Shortening supplier audit time from 14 days to 26 hours
We implemented an automatic compliance verification system for a retail chain. We replaced manual questionnaire filling with precise certificate scanning.
The Retail-North Group board was losing hundreds of hours annually on manual paper checking from 347 suppliers. Conner Whitlock introduced a system that does the same in one day, eliminating human error and legal risk. Hard facts on the table: data security increased, and bureaucracy disappeared.
The challenge
In July 2024, the retail chain was struggling with chaos in documentation. Each of the 347 suppliers had to undergo a security audit once a year, which relied on sending long Excel sheets and waiting for responses for an average of 14 working days. The compliance team spent 34 hours a week on this, yet 12% of certificates in the database were already outdated. There was no single place where the board could check who realistically has access to the company's systems and who should have been cut off three months ago.
Our approach
The Conner Whitlock team stepped into action in August 2024. Instead of writing more theoretical procedures, we did an inventory of all entities and selected 5 critical touchpoints that actually threatened the company's data. We spoke with the logistics and IT departments to understand exactly where the process was sticking. We opted for automatic verification instead of asking people to rewrite data from emails to tables. We check what works and what doesn't, so we rejected 14 unnecessary questions from the surveys that were just wasting time.
The solution
We launched a dedicated verification panel that automatically downloads and analyzes documents from contractors. The system scans submitted ISO certificates and insurance policies in 3.2 seconds, catching typos and expired dates. If a supplier does not submit current documents, the system automatically blocks the possibility of issuing a new invoice in the logistics panel. This is a simple but effective method that forced order on 97.4% of suppliers in less than a month. We keep all data on secure servers in Warsaw, in accordance with Polish legal realities.
Results
The audit process stopped being a bottleneck for the purchasing department. Now full verification of a new entity takes 26 hours, and the compliance team regained 29 hours a week for real security work instead of monitoring Excel.
Timeline
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05.08.2024Workshops with the compliance department and analysis of 347 supplier files
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18.08.2024Launch of the PDF scanning system prototype
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01.09.2024Integration of billing blocks for unverified entities
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15.09.2024Team training and official handover of the system for use
"I was afraid that tightening the rules would slow down our supply chain. The opposite happened. Now we know exactly who we're letting into the systems, and paperwork has practically disappeared."