Independent study highlights how manufacturers are leveraging product compliance and sustainability tools to improve supplier engagement and reduce non-compliance costs.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, Nov. 1, 2022 — Assent Inc. (Assent), a leader in supply chain sustainability management, announces the findings of its commissioned Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study. Conducted by Forrester Consulting, the study found that Assent’s Supply Chain Sustainability Platform provides customers with a return on investment (ROI) of 304% over three years with a payback period of less than six months.
The study also indicates that product compliance and sustainability management solutions can enhance and protect brand reputation, ease administrative burdens, and mitigate compliance risks and supply chain disruptions.
Download Assent’s Forrester TEI Study here.
One customer, a corporate regulatory compliance manager at an electronics manufacturer, told Forrester, “If we had to do the level of due diligence that Assent does on new suppliers, it would easily be costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
The independent TEI study is based on customer interviews, data collection, and financial analysis of customers using Assent’s platform. The ROI calculation was driven by reduced costs of supplier engagement and onboarding, and reduced risk of non-compliance costs, as well as greater supply chain sustainability management efficiencies and more strategic program management:
- Reduced costs of supplier engagement by up to 100% or $1.1M in savings potential over three years. Due to commonly overworked teams and complex global networks of suppliers, manufacturers find that supplier engagement data is frequently unreliable or incomplete. Engaging with suppliers for product compliance typically takes 36 hours and $1,500 per supplier, according to Forrester. With Assent, teams can gain near-complete outsourcing of supplier engagement covering more topics and in local languages, which leads to up to 100% in cost reduction and stronger, more reliable data. The study found that by leveraging Assent, two full-time employees only need to spend 10% of their time managing their entire program with Assent, as opposed to eight full-time equivalent employees needed just to do supplier engagement.
- Reduced costs of supplier onboarding by 50% or $725,000 in savings potential over three years. Assent’s platform helps the teams responsible for onboarding new suppliers — a process that Forrester found can take up to 3–5 months and $15,000 per supplier — work faster and more comprehensively while lowering supplier exits due to compliance issues, which helps mitigate supply chain disruptions.
- 10–20% reduced risk of non-compliance, which includes fines, loss of business, and reputational damage. Due to complex global supply chains and regulatory environments, Forrester found 2–4% of non-compliance risk per supplier prior to implementing Assent, which could potentially amount to $350,000–$900,000 annually. Assent’s solution lowers this risk, helping improve brand position and easing the burden on staff regarding regulatory audits.
The head of regulatory compliance for another Assent customer told Forrester in an interview that “Assent is probably saving us millions of dollars in fines alone, ignoring any other legal implications of compliance violations.”
After interviewing supply chain and compliance professionals at four Assent customers, Forrester developed a composite organization to demonstrate an aggregated financial analysis of ROI. For the analysis, Forrester assumed the composite organization was a complex manufacturer operating globally with 350 suppliers. The composite focused on REACH, RoHS, and conflict minerals regulatory requirements and plans to add an additional 50 suppliers each year as it expands its product lines and geographic reach. Based on ROI calculations by Forrester, it is clear that customers with a growing supplier base have the potential to realize even greater cost and time savings through Assent’s Supply Chain Sustainability Platform.
“We believe this study confirms that Assent’s Supply Chain Sustainability Platform strengthens customers’ supplier engagement programs and improves their compliance with ever-changing regulatory obligations,” said Andrew Waitman, CEO and co-founder of Assent. “The number of regulations and pressures manufacturers face continues to compound. They simply cannot manage this with only internal resources; the cost of non-compliance is too dire. Manufacturers who do not invest in technology to support sustainability and product compliance efforts risk losing market access, being subject to fines and lost business, and becoming a publicized ‘worst case’ scenario example.”
For more information about Assent’s platform and this study, please visit here.
About Assent Inc.
Assent is the supply chain sustainability management solution dedicated to helping complex manufacturers bring responsible products to the world. Because supply chains were never built with sustainability in mind, Assent goes deep: past the suppliers of parts, down to the parts of parts and beyond, to map the entire complex manufacturing genome. Shaped by regulatory experts, customers, and suppliers, Assent is the foundation for cross-enterprise sustainability. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Assent employs more than 1,000 team members dedicated to customers across the globe. Assent reveals what’s hidden, validates what’s good, and helps eliminate unwanted surprises so the world’s forward-thinking complex manufacturing companies can become more sustainable businesses. Learn more about deep sustainability — from product compliance to ESG — at assent.com or join us at Assent Careers.
Media Contact: Katie Padilla, assent@padillaco.com (202) 845-4982
