Risk Rate your supplier in minutes with Speeki Path™.
Speeki Path™ is the first step in your supplier qualification process.
Knowing risks in your supplier is critical to a speedy qualification and on-boarding.
New legislation in Europe and around the world expects you to conduct detailed assessments of your suppliers with respect to several key ESG and sustainability risks.
Before you embark on a detailed assessment process like that offered by Speeki Qualify™, you need to know where to focus. Speeki Path™ is the Speeki solution to rapidly provide an answer on what you need to focus with a named supplier. We give you a path forward that is informed, realistic, not too broad and relevant for the particular supplier.
What is Speeki Path™?
Speeki Path™ is a risk assessment on a named supplier. In short, before you start sending the supplier assessments and questionnaires to complete, you need to know 'the problem you are trying to address'.
Speeki Path™ helps to direct your focus on how to qualify the supplier in a smart and intelligent way. You don't want to waste their time providing useless information, asking them questions that are irrelevant and obfuscating the entire qualification process with endless questions.
Where does Speeki Path™ fit into your own supply chain process?
Speeki Path™ is a proprietary Speeki system that takes data from your supply chain team about a particular supplier and then returns a map of risk that you should understand before continuing along your qualification path.
Once you have that path forward, then you can use the Speeki Qualify™ assessments to have the supplier provide information and documents to explain their position on certain relevant ESG and sustainability risk areas. Speeki Path™ is your first step in knowing what to look at as part of the qualification processes.
What do we need from you to build a path forward with Speeki Path™?
1. Product & services, value, history
- Example: The supplier is providing hosting services for our IT group in several countries.
- We expect to spend > 1m/year on these services on a rolling three year contract.
2. Location, size, structure & experience
- Example: The company is located in India but the data centres are in India and the Middle East.
- The company is private but newly invested in a global company.
3. Answers to Speeki Path™ key datapoints
- Example: They will host client data, our employee data from around the world.
- The data centre is very large and has a large energy footprint.
What are the key datasets built into our proprietary Speeki Path™ risk methodology?
Bribery and corruption risks are higher in some countries and industries than others.
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. We know the industries, products, countries, regions and situations where bribery and corruption are more prevalent and impact supply chains. We look at recent cases, peer companies and similar industries to see trends in enforcement activity.
Carbon intensity, carbon production, energy usage and impact on natural resources.
We know the industries, products, countries, regions and situations where the environmental impact of a supplier could be large and impactful. We use this knowledge as a data point in our assessment to build a path on managing the inherent risks in the activity of the supplier. Some markets may have large carbon risks, but are well regulated and enforced. All these factors are considered.
Diversity, equity and inclusion
Failure to manage diversity, equity and inclusion risks can lead to reputational damage and difficulty in hiring and retaining staff. We know the industries, products, countries, regions and situations where diversity, equity and inclusion is strong and developed and where it can create significant issues.
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. There are very clear situations in industries, products, countries, regions and situations where human rights and modern-day slavery issues are more prevalent and impact supply chains.
Pollution, natural resources and impact on the production of food.
It is obvious that the provision of certain products and services will have a greater environmental impact than others. The impact on the planet whether by pollution, reduction in natural habitats, or impact on food production will very much depend on the type of products and services. Speeki Path™ includes datasets on the likelihood of these risks on the type of supply.
Country and regulatory rules vary greatly and can impact compliance
Country risk is always considered. Let's face it. Countries, their laws, their regulations and their enforcement play a significant role as to whether a supplier has a regulatory environment in which they need to comply. Country risk can be across several countries. It could be where the company is located, where its subsidiary is based, where its manufacturing or service are being provided or perhaps a mixture of all of the above. Country risk is rarely one country.
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 provide you with products and services. There are clearly industries, locations and countries where health and safety practices are less stringent and not enforced. We look to build in current statistics available to determine likelihood of issues.
Data privacy and information security
The protection of and access to an individual’s private data is growing in importance as new international laws come into effect. The supplier who handles your data could be a significant issue. For some suppliers, this is a big deal, for others a very small risk. We look at all the data that we have been given from the supplier to determine whether this risk is relevant and how it can impact the supply and the supplier.
Q: Why should Speeki Path™ be the first step in qualification?
A: Because it has to be risk-based.
If you are going to try and conduct due diligence on your suppliers, then this needs to be risk-based. Sounds obvious, but so many companies don't do it.
Why? Because they feel they can't assess risk until they do all the due diligence!
