ESG balance sheet and supply chain law:
EXCON develops software solution for new reporting requirements
Medium-sized and large companies are facing new due diligence and reporting obligations with regard to labour and environmental standards. EXCON helps them with a software platform to prepare efficiently for the transparent introduction, monitoring and administration of their ESG balance sheet and compliance with the Supply Chain Act.
In the future, companies will have to assume more social and environmental responsibility and demonstrate it more transparently and extensively. The German government is striving for the Europe-wide introduction of legally required sustainability reports. The "first German strategy for sustainable financing" is to become reality by 2023 at the latest. ESG reports will then be mandatory for listed companies and companies with limited liability and will be audited by the state, just like the annual business report. With its software platform ex:plore, EXCON Group helps companies to prepare seamlessly for these audits.
Not only large companies are affected by the expansion of reporting requirements. In addition to listed small and medium-sized enterprises, the Supply Chain Act also places responsibility on companies that act as suppliers, service providers or partners of companies subject to reporting requirements. The law obliges companies to check both direct and indirect suppliers according to certain criteria and to initiate corrective measures in the event of violations. As early as 2023, the Supply Chain Act will apply to all German companies with at least 3000 employees; one year later, companies with at least 1000 employees and their suppliers will also be affected.
"Many of these companies have hundreds of suppliers", says Bettina Guggemos, Managing Director of EXCON Group. The challenge, however, does not only lie with the large companies that have to audit all suppliers with regard to the Supply Chain Act and document the results of these audits: "Especially for a medium-sized supplier without a large compliance department, it involves considerable operational and administrative effort to conduct such audits and to prepare for them", says Bettina Guggemos.
Modular solution for medium-sized companies and large corporations
The special feature of the ex:plore software is the modularity of its functional scope and the flexibility of its audit content. Thus, the fundamental basic functions can be extended by additional function packages as required. The software thus not only helps to carry out and document audits according to own or legally prescribed guidelines - it also enables digital self-audits for decentralised locations and additionally provides important features in the area of planning and administration as well as monitoring.
The number of users itself is also flexible - both the number of users in the controlling function and the number of auditees to be audited. In this way, medium-sized companies as well as large corporations benefit equally from a user-friendly, expandable software for their risk and quality management.
Of particular importance in a field of activity where transparency, diligence and reliability have top priority is the EXCON Group's decades of experience with audits in various industries. "We have been working intensively and trustfully with our clients from the finance and mobility industry in this area for years", says Bettina Guggemos. This has resulted in a resilient and proven audit methodology, which is now made available in a user-friendly way in the ex:plore software to users from numerous industries and fields of application. "Helpful planning and administration tools, the integration of a dedicated app and ready-to-use questionnaires come together here." In this way, complaints can be tracked and dealt with transparently, responsibilities can be mapped and deadlines and dates can be managed clearly.
"The high demands of our clients, together with our professional experience and the best practices we have acquired over the years, result in a solution in which the quality of the application and its content as well as the satisfaction of its users have the highest priority for us", Guggemos concludes.
