Under this guidance, both exporters and importers must collect an increasing amount of information from their trading partners to implement security measures throughout the supply chain. They must also abide by “know your supplier.” Whether it’s to determine end-use, comply with the Enhanced Proliferation Control Initiative (EPCI), or manage a C-TPAT program, global companies must make asking questions and collecting answers an integral part of their business processes.

Accumulating, managing and retrieving this information across hundreds or thousands of supply chain partners using spreadsheets and manual systems is impractical and inefficient. Information must be readily available across the enterprise to drive decisions regarding partners, products and transactions.

Organizations need a way to store and manage a growing question and answer base. As companies increasingly turn to global trade management systems, they’re also looking for this type of questionnaire functionality. Key features to look for include:

Dynamic creation and distribution of surveys — Users should be able to design a database of questions, specify the type of response desired and reuse questionnaires across the organization.

Question branching and response-driven workflow — Questions should be configurable so the system performs certain actions based on the answers. Actions can include notifying other users, asking a follow-up question or requiring remediation.

Linking questions to transactions — Certain types of transactions should allow the insertion of questionnaires along with rules that determine whether the transaction should proceed based on the answers.

Active integration of survey answers — Optimally, survey answers pertaining to partner, product and transaction information should be integrated back into those key records. A question management system should be capable of that type of intelligent propagation.

Given that the nature of the information received can affect the outcome of transactions, organizations need a way to raise meaningful and actionable red flags. For example, an unfavorable response from a trading partner could cast doubt on all pending transactions with that partner.

Relying on an information system to manage a question and answer base is a powerful risk management strategy that should be part of any global trade compliance program.

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