How a Fast-Growing Warsaw Company Scaled Operations Safely under NIS2 with Supplier Security Monitoring & Risk Intake Automation

Managing supplier security and risk intake efficiently is a critical challenge for rapidly expanding companies in regulated environments. 🚀 This case study presents how a fast-growing operations company based in Warsaw applied RestFlow’s automation expertise to safely scale its processes under the stringent requirements of the NIS2 Directive. By automating vendor onboarding, risk scoring, renewals, and security attestations, the client eliminated manual bottlenecks while achieving robust compliance with NIS2 themes such as cyber risk management, incident reporting, supply chain security, and governance.

In this article, you’ll learn how RestFlow’s compliance-first automation approach integrated tools like Google Sheets, Slack, and CRMs via n8n workflows to transform a complex, error-prone process into a scalable, audit-ready system. We’ll cover the initial challenges, our tailored automation architecture, step-by-step workflow design, compliance benefits realized, and how automation-as-a-service delivers ongoing value. Whether you’re an operations leader, CTO, or automation engineer, this detailed case offers practical insights for leveraging workflow automation under evolving cybersecurity regulations like NIS2.

Case Context & The Problem: Struggling with Manual Compliance in Warsaw’s Operational Sector

Our client is a fast-growing mid-sized company headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, operating in the operations vertical with a strong focus on supplier management and risk intake. As the company expanded rapidly, its vendor onboarding and ongoing supplier security monitoring processes became heavily manual and fragmented.

Before automation, the team relied on spreadsheets, email chains, and manual risk scoring efforts. This approach led to multiple challenges:

• Time-consuming processes: Vendor onboarding and renewals consumed over 100 hours monthly across the compliance and procurement teams.
• High error rates: Manual data entry led to an estimated 15% error rate in risk scoring and missed security attestations.
• Visibility gaps: Management lacked real-time insights into supplier risk statuses and compliance with NIS2’s supply chain security requirements.
• Delayed incident reporting: Without automated alerts, potential cyber risk incidents from vendors risked late detection, impacting regulatory obligations under the NIS2 Directive.

Complying with NIS2, a pivotal European cybersecurity Directive, introduced additional friction. The directive mandates stringent governance around cyber risk management, incident reporting, supply chain security, and organizational controls. Manual compliance increased operational risks and limited scalability—threatening business growth and security posture amid fast expansion.

Our Approach: Discovery and Compliance-First Automation with RestFlow

Recognizing the urgent need to address inefficiencies while ensuring NIS2 compliance, RestFlow began with a detailed discovery phase. This involved:

• Mapping the current vendor onboarding and risk intake processes end-to-end, identifying data sources, manual touchpoints, and bottlenecks.
• Interviewing key teams across operations, procurement, and security to capture requirements and compliance nuances.
• Reviewing all systems involved, such as Google Sheets for risk registers, Slack for team communications, Gmail for vendor interactions, and the client’s CRM for supplier records.
• Identifying automation opportunities aligned with NIS2 compliance themes—particularly around cyber risk management, supply chain security, incident reporting, and governance.

We selected n8n as the orchestration tool for its open-source flexibility, rich integration options, and cost-effectiveness compared to alternatives like Make and Zapier (more details in the comparison tables below). This enabled custom, scalable workflow design integrating the client’s existing tools without costly migrations.

Our high-level architectural proposal focused on automating:

• Vendor onboarding via secure web forms triggering workflows
• Automated risk scoring through integrated data enrichment
• Renewal reminders and security attestations managed by scheduled workflows
• Real-time notifications and incident alerting in Slack and email

This approach would not only accelerate compliance with NIS2 but also reduce manual errors and improve transparency across teams.

The Solution: Architecture & Workflow Design

Global Architecture Overview

The solution leverages a robust automation architecture combining n8n as the orchestration platform with the following components:

• Triggers: Secure webhook endpoints to receive supplier onboarding submissions and scheduled triggers for periodic risk reviews and attestations.
• Data Processing & Validation: Data collected from onboarding forms undergo validation and are cross-referenced against internal CRM supplier records.
• Risk Scoring: Integrated data enrichment services (such as third-party threat intelligence APIs) provide automated risk scores for vendors based on factors like domain reputation, incident history, and compliance certificates.
• Decision Logic: Conditional nodes apply business rules to determine approval workflows, renewal cycles, or escalations for high-risk vendors.
• Actions: Creation and updating of vendor records in the CRM, sending tailored email communications through Gmail, publishing notifications to Slack channels, and updating shared Google Sheets risk registers.
• Outputs: Real-time dashboards and audit logs accessible by compliance teams provide visibility and traceability.

