The term “supply chain due diligence monitoring” refers to the systematic, continuous, and risk-based monitoring of human rights and environmental due diligence obligations across the supply chain. In a business context, this includes identifying, assessing, prioritizing, and tracking risks, alerts, and violations within the company’s own operations, at direct suppliers, and—where risk-related or event-driven—also at indirect suppliers. The objective is to implement and document due diligence processes such as risk management, risk analysis, preventive and remedial actions, and complaints procedures in an effective and traceable manner.
The following software functions can typically be derived from the core due diligence processes and common requirements for digital tools:
Supplier and site management: Centralized management of suppliers, production sites, product groups, and relevant supply chain relationships.
Risk analysis and prioritization: Assessment and weighting of risks based on criteria such as country, industry, product group, procurement volume, or past incidents.
Supplier self-assessments and questionnaires: Digital collection of information on human rights, environmental standards, working conditions, and internal control measures.
Document and evidence management: Administration of policies, codes of conduct, certificates, audit reports, and other supporting documents.
Action and escalation management: Planning, assignment, deadline tracking, and follow-up of preventive and remedial measures.
Complaint and incident management: Intake, processing, and documentation of complaints, alerts, and reports from within the company or from the supply chain.
Audit, certification, and review management: Support for planning, conducting, and evaluating audits, as well as monitoring certificate validity and review deadlines.
Dashboards, audit trail, and reporting: Transparent analysis of risk exposure, open actions, deadlines, escalations, and processing status for compliance, procurement, and management.
A manufacturing company automatically evaluates new suppliers by country of origin, industry, and risk category before approving them.
A procurement team uses a portal to request supplier self-assessments, codes of conduct, and environmental certificates, while monitoring submission status.
A compliance department receives a whistleblower report about potential labor rights violations at a supplier and initiates a review and escalation workflow.
Following an audit, corrective actions are documented in the software, including responsible persons, deadlines, and status tracking.
Management uses a dashboard to monitor critical suppliers, open actions, and overdue reviews across the supply chain.