May 8, 2024 Repost from Craft.co – Craft.co, the supply chain resilience company, today announced a $28 million, five-year agreement with the Secretary of the Air Force to bolster due diligence efforts across the Department of Defense. The Craft platform is being used by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and 23 other federal agencies to conduct due diligence and foreign influence checks on companies that aim to do business with the federal government.
Craft’s supply chain resilience platform simplifies large-scale due diligence efforts by providing a single platform for evaluating and monitoring suppliers across a wide spectrum of risk domains from foreign influence and cybersecurity vulnerability to financial stability and compliance. The platform is powered by an advanced data fabric with more than 1,300 data streams per supplier, a powerful risk engine enhanced by AI-driven insights, and a collaborative workspace that enables sharing and tracking of information internally and across agencies.
Currently, more than 500 government employees across 23 federal agencies including the Under Secretary of Defense’s Research and Engineering (OUSD R&E), the Office of Commercial and Economic Analysis (OCEA), the Air Force’s AFWERX, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), are using Craft in support of the SBIR program to enhance their due diligence practices.
“The Craft platform has helped OCEA set the standard for due diligence at scale within the Department of Defense,” stated Jeff Hubert, Director Office of Commercial and Economic Analysis (OCEA). “In addition to simplifying initial supplier evaluations and ongoing monitoring, the platform facilitates collaboration and knowledge sharing between agencies allowing for a deeper understanding of risk across all categories from foreign influence to cybersecurity, and financial instability.”
OCEA has used Craft’s platform to evaluate and monitor more than 35,000 organizations seeking to do business with the federal government through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. The programs provide funding to domestic companies in the private sector to encourage research and high-tech innovation. To date, Craft’s platform, which includes premium foreign influence data from Strider, Bluefoot, and Pitchbook, has flagged approximately 15 percent of applicants for additional vetting, demonstrating the platform’s value in identifying potential vulnerabilities and risk.
“Craft is dedicated to providing the most comprehensive platform for identifying, monitoring, and mitigating risk across multiple risk domains while helping support the mission of fostering and protecting technological innovation within the Department of Defense,” said Brian Mackerer, Group Director – Government and Defense Sector at Craft.
In addition to helping federal agencies with supplier intelligence for due diligence, Craft’s platform also includes Supplier Risk Management, and Supply Chain Risk Management solutions for highly-regulated industries in the commercial sector.
Craft launches AI-powered SRM
Craft.co today announced launching the first SRM designed specifically for team collaboration and proactive risk mitigation built with the industry’s most comprehensive data fabric and highly configurable AI-driven risk alerts. With comprehensive 360 supplier visibility, hyper-relevant risk signals, and the industry’s most user-friendly collaboration workspace, Craft makes it easy for organizations to stay in compliance while minimizing supply chain disruptions.
“Craft gives us a comprehensive view of risk across our entire supplier network without having to wade through a lot of disparate data and noisy alerts. The platform makes it easy to pinpoint potential relevant risk and share information across teams to proactively manage issues before they cause major disruption,” says Ingmar Mester, Director Supplier Management, Sustainability & Regulatory at Hapag-Lloyd AG.
“Some of the largest government organizations and commercial enterprises including the U.S. Department of Defense, Hapag-Lloyd, 3VRM, and others trust the Craft platform to provide reliable data and actionable insights to manage risk to their operations,” said Mimi Spier, Chief Marketing Officer for Craft.
The industry’s most flexible, scalable platform designed to grow with you
Craft is designed from the ground up to enable Supplier Intelligence for Due Diligence, Supplier Risk Management, and Supply Chain Risk Management. The Craft platform consists of four modules and offers flexible pricing based on your data priorities, required functionality, and number of suppliers.
- Craft Sense provides reliable intelligence across all risk domains and is configurable to meet a company’s specific risk concerns. Craft offers a complete view of your suppliers with holistic company profiles, advanced search capabilities, and value stream data about your most lucrative product lines and SKUs. Large-scale, repeatable due diligence efforts are simplified with portfolio-level management.
- Craft Protect helps minimize disruption with on-going monitoring to anticipate the most critical risks impacting your suppliers. Its powerful, centralized Risk Hub, timelines, configurable alerts, and insights based on AI and machine learning, can help connect the dots, understand impact, and proactively mitigate disruption.
- Craft Operate provides a central hub for communicating and tracking supplier risk across Procurement, Supply Chain, IT, Finance, Sustainability, Legal, and Risk Management teams. With collaborative workflows, private and group sharing of activities and conversations, case management and case analytics, you can efficiently manage risk, increase productivity, improve transparency, and ensure compliance.
- Craft Impact brings your supply chain operations together with 3rd party supplier intelligence and n-tier mapping so you can quickly anticipate disruption, understand impact, and optimize supply chain strategies in one central place.
All Craft modules are easily configured to align with the risk priorities of your business now and in the future as you scale your supplier network.
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