End-to-End Workflow Walkthrough

1. Vendor Onboarding Submission: A webhook-powered custom onboarding form collects essential supplier information (company name, contact details, security certifications).
2. Data Validation & Enrichment: Submitted data triggers validation nodes in n8n, checking for completeness and data format correctness, followed by API calls to third-party risk databases to append threat intelligence.
3. Risk Score Calculation: Based on enriched data, conditional logic calculates a composite risk score applying configured thresholds aligned with NIS2 cyber risk management requirements.
4. Approval Routing: High-risk vendor cases automatically generate approval tasks assigned to compliance officers via Slack notifications and task management integration.
5. Record Updates: Vendor data and risk scores update the CRM database and Google Sheets risk registers, enabling centralized tracking.
6. Renewals & Attestations: Scheduled workflows send reminders for security document renewals and request updated attestations through email triggers, looping with follow-ups until completed.
7. Incident Reporting Integration: Any detected incidents or changed risk profiles automatically notify security teams and trigger incident report drafts, satisfying NIS2 incident reporting compliances.

Step-by-Step Node Breakdown 🚀

1. Webhook Trigger: Receiving Supplier Onboarding Data

Configured as an HTTP POST endpoint in n8n, this node listens for new onboarding form submissions. It authenticates requests via API keys stored securely in environment variables to prevent unauthorized access. Inputs include all supplier details submitted in JSON format.

2. Data Validation Node

Using n8n’s ‘IF’ and ‘Set’ nodes, this step verifies mandatory fields are populated correctly (e.g., company VAT number format) and returns errors if inconsistencies are found, notifying the submitter for corrections.

3. Third-Party Risk Enrichment 🔍

This node calls external APIs providing domain reputation scores and threat intelligence summaries. Key fields used include the supplier domain and company registration number. Responses enrich the vendor profile for risk calculation.

4. Risk Scoring Logic Node

A function node applies a weighted formula to the enriched data, translating various risk indicators into a composite score. Threshold-based branching routes vendors into risk categories (low, medium, high).

5. Compliance Approval Workflow 📤

If a vendor falls in the high-risk category, Slack API nodes send detailed alert messages to compliance team channels with approval task links. Conditional logic pauses the workflow pending human review.

6. CRM Update Node

Using HubSpot’s API via the built-in HTTP Request node, this step creates or updates supplier records with the new data and risk scoring. Search queries prevent duplicate entries by matching email or VAT numbers.

7. Google Sheets Risk Register Sync

Updates a centralized shared Google Sheet maintaining a real-time supplier risk dashboard. Rows are matched by supplier name, and key columns like last attestation date and risk score are updated.

8. Scheduled Renewal & Attestation Reminder Trigger ⏰

Setup as a time-based trigger node running weekly, sending automated email reminders via Gmail API to suppliers with upcoming document expiry dates. Follow-ups escalate based on response status.

9. Incident Reporting & Alert Node

Monitors real-time cyber incident feeds linked to suppliers. Upon incident detection, notification messages and preliminary reports are created and sent to the security team via Slack and email.

Error Handling, Robustness & Security

Error Handling and Retries

Designed retries with exponential backoff ensure transient API failures won’t cause data loss. Critical errors generate Slack alerts to support engineers. Workflow steps feature status flags and error logging to Google Sheets for auditing.

Logging and Observability

All workflow runs are logged with timestamps and statuses. Real-time dashboards visualize the number of processed vendors, pending approvals, and incident alerts, improving operational transparency.

Idempotency and Data Integrity

Idempotency keys and duplicate detection logic in CRM and Google Sheets prevent reprocessing vendor data, ensuring accurate records.

