ESG vendor profiles of Circulor, SupplyShift, Transparency-One, FRDM and Wholechain: How supply chain visibility solutions address sustainability efforts
08/23/2021
This Spend Matters PRO post will focus on ESG features offered in solutions for supply chain visibility (SCV). The post is part of our series on ESG technology and how businesses can measure their increasing focus on sustainability efforts across their business processes. Today, we will detail five SCV solutions — Circulor, SupplyShift, Transparency-One, FRDM and Wholechain.
Three PRO posts in the series recently focused on ESG capabilities held by source-to-pay suite providers, supplier management vendors, and risk management providers.
Supply chain visibility and traceability providers focus on mapping the extended supply chain (i.e., beyond tiers 1 and 2). Customers engage supply chain visibility specialists as part of the larger supply chain mapping and risk-reduction efforts. Often, such projects are driven by regulatory requirements — conflict minerals, human trafficking and carbon-emissions tracking being three recurring examples.
Over time, customers will begin to use these solutions not only to identify ESG risks but also to coordinate larger improvement efforts. For example, once an OEM gets a clearer picture of carbon emissions from the mine to final assembly, the manufacturer then begins to evaluate where changes can be made, how suppliers can be developed to improve, etc.
Challenges for this group revolve around data gathering and use with suppliers. First, the extent to which a provider can enable end-to-end visibility of a supply chain varies depending on vertical and publicly available data. Many providers say their platform is industry-agnostic, but in reality, they may have a network or internal expertise built up that favors certain materials like cobalt tracking or certain industries like textiles from a retail perspective.
While the necessary infrastructure or knowledge can theoretically be built out, doing so for a non-core industry may require extra work from a pilot client. A related concern is reliance on third-party data from some of these providers to enrich their supply chain maps. While some vendors are primary-data collectors (e.g., SupplyShift), others rely on external data feeds or public data (e.g., FRDM, Resilinc) for their risk-mapping efforts. Lastly, SCV providers offer varying but typically minimal support for corrective actions and supplier development. They provide strong data foundations, but less in the form of supplier management capability.
Let’s check out five of these vendors.
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SXM SRMAfter EcoVadis’ Sustain 2019: Company Update, Solution Overview and Technology Enhancements (Part 1)03/14/2019
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SOURCING07/06/2020
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SXM SRMAfter EcoVadis’ Sustain 2019: Company Update, Solution Overview and Technology Enhancements (Part 1)03/14/2019
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SOURCING07/06/2020