Supplier contractual terms delivered ready to insert.
Speeki OnBoard™ helps you with the final part of your supplier qualification process: Contracting.
Speeki OnBoard™ is a suppler contracting solution and is part of the suite of products that makes up Speeki's supply chain selection, qualification and due diligence solution.
Speeki OnBoard™ takes all the information, knowledge, and risks identified in your qualification and due diligence process for a particular supplier and prepares a set of contractual provisions that can be incorporated into your supplier contract.
What is Speeki OnBoard™?
Speeki OnBoard™ is a vendor onboarding software solution. Speeki provides you with a set of terms that you can include in your supplier contracts. Our proposed terms are drafted specifically for the supplier and based on all the information that has been obtained from the qualification and ESG due diligence process.
Most companies do not adjust their 'standard' boilerplate language in their supplier contracts even if they identify gaps in the supplier's ESG and sustainability practices. Speeki believes this is a mistake. If you have identified gaps in the supplier programme and you want them to make changes, then building it into the contract is the first step. Then you can contractually mandate certain requirements with your supplier and hold them accountable to deliver on your expectations.
Is Speeki OnBoard™ acting as your supply chain counsel?
No. We are not acting as your counsel, but we do provide an addendum with contractual clauses through our vendor onboarding software. We are not acting as your lawyer or your law firm and we are not providing legal advice. That obligation remains with you and you need to make sure that the clauses are right for your supplier contract and that they are inserted and integrated correctly.
Speeki OnBoard™ drafts an addendum for you based on the risks identified in the supplier's ESG and sustainability initiatives. While the addendum is reviewed by an experienced and trained attorney who has expertise in ESG and sustainability risks in the supply chain, we are not providing legal advice.
Why are specific clauses addressing these risks necessary in my supplier contracts?
E.g We would like to see [Supplier] obtain certification for its health and safety programme within two years
[Supplier] is required to track its carbon usage and report to us if this exceeds [x] metric tons in any given 6 month period.
E.g [Supplier] needs to reduce the release of toxins into surrounding water by 20% within 6 months.
[Supplier] must implement a whistleblowing programme across all its operations within 12 months to allow anonymous and independent review of whistleblower complaints.
E.g The [Supplier] agrees to an audit of interactions with [Country] government departments and officials at least annually.
[Supplier] agrees to provide advance notice of any investigations or allegations of misconduct within 7 days of receipt and allows us to review documentation concerning our involvement in any such allegation.
What are some of the requirements that may be covered in a Speeki Onboard™ addendum.
Bribery and corruption
Failure to manage bribery and corruption risks can lead to significant consequences, such as large fines, reputational damage, and internal and external investigations – just to name a few. Your suppliers' Speeki OnBoard™ addendum may require the company to obtain a certification of the management system, give access to certain reports or awareness of investigations or allegations of misconduct.
Whistleblowing
Failure to provide whistleblowing support can lead not only to fines and debarments from public procurement, but also to failures with your other compliance programmes that need the feedback from reporters. Your suppliers' Speeki OnBoard™ addendum may require the company to implement an anonymous whistleblowing solution, obtain an ISO 37002 certification of their programme, give access to certain reports or awareness of investigations or allegations of misconduct that concern your business.
Diversity, equity and inclusion
Failure to manage diversity, equity and inclusion risks can lead to reputational damage and difficulty in hiring and retaining staff. Your suppliers' Speeki OnBoard™ addendum may require the company to report to you at least annually their key diversity metrics so that you can include such metrics in your ESG reporting or to confirm their applicability to certain benefits.
Human rights and modern-day slavery
Failure to manage human rights risks can lead to reputational damage, significant fines, debarments from public procurement, and internal and external investigations. Your suppliers' Speeki OnBoard™ addendum may require the company to conduct annual audits of pay rates, overtime, and workplace conditions by an independent third party. Such audits may be required to be provided to you after completion without redaction.
Compliance
Effective compliance programmes protect business and the return on investment could be significant, helping to avoid waste, fraud, abuse, discrimination, and many other practices that disrupt operations and put a company at risk. Your suppliers' Speeki OnBoard™ addendum may require the company to follow certain compliance standards (like ISO 37301) or to have a code of conduct in place (with verifiable training records). The addendum may specify certain executive roles to be responsible for compliance and that certain levels of staffing and seniority are maintained.
Supply chain and partner management
Supply chain and partner management is essential for the efficient and sustainable running of any business that uses third parties to either source or distribute its products and services. Your suppliers' Speeki OnBoard™ addendum may require the company to have a supplier qualification and due diligence system and provide details of subcontractors to you in advance along with their qualification and onboarding documentation.
