How Arevon streamlined vendor onboarding and compliance with Gatekeeper’s Vendor Portal

Arevon is one of America’s leading independent power producers, developing, financing, building, owning and operating utility-scale solar and energy storage projects across the United States. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, with a regional office in New York City, Arevon owns and operates more than 6.3 GW of energy projects, supplying reliable, cost-effective energy to utilities and businesses across the country.

Supporting that portfolio is a vendor base of hundreds of third parties, including engineering and construction contractors, operations and maintenance providers, equipment suppliers and landowners, each requiring the appropriate information, due diligence and compliance evidence before work begins.

With Gatekeeper’s Vendor Portal, Arevon has moved more of its vendor onboarding and ongoing maintenance into a structured, self-service process. Vendors can provide and update their own information and documentation, while Procurement retains oversight of the requirements, reviews and approvals that determine whether a vendor can proceed.

Arevon streamlines vendor management with Gatekeeper to:

• Give vendors a self-service route to provide and maintain their own information and documentation.
• Apply different due diligence requirements to light, general and premium vendor types.
• Manage certificate of insurance reviews and trigger renewals based on policy expiry dates.
• Give internal requesters a clear route to raise vendor requests and track their progress.
• Pass approved vendor records into NetSuite once Accounts Payable checks are complete.
• Apply Gatekeeper's Insurance Certificate Review Agent to incoming certificates and trigger renewals from policy expiry dates.

The challenge: Keeping vendor information and compliance evidence current

Vendor onboarding previously required Arevon to chase vendors by email for documents and questionnaires. Responses returned to individual inboxes and had to be moved into the systems that needed them, while other vendor information and reporting remained spreadsheet-based.

The challenge continued after onboarding. Contact details, supporting documents and other vendor information change over time, creating an ongoing requirement to keep a large vendor base current.

Insurance presented a particular administrative burden. Certificates of insurance were tracked manually, renewals could be missed and requirements varied according to the vendor and the work being performed. A warehouse supplier and an on-site contractor, for example, do not require the same insurance coverage.

As Arevon’s renewable energy portfolio expanded, the company needed a more consistent and scalable way to onboard vendors, maintain documentation, and manage compliance requirements across a diverse supplier base.

Putting vendor data in the vendor’s hands

With Gatekeeper, onboarding starts with the vendor. Vendors receive an invitation to the Vendor Portal, complete their own information and upload the supporting documents Arevon requires. Procurement and Accounts Payable can then review the vendor record.

The same portal provides a route for ongoing vendor maintenance. Vendors can return to update contact details, provide new information and upload updated documentation, helping Arevon keep vendor records current without every change having to pass back and forth through Procurement.

Arevon has also tiered the process rather than applying the same requirements to every third party. Light, general and premium vendor types carry different requirements, with the full ESG section only appearing for premium vendors. Landowners, who do not require the same commercial diligence as contractors, bypass the portal and route directly to Procurement review.

Arevon introduced the Vendor Portal in stages, initially inviting vendors in small batches before bringing more of its historic vendor base into the process.

“Gatekeeper gives our vendors a route to provide and update their own information, while our team retains oversight of the process. We can also apply different requirements depending on the type of vendor rather than inputting everyone through the same level of review.” Athena North, Sr. Manager, Project Readiness, Arevon

Managing certificate of insurance renewals

Insurance requirements at Arevon vary by vendor category and by whether the work is carried out on site, which makes checking each certificate a slow manual job. Arevon uses Gatekeeper's Insurance Certificate Review Agent, an AI agent configured to those requirements, to check certificates as they arrive. Anything falling short is surfaced, so the team reviews the exceptions rather than every document.

The renewal workflow triggers 45 days before the expiry date recorded on the certificate. Vendors receive automated reminders from 30 days out, with further reminders and escalation if a policy expires. Vendors that are not currently working can be placed on hold to pause notifications.

Where a certificate contains several required coverages with different expiry dates, the workflow uses the earliest expiry date to initiate the renewal process.

Historic certificates are retained as separate records rather than overwritten, so Arevon can retain evidence of the insurance that covered work during an earlier period while managing the current certificate separately.

“With Gatekeeper, our insurance certificate renewals are triggered by the expiry date on the certificate itself, so vendors get the reminder instead of my team having to notify them. Gatekeeper’s Insurance Certificate Review Agent checks what comes back against our insurance requirements, so we can focus our review on the certificates that need attention.” Athena North, Sr. Manager, Project Readiness, Arevon

From approved vendor to NetSuite

Arevon separates vendor approval from vendor creation in its finance system.

A dedicated phase follows the Accounts Payable review, so an approved vendor record only passes into NetSuite once AP has completed its checks. Arevon’s NetSuite administrator also created a dedicated field to carry the Gatekeeper vendor ID, helping maintain a consistent vendor identifier between the two systems.

If AP rejects a submission, the vendor is returned to the onboarding form with AP’s comments attached, giving them a clear route to correct or complete the information.

Bringing internal requesters into the process

Arevon has also extended Gatekeeper beyond Procurement, training around 30 internal requesters and giving them view-only access to the vendor repository and a dashboard showing their own requests.

Requests can now start with the person who needs the vendor, rather than Procurement acting as the entry point for every new request. Internal requesters can raise and track their own submissions, while Procurement retains oversight of the onboarding and review process.

“Gatekeeper gives us a single path from vendor request through approval. Vendors can maintain their own information, our team can complete the necessary reviews, and the approved record can then move into NetSuite.” Athena North, Sr. Manager, Project Readiness, Arevon