soon to be Accredited Vendors) are currently on a three-year re-accreditation cycle. All Accredited Vendors will shift their Re-Accreditation by one year. Meaning if a vendor were to go through re-accreditation in 2023, they would move to 2024. If a vendor were to go through their re-accreditation in 2024, they would move to 2025, etc. 

• In place of 2023 reviews, the Task Force will provide content education around the new program related to the application process and what to expect. This will provide  information for both current vendors and interested vendors. When finalized, the schedule for these education sessions will be announced through social media and the ACCT newsletter.

• As a support piece to the new program, the Vendor Accreditation Reviewer Task Force will conduct a Vendor Auditor Training in the Fall of 2023 for those individuals who are interested. Vendor Auditors will be the individuals who perform the on-site review for the accreditation process.

• The Program will officially launch under the new direction in 2024

As we continue to move forward through the approvals process with the ACCT Board of Directors, we will have many opportunities to provide updates. As stated before, these updates and information will be released through social media, the ACCT newsletter, listservs, and member announcements.

It is understandable for our industry members to have questions regarding the change in this program. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or thoughts, please email Heather Brooks, ACCT Program Manager, at heather@acctinfo.org.