Department invests in specialist technology that will enable officials to monitor 600 firms across scores of different areas that could cause supply chain disruption – including business continuity, sustainability, and corruption

The Department for Work and Pensions has invested £1m in deploying technology that will enable real-time monitoring of hundreds of suppliers in various areas that could pose a risk to the organisation’s supply chain or security.

The department has signed a three-year deal with specialist software firm Resilinc, covering the use of its “supply chain risk and resiliency management” platform. The deal came into effect on 15 January, runs for a term of three years, and is valued at almost £750,000 – plus VAT.

According to the text of the contract, the DWP wishes to implement a “risk intelligence and mitigation ecosystem with reliable, accurate data throughout the supply-chain lifecycle”, and covering multiple tiers of suppliers.

The document adds that, following mobilisation and project implementation exercises, a customer portal will be set up and details of 600 current DWP suppliers will be uploaded to Resilinc’s systems.

The software company’s product listing on government’s Digital Marketplace states that the technology supports monitoring of “45 impacting events”, and enables users to track any potential issues with suppliers in areas such as “sustainability, business continuity, health and safety, anti-corruption and bribery” and more.

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Monitoring is provided around the clock and is intended to allow organisations to “quantify [and] mitigate risk proactively at supplier, site, part, product and sub-tier levels”.

Resilinc service-definition documents indicate that the technology is intended allow organisations to first “detect” potential disruption, then accurately “predict” its impact and, ultimately, “collaborate” with suppliers to mitigate issues as much as possible.

The DWP has also signed a short-term £100,000 contract with IBM, to support an early implementation phase, which “will include AI-mapping and launching of supply-chain visibility assessments to… ‘gold’-category suppliers”. The addition of other providers at silver and bronze “sub-tiers” will take place after IBM and the DWP have successfully concluded this initial deployment process.

Once the system is fully up and running, DWP users will access the software via a web browser or a dedicated mobile app. Resilinc will also provide online training, as well as “system enablement sessions and support” to departmental officials characterised as “super users”.

The software firm will also join the DWP for “regular planning forums to review and discuss status against deliverables”.

Annual licensing costs for the company’s platform are listed as £450, suggesting that the department will roll out the system to more than 500 users.