Sword GRC Collaborates On Supply Chain Risk

Supplier risk and supply chain compliance company Sword GRC is collaborating with Brazil-based Procurement Garage to expand across Latin America, the companies announced in a press release Friday (July 12).

Procurement Garage, a consultancy firm specializing in eProcurement and sourcing strategy, will offer its own clients access to Sword GRC’s Active Risk Manager solutions. The ARM tool connects businesses with a platform to streamline aggregation and analysis of risk factors down their supply chains, allowing users to provide a “single view of risk” with which managers can make decisions.

“Risk is becoming a valuable part of the decision-making process to support business performance, and a risk department is only as good as its system,” said Procurement Garage CEO Leonardo Alexander in a statement. “Whatever the industry, organizations need to ensure the safe execution and management of projects, operations and business activities.”

He added that Procurement Garage and Sword GRC’s collaboration “can help Brazilian companies take all the steps to comply with rules, regulations and industry best practices.”

“Many industries are implementing technology to assist with process automation and improve their productivity, visibility and accountability and cost efficiency throughout the entire supply chain,” Alexander continued.

In another statement, Sword GRC director of global partnerships Charles Longridge pointed to the company’s focus on strategic partnerships to expand its risk management offerings across borders, adding that Procurement Garage is key to its Brazil and broader Latin American expansion.

Supply chain risk is a growing focus for global traders, particularly amid a period of geopolitical volatility stemming from events like Brexit and the U.S.-China trade wars. Both buyers and suppliers are turning to technology to support their risk-mitigation efforts.

In a recent report from Dun & Bradstreet, risk managers expressed their frustrations having a lack of centralized and integrated data about vendor relationships.

Risk management, the report’s author Eric Dowdell said, “is becoming less about programmatically addressing the past and more about dynamically interpreting the future.”