| | july 201421CIOReview | | October 201451CIOReview

From tainted mayonnaise to food borne diseases and dangerous children’s products, Matt Smith, the

Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at icix, a supply chain risk management solution company, has dealt with many a supply chain crises.

“The challenge lies in a company’s ability to effectively and efficiently manage their extended supply chain. Companies need insight and control; they are critical factors in ensuring product safety and quality, and apply across initiatives such as social responsibility and sustainability,” Smith explains.

With over ten years of experience in the industry, Matt is a recognized authority in supply chain risk management and product safety. He believes that any effective supply chain risk management program starts with understanding your business relationships. “They are the foundation. You have to understand the numerous, and sometimes complex, relationships between the products you buy and sell and the various trading partners who provide them. Once you understand this, you can then connect, communicate and collaborate with the appropriate trading partners on almost any type of i n fo r m a t ion ,” says Smith. “icix offers a network and solutions that allow organizations

to connect the dots; we provide the transparency necessary for companies to understand these relationships and manage the risks associated with them.”

icix recently announced Direct Test, a new cloud application that streamlines the management of product test and regulatory documentation. Direct Test matches purchase orders to existing documentation, and notifies trading partners and testing labs if documentation or certificates are missing. icix connects directly to lab systems to pull in test results, generate certificates and create reports, eliminating the need for manual processing.

icix first grabbed industry attention with its cloud-based approach to supply chain risk management. The company’s centralized SaaS solutions and network provide insight into trading partner and product compliance, automate risk man-agement processes and allow documents and data to be shared and tracked in real-time. “Our products have done an excel-lent job of addressing both business rela-tionship and transparency needs. We help our clients ensure that every product they bring to market meets their compliance and regulatory requirements,” elaborates

Smith.icix solutions have been

successfully rolled out to customers in a range of industries, including food and beverage, retail, consumer packaged goods, apparel and the public sector. A U.S.-based, multinational apparel

company turned to icix for help when it faced the overwhelming

challenge of managing their large amount of daily product shipments. The company shipped products all over the world, but did not have a timely or accurate way to ensure that every individual product shipped was compliant and had the required documentation. After identifying the critical pain points and requirements, icix partnered with the apparel company to implement a solution that collected product information directly from third-party testing labs. The solution verified that individual products had the proper legal documentation and certification-allowing the apparel company to confidently and easily ship products that were safe for consumers. This solution evolved into today’s Direct Test application that now connects directly with eight testing labs and helps both retailers and manufacturers manage their product safety programs.

“As a technology company, we continue to invest in our infrastructure and solutions to support an advanced business relationship network to ensure it scales to meet evolving supply chain risk management needs,” concludes Smith.

icixMitigating Supply Chain Risk andEnsuring Regulatory Compliance

To mitigate risk, you must understand the relationships between your products and the various trading partners who provide them

Matt Smith