Health and safety
A lack of consideration for health and safety can increase absenteeism and negligence claims, affecting workplace productivity and morale. It may also lead to a supplier's inability to produce products and services for you. Your suppliers' Speeki OnBoard™ addendum may require the company to obtain a certification of the safety management system, give access to certain reports or awareness of investigations or allegations of misconduct.
Data privacy and information security
The protection and access of an individual’s private data is growing in importance as new international laws come into effect. Your suppliers' Speeki OnBoard™ addendum may require the company to obtain a privacy analysis and to provide that annually and to undertake certification of their systems according to ISO 27001.
Using Speeki OnBoard™ addendums rather than your own standard boilerplate.
Using Speeki’s vendor onboarding software adds significant value to your contracting process. It is significantly more valuable than using standard boilerplate language already included in your supplier contracts. Most contracts include broad clauses that are 'never looked at.'
Speeki OnBoard™ looks to change the way supplier contracting is done. It transforms the traditional vendor onboarding process by incorporating a robust feature offering background checks for vendors. Speeki OnBoard™ ensures that all potential suppliers undergo thorough vetting, enhancing security and compliance from the very beginning
Just like the 'old days', Speeki OnBoard™ makes every contract with your supplier unique. It needs to be unique because each supplier is different and each supplier's risk is different. We believe that supplier contracts should be a risk management tool.
While standard templates are fine for some suppliers of very low risk, they are unlikely to be fine for high or medium risk suppliers. To shift that knowledge, responsibility and accountability to the supplier, you need very clear contract terms.
The more specific you can be with your ESG and sustainability contract terms, the more value you can get from your suppliers adherence to those terms. General 'do good' statements are no longer useful when you are likely to be responsible for their actions.
Relying on a supplier to manage ESG 'their way' is a significant risk. Outline your expectations and then use your contract to hold them accountable to comply with the contracts. Their risk reduces accordingly as does yours.
You have high expectations and reporting obligations to stakeholders and your regulators. Your suppliers need to meet your standards and tolerance for risk, not their own. Demand through contract that these standards are met.
The best contracts are those that reflect the above elements. Your suppliers should help you in your ESG and sustainability programmes. They are, after all, an essential part to which you are beholden. The more you can improve supplier ESG, the more you can help your own ESG.
With ESG reporting obligations increasing, an increased amount of data will need to be submitted from your suppliers. From scope 3 emissions, diversity metrics and safety accident reporting, you will need to require the suppliers to provide data regularly.
Using Speeki OnBoard™ supercharges your supplier contracts
Easily map the results of your qualification, assessment and due diligence steps with your contracts. Moving your 'findings' into actionable requirements for your supplier.
Your Speeki OnBoard™ addendum with your supplier will make your legal contracts with each supplier an active part of your risk management system not just a defensive mechanism for dispute resolution.
Use your Speeki OnBoard™ addendum to give value to your ESG reporting efforts by securing a flow of essential contracted data from your supplier that can be tracked and easily 'demanded'. Increasingly, data will be needed from your suppliers for your own reporting.
Building better and more intelligent contracts with your supplier will build a common value of managing risk on both sides. It will help avoid disputes and set out roles and responsibilities with respect to ESG and sustainability more clearly.
Link the obligations from your Speeki OnBoard™ addendums with your ongoing monitoring, measuring and audit programmes. Validate compliance with your contracts easily with Speeki Partner Integrity™ audits.
The Speeki vendor onboarding software solutions are not intended to take over the role of your in-house counsel or external lawyers. It is designed to give you a simple way to integrate requirements into your contracts with a supplier.
Make your supplier contracts more valuable with actionable requirements and a clear setting of expectations. Your suppliers will actually be thankful to see precisely what it is that they need to do.
Speeki OnBoard™ features
Reviewed by legal professionals.
The Speeki OnBoard™ addendums prepared by Speeki have been reviewed by our legally trained professionals, some of whom have many years of in-house experience.
Fixed price and substantially less than outside lawyers.
Our solutions are a set price per addendum. Bought in a series of packages (min 10) you know precisely the cost and can build this into your cost of onboarding a supplier. Costs are significantly less than an outside counsel attorney.
Designed specifically for each supplier.
More than just templates, the addendums are designed for each supplier based on the circumstances of that supplier and how they have proceeded through the qualification and due diligence steps in your process.
You control the ultimate final version.
