To say that modern supply chains have become complex is an understatement. Multi-tier supply networks, distributors, multiple interdependencies, and connections along with various degrees of uncertainty make supply chain transparency more difficult than ever.
However, complex doesn’t need to mean complicated. Regardless of how intricate the supply chain path is, and how elaborate global laws and regulations may seem, you can relieve your team of complicated work by choosing to outsource to a third-party compliance software provider.
When looking for the right software for you, it’s important to determine what’s a must have, what would be nice to have, and what is not important based on your industry, organizational goals, and processes.
In this article, we’ll review some of the features of compliance software that best serve your needs for visibility, responsiveness, and flawless architecture. Our goal is to provide you a thorough understanding of the most important features to look for in your search for the best compliance software.
Supply Chain Transparency
The average U.S. company works with 500 suppliers directly, but supply chains are much more than just direct suppliers. In fact, a company's total supply chain can contain 10x the amount of direct suppliers. This can make it nearly impossible to have complete supply chain transparency without the help of compliance software.
To support supply chain transparency, the best compliance software will offer:
- The ability to create a true and comprehensive network, connecting companies at any tier.
- The tools to map out your entire supply chain, beyond your direct suppliers to give you a complete picture of where your products and materials are being sourced.
- Dynamic request workflows for quick process implementation destined to collect data at the corporate or product level specific to your needs.
- The ability to share data on a dedicated platform for suppliers to administer their own global programs.
This collaborative system exchange prevents communication silos that could lead to disruption. You’re able to request and access data from your supply chain quickly, and your software should make it easy for suppliers to fulfill requests.
It’s important to make sure that the software provider you’re considering gives your suppliers multilingual access to the platform and other educational resources. It’s also important to see if they provide multilingual phone assistance to help guide suppliers through completing requests. Suppliers’ won’t always be educated on regulations or might not know how to find the information requested. This can result in low response rates and greatly hinder your access to the documentation and data you need.
Data Management and Exploitation
It’s critical that your compliance software gathers and validates data quickly while providing business insights so you can be confident in making data driven decisions.
Big data is the name of the game. For data to be fully functional, it must meet at least five quality criteria:
- Be correct
- Be comprehensive
- Be reliable
- Be relevant
- Be up-to-date
The best compliance software doesn’t simply collect raw data, leaving it to you to make sense of it.
Thanks to AI, all data entering our system is:
- Validated to ensure accuracy, including AI document verification
- Assigned a risk score based on the contents of the document and answers to requests
- Evaluated, analyzed, formatted into dynamic reports, and funneled into decision-making tools such as risk mapping, reporting, scenario visualization, etc.
Transforming data into qualitative analytics is the route to gaining a competitive edge and benefiting from performance improvements.
Among other benefits, business insights will:
- Help you gauge your suppliers’ level of engagement, resulting in corrective action when and where necessary
- Allow you to sort and customize by customer, industry, region for streamlined exploitation and easier reference
- Assist you in designing ways to collect and attribute data based on new programs you wish to implement
- Deliver supplier metrics that contribute to identifying risks, performance, reliability, and efficacy
Data doesn’t lie, provided it goes through proper validation. Ensuring your compliance software has trustworthy data verification features is critical when it comes to making data-based decisions in the future.
Risk Management and Responsiveness
Supply chain transparency and data collection already give you valuable insights as to the strength and reliability of your supply chain. The best compliance software will take you a few steps further.
Regulatory compliance programs identify potentially problematic suppliers or regions. Consider conflict minerals that necessitate smelter verification in specific locations, forced labor hotspots, or chemical-related laws that are specific to certain regions or countries.
But what about other lurking risks out there? Can you state with confidence none of your products are tainted with illegal or unethical activity, or that environmental damage doesn’t happen in the farthest points of your supply chain?
Risk Management is a Priority Beyond Laws
Data can be interpreted into risk scoring and risk mapping, so you keep sight over specific suppliers and regions. You determine the trigger points that are most critical to your operations and are equipped with data to take action.
Let’s briefly touch on less obvious risks. Say, a tsunami, an earthquake, a coup d’état, or even a pandemic. We’ll take the example of COVID-19 and how it mostly started as a wait-and-see.
For companies that had access to supply chain data, risk management turned into a quick crisis response.
A perfect example is Australian WiseTech CEO Richard White. Because of solid, open communication channels with his partners in Wuhan and the data that poured in following the closure of factories, he adjusted course and took proactive measures.
That is the exact purpose of the best compliance software you could choose: the functionality to move past framed programs and provide quick, proactive responses to any risk.
Those and Best Extras with Source Intelligence – a Q&A
For over 10 years, Source Intelligence has made it our mission to empower businesses of all sizes to be compliant, gain full visibility into their supply chains, and promote ethical practices.
As a SaaS platform, we offer the above listed must-haves, but have long understood the importance of customization based on your unique needs. One solution can’t fit all businesses.
Q. Is the best compliance software equated with being the most expensive?
- By no means, and quite the contrary. Top of the line technology experts and collaborative programs mean you don’t break the bank while breaking records in performance and efficacy. At Source Intelligence, our solutions are scalable. This means you can choose what programs and services you need without having to pay for extras you don’t. This keeps our programs affordable and accessible to businesses of all sizes.
Q. Do compliance software solutions in the US work for companies based anywhere in the world?
- Yes, absolutely. In fact, we believe the best software providers are able to communicate with suppliers in their own language. It eliminates barriers of ambiguity and misunderstanding. This is why we offer multilingual support year-round, including translating important documents. We offer programs for over 50+ global regulations and can customize programs to best suit your needs.
Q. Is there a way to funnel company goals throughout the supply chain?
There is. By providing all your suppliers with educational content, regulatory updates, and real-time access to databases, their level of understanding and commitment greatly increases.
Source Intelligence has been awarded the best compliance software solution in the industry, and we stand by that. Our experts work tirelessly to ensure our programs are constantly expanding and that your goals are exceeded. We will work with you every step of the way in implementing your risk management framework and make it easy to meet regulatory and corporate compliance programs.
Don’t burden yourself with costly processes. Request a demo to see how our software can help you.
