AIM-PROGRESS is system-agnostic and, in compliance with anti-trust law, does not make any recommendations as to members’ choice of platforms for supplier performance. Whilst 70% of member companies are de facto using SEDEX for supplier audit data and SMETA as the audit protocol standard, AIM-PROGRESS is supportive of any data sharing platform which answers companies’ needs. In this spirit AIM-PROGRESS has started a dialogue with ECOVADIS, a collaborative platform, allowing companies to assess the environmental and social performance of their suppliers on a global basis. A webinar was organized in November to familiarize members with ECOVADIS’ services.
In the spirit of informing members on existing systems AIM-PROGRESS is planning to establish an objective overview of data platforms working in the field of responsible sourcing, with the help of a neutral third party.
The ideal situation would of course be that all systems can actually connect and that information can be entered into one and retrieved via another, similar to what companies are already doing for Global Data Synchronisation of product master data. To this end AIM-PROGRESS is supportive of the efforts of the GSCP on systems’ interoperability. GSCP are working with ARTS (the standards organization of the US National Retail Federation) to provide the necessary standards.