While Speeki will provide you with the Speeki OnBoard™ addendum ready to insert into your supplier contract, you retain control of the ultimate version.
Not too little and not too much.
The Speeki OnBoard™ addendums are produced in MS Word allowing you to edit where necessary. Scale down our drafting with ease to suit certain supplier needs. We aim to have less than two pages of text, simply laid out and drafted in simple language.
Standalone versions for existing contracts and suppliers.
Speeki’s vendor onboarding software can also be used for standalone agreements with your supplier. If it is preferred to have a additional contract, this can be drafted and provided for an additional fee.
Integration with your templates.
The Speeki OnBoard™ addendum templates are set up with the right wording to easily slide into your existing supplier agreements. They can be worded as an 'ESG and Sustainability addendum' or other wording that works.
Simple language clauses.
We pride ourselves at Speeki to write clauses in simple terms for suppliers to understand. This is particularly important for SMB suppliers and those that lack their own legal counsel.
Why do your supplier contracts need more focus on ESG and sustainability issues?
ESG and sustainability is the leading issue facing the supply chain today: managing risk.
Legislators, the community, and your customers hold you responsible for your suppliers.
Your customers don't really see the difference between your role and that of your supply chain. They look to you for their answers. Trying to shift responsibility in the market and in the media is pointless. Actively managing risk in advance should be your focus.
You need suppliers as much as they need you. Their data becomes your data.
The chances are that going forward you will need a lot of data from your suppliers. Right now, there is likely no legal obligation for them to provide it to you. Better contracts, better obligations, better requirements and better enforcement is part of the solution in gaining better data from your suppliers.
Managing supplier risk is a mixture of knowledge, assessment and contractual.
Contracts have been a great shield over the years. However, they are a sword just as much as they are a shield. Properly drafted, supplier contracts can do both. While templates and removing the lawyers from simple negotiations is a good thing, better supplier contracts, more tailored to manage specific risks are needed in the future.
You may need to rely on those contracts to enforce requirements. They need to be clear.
In the new world of ESG and sustainability, you will need to make the expectations very clear to your supplier. Differences in size, legal obligations, reporting obligations, and risk tolerance, will influence what each party to the contract are expecting.
As companies push more to their suppliers in terms of obligations, these need to be accurately described in contracts.
Best practice is to set out clearly the expectations of both parties in their contracts. While this is standard practice, the use of templates has lead to less than specific guidance to suppliers on the expectations of the customer.
Speeki OnBoard™ FAQ's
How much does it cost?
Speeki charges a flat fee for each Speeki OnBoard™ addendum purchased in packs of 10 paid in advance.
How long does it take to prepare?
With a package purchased, credits remaining, and inputs received, normally overnight or next business day.
Does Speeki help to negotiate the addendum?
We do not get involved in the negotiation of the addendum.
How does Speeki decide what to include in the addendum?
We are looking for things that the supplier can do to improve their ESG and sustainability practices that by implementing or improving, would benefit you and your risk levels.
Can we change the addendum after being provided by Speeki?
Yes, you are welcome to make changes or adjust as you see fit.
Can you use my addendum template?
Yes. We will look at how to include your structure in a template addendum.
What does Speeki need in order to prepare the addendum?
We focus on inputs from you as well as the results (if any) from Speeki Trust™ background checks or Speeki Qualify™ assessments that the supplier may have completed. We focus on inputs from you, as well as the results (if any) from Speeki Trust™ background checks vendors, or Speeki Qualify™ assessments that the supplier may have completed.
What happens if the supplier refuses to sign or negotiate?
Negotiate, accept defeat, or find an alternative supplier.
How does Speeki OnBoard™ help various groups in the company?
Supply Chain Management
Chief Compliance Officers
Procurement
Increase touchpoints and engagement with suppliers and service providers to evaluate their commitment to good ESG practices.
Employees and other stakeholders
Increase feelings of value as a part of a company that has a strong compliance culture and good governance in addressing ESG risk areas.
What makes Speeki different from other assessment tools?
We think that a scorecard makes sense for a company to improve their ESG. How mature is your programme is a better judge of the programme in the situation where you will use that information to improve your own internal systems.
Your Speeki Assessment depends on the quality of the evidence you provide, which is analysed and processed by risk professionals. We conduct our own independent review and verification of responses and supporting evidence through the use of our proprietary scoring methodology.
How it works
Process
The Assessment process is streamlined and conducted primarily online. After completing a questionnaire, and preparing and uploading the required documents, you will receive a scorecard approximately four to six weeks later.
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