This is a mistake. You need to conduct a risk assessment of your supplier in order to tailor the due diligence. That is what Speeki Path™ does for you.
Using Speeki Path™ adds significant value to your qualification process by conducting that first risk assessment on each and every supplier. If you don't follow the tailored path provided by Speeki Path™, you will end up with some or all of the following:
If you send a standard questionnaire to every supplier irrespective of what they provide to you, you will likely have a lot of irrelevant questions being asked. Asking irrelevant questions of suppliers is a waste of everyone's time especially that of the supplier and the supply chain team.
At Speeki, we teach people to only ask questions that are essential and upon which you are going to act. Don't ask questions that you are not going to read, focus on and act upon. Send the right questions to the right suppliers about the right issues. Nothing more and nothing less.
Assessing a supplier for its ESG and sustainability issues should be tailored. A broad set of questions will be useless. ESG and sustainability are far too broad to have broad topics. You need to target the specific risks in that supplier. A risk-based targeting is essential.
Applying the same qualification process to all your suppliers will waste time and money. A targeted approach will save you time in establishing the risk profile, in reviewing supplier assessments and due diligence. It is all about targeting your efforts around risk.
Not all suppliers are the same and not all suppliers are high (or even medium) risk for ESG and sustainability issues. Speeki Path™ combined with assessments from Speeki Qualify™ challenges you to focus on risk in certain suppliers.
Speeki Path™ helps you focus your supplier qualification on the highest risk suppliers. It helps the suppliers and allows them to also focus on quality and production not answering voluminous and irrelevant questionnaires.
If you target your efforts more intelligently, you will get better data, more transparency and better results. Your suppliers will be happier and learn something from the qualification and on-boarding process.
The outcome of a Speeki Path™ analysis on a specific supplier
You will know the types of risks across the ESG and sustainability spectrum on this specific supplier. That risk profile will help you decide how best to conduct further research and assessments.
Using Speeki Path™ will be better and faster than relying on simple country risk charts provided by NGOs or other agencies. These country risk indicators are too simple, mostly theoretical and often outdated.
You will be able to see which areas of ESG and sustainability that you need to dig deeper on with this particular supplier. You can now start to map out the tools you will use to identify the suppliers approach to managing risk and identify what research you will need to complete.
The outcome of Speeki Path™ will help you answer the question 'what can this supplier do to hurt our company' and what are the steps we should take to understand that risk, understand the way the supplier manages that risk and how do we evaluate that risk.
Knowing where to focus your next steps will speed up the process, and reduce the amount of work needed to be completed by the supplier. It will engage with the supplier as a partner in managing risk, not as a supplier that 'needs to answer questions'.
The outcome of Speeki Path™ will give you a map of the type of due diligence/background checks that you should undertake with Speeki Trust™. It will help you structure your Speeki Trust™ instructions so that the research team focuses on certain topics and not others that are irrelevent.
Reduced time and labour – your risk assessment can be done by Speeki Path™ very effectively and quickly. You can spend more time on managing supply and quality risks.
Speeki Path™ features
Simple inputs are required from you.
Our Speeki Path™ process requires some inputs from you. We need to know some basic information to assess the risk in dealing with that supplier. We limit these questions as much as possible and they are easily known from your sourcing efforts.
Our model for Speeki Path™ has been decades in the making.
The Speeki team behind the Speeki Path™ methodology has been engaged in over 50,000 due diligence exercises and supported thousands of supplier risk assessments over the last 15 years. We have the expertise to support your supplier risk assessments.
Very fast risk assessment answers are produced
We use a mixture of Ai driven technology and human expertise to identify the risks in a supplier and recommend a Speeki Qualify™ course of action. As we perfect our Ai system, this assessment will be immediate.
Our risk model is adapted to include German and European supplier classifications.
There are several requirements in the legislation that require you to look at certain issues in your suppliers. Some of these are general and some of them are very specific to certain products in the supply chain. We have these covered in our Speeki Path™ model.
Improvements with Ai are underway
Speeki is working on integrating Ai into Speeki Path™ to further enhance our risk models and speed up the risk assessment.
A defensible model for supplier risk
Our Speeki Path™ risk assessment is a defensible plan to show regulators how you applied a risk-based methodology to your supplier qualification process. It is best practice to apply a risk model and that is precisely how Speeki Path™ operates.
Regular updating of the model to reflect industry, country and regulatory changes.