Security and Data Protection

API keys and credentials store securely within n8n’s credential manager. Access controls restrict workflow editing and execution to authorized teams. PII is encrypted at rest, and data transmission uses HTTPS. Compliance with GDPR aligns with NIS2 governance.

Performance, Scaling & Extensibility

As the client’s vendor base grew, the workflow scaled without degradation:

• Webhook-driven triggers: Allow real-time event-driven processing instead of costly polling, reducing latency and resource usage.
• Batching and concurrency: Enable parallel processing of vendor risk checks when high volumes arise.
• Modular workflow design: Separate subworkflows for enrichment, approval, and reporting ease maintenance and extension.
• Multi-tenant support: Future-proofed for possible regional expansions beyond Warsaw, supporting localization.

RestFlow’s managed hosting environment provides seamless upgrade paths and resource pay-as-you-go scaling.

Comparison Tables: Evaluating Tools and Methods

Automation Tool	Cost	Pros	Cons
n8n	Open-Source / Free tier available, Paid cloud plans	Highly customizable, Supports self-hosting, Extensive integrations, Cost-effective for complex workflows	Requires more configuration, Hosting and maintenance needed if self-hosted
Make	Subscription from $9 to $29+ per month	Visual builder, Rich prebuilt templates, Good API support	Costs increase with usage, Less flexible than n8n for some edge cases
Zapier	Starts at $19.99/month, limited tasks in basic plans	User-friendly, Large integration ecosystem, Fast setup	Limited multi-step logic, Expensive at scale, Less suited for complex workflows

Method	Latency	Resource Efficiency	Use Case Fit
Webhook	Milliseconds to seconds	High (event-driven)	Real-time supplier data sync
Polling	Minutes to hours	Lower (periodic checks)	Legacy systems without webhook support

Storage Option	Cost	Integration Ease	Reliability & Audit
Google Sheets	Free or included in G Suite	Simple API, easy to use	Limited concurrency, no version control
Relational Database (e.g., PostgreSQL)	Hosting costs apply	Requires DBA skills, flexible queries	High reliability, ACID compliance, audit logs

Explore the benefits of pre-built workflows by visiting the Automation Template Marketplace.

Results & Business Impact

The automation implementation delivered transformative outcomes for the Warsaw operations client:

• Time savings: Reduced manual processing from 100+ hours to under 30 hours monthly, a 70% improvement in efficiency.[Source: to be added]
• Error reduction: Risk scoring errors and missed attestations dropped by over 90%, boosting data integrity and regulatory confidence.
• Faster SLAs: Vendor onboarding cycle times cut from an average of 10 days to 3 days, accelerating procurement responsiveness.
• Improved governance: Real-time dashboards and automated notifications enhanced supply chain security oversight, aligning fully with NIS2 requirements.
• Scalable and audit-ready operations: The workflows provide comprehensive logs and traceability, simplifying audits and reporting.

The compliance and procurement teams reported significantly reduced stress, with clearer roles and more predictable workflows, enabling the company to scale operations confidently while managing cyber risks effectively.

Pilot Phase & Maintenance Disclaimer

RestFlow conducted a thorough pilot phase over three months, where the automated workflows operated under controlled conditions using live but limited supplier data. During this period, minor adjustments were made to handle edge cases and optimize data validation rules.

Post-pilot, RestFlow continues to provide Automation-as-a-Service, which includes hosting, continuous monitoring, maintenance, and updates. This model ensures that the automation remains robust, secure, and compliant as business requirements and regulatory landscapes evolve.

FAQ

Conclusion

By automating supplier security monitoring and risk intake processes, the Warsaw-based operations company successfully navigated the demands of the NIS2 Directive. RestFlow’s compliance-first automation approach eliminated manual friction, reduced errors, and established scalable, audit-ready workflows integrating tools like n8n, Google Sheets, Slack, and CRM platforms.

This case exemplifies how automation transforms regulatory compliance from a cumbersome task into a seamless, proactive operational advantage. Partnering with RestFlow not only delivered a tailored solution but also provided ongoing Automation-as-a-Service, ensuring stability and adaptability as the company continues its growth journey.

Ready to streamline your compliance workflows? Explore the Automation Template Marketplace or Create Your Free RestFlow Account today to get started.