Speeki is continually looking to adjust the Speeki Path™ methodology with better data to train our Ai and human support on identifying ESG and sustainability risks. We update our models in real time.
Easy connections with other Speeki supplier diligence products
Speeki Path™ is exactly that. A 'path' forward to map out the risk in a supplier and then provide a path forward to conduct research and conduct overall due diligence. Speeki Path™ leads into Speeki Qualify™, Speeki Trust™ and Speeki OnBoard™.
The benefits of using a pre-qualification risk identification model like Speeki Path™
A true risk-based model for supplier qualification.
Supplier qualification should be based on risk. Not all suppliers are the same and not all ways to identify, measure and manage risk are the same. What makes sense for one supplier may not make sense for another. Imagine asking a bulk raw material supplier about their privacy programme. It adds little value and more time might be spent on environment and safety.
Identifying risk with a clear path on how to build research.
Speeki Path™ works with other Speeki products to collectively identify and manage risks in suppliers and their qualification. Identifying risk in ESG and sustainability is part research, part disclosure, part assessment and part contract. Speeki has all these areas integrated.
Efficient handling of risk and its research.
Building in Speeki Path™ and leveraging its built-in intelligence into your qualification process saves you time and efforts in building your own models or relying on overly simplistic country risk models that are outdated and narrow.
Defensible risk management.
Speeki Path™ allows you to rely on a trusted source in risk intelligence. You get the benefit of a model which is being updated regularly and adjusted further using Ai technologies as we learn more and more about risk in the supply chain.
Simple inputs that are readily available.
Speeki Path™ does not require a lot of inputs or complex information. All the information will be available from your supplier selection and engagement.
Gain insights and clear guidelines.
Speeki Path™ can help you manage risk and know precisely how to manage it. The Speeki Path™ process involves continuing to research and collect assessments and due diligence. Knowing what to focus on is the key.
How is Speeki Path™ a better model than simply sending a large questionnaire to each supplier?
Do a risk assessment first.
Sending a large assessment to the supplier as part of an initial qualification will add complexity and time to the process. It is better to be more targeted and only send assessments to the supplier that are required.
Questionnaires do not include external data with which to compare.
Assessing risk should not only include risks seen by your business, but also risk from political, social, country and other industries that may extend beyond your knowledge. Building this information into your risk model is important and valuable.
Self-disclose questionnaires rarely require answers with in-depth detail.
Most larger supplier questionnaires are designed as quick 'clicks' to get through the process. They rarely attack specific and challenging issues.
An external risk analysis gives strength to the model.
Using an expert to help assess risk with a strong supporting algorithm is entirely defensible. You may need to provide your model to a regulator.
Substance over form is often lost in large questionnaires sent to everyone.
Because of the standard nature of these questionnaires, there are a lot of irrelevant questions. Try and avoid this with a pre-risk assessment like that provided by Speeki Path™.
You can conduct the Speeki Path™ process very quickly.
The Speeki Path™ process is quick. It forms a quick and easy director of risk and guides you on where to focus your attention.
Scoring used in some questionnaires is too simple and simply based on answers.
Those questionnaires that use scoring to try and decipher results entered by a supplier. The nature of scoring to assess risk is often too general and not targeted to specific risk questions.
Easier for your suppliers than completing unnecessary complex questionnaires.
There is a need to keep suppliers happy and not have them spend all their time completing questionnaires. Everything needs to be very targeted.
Why does your business need to do a supplier risk analysis?
Not all suppliers are the same.
Your supplier is part of your ESG and sustainability ecosystem.
Focus your attention and save time.
No one wants to waste time and money. Focused risk assessments will contribute to your programme and allow you to focus on what is important.
Get the data you need from the supplier and give them something in return.
A supplier relationship is a relationship. Supporting them, sharing your expectations with them and giving them feedback is every bit as important as receiving data as part of a disclosure form.
What makes Speeki Path™ different from other risk assessment tools?
We think that Speeki Path™ is different because it looks at a broad range of ESG and sustainability issues. Speeki looks at at least 19 key ESG areas as well as other key factors like country of supply, regulatory changes and sentiment in order to make our assessment.
Speeki Path™ is updated regularly and uses Ai to enhance the assessment of the supplier against a key knowledge set. Speeki is the expert in risk and supplier qualification.
How Speeki Path™ works with your existing supplier qualification efforts.
Get started with a workshop to discuss all your qualification and supplier onboarding needs
Speeki is your partner in managing risk in the supply chain as it comes to key ESG and sustainability actions. Let us help you.
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