Compliance management solutions provider ComplyWorks is rolling out its contractor and supplier management system at diversified miner GlencoreXstrata’s alloys division, Glencore Ferro Alloys, and at platinum major Lonmin Platinum.

Roll-out started at the two mining houses last year, but has been delayed as a result of the plati-num sector wage strike, which started in January.

However, despite the delay, ComplyWorks MD Nicolai Massyn notes that the roll-out is going fairly well at both organisations and is ahead of the goals set in ComplyWorks’ project plans.

He notes that the company’s role is to provide a proactive contractor management platform for employer organisations such as Glencore Ferro Alloys and Lonmin Platinum to manage interactions with contractors and ensure that the information needs of the different divisions within these businesses are met.

“One division might be interested in the procurement policies of a contractor and, therefore, require broad-based black economic-empowerment and tax clearance information.

“On the health and safety side, a division might be more interested in what contractors’ lost-time-injury frequency rate, or their safety history and systems, might be.

“From an environmental perspective, a division might be more interested in what the contractor’s sustainability profile looks like, or whether [the contractor is] ISO 14000- accredited,” Massyn explains.

ComplyWorks provides an information platform, which enables contractors to upload the required information that matches and measures the information needs of the employer organisation by means of intricate matrices.

The company also provides first-level verification or validation of all the contractor documents that are uploaded to the platform. This ensures that all the correct information is available for an employer organisation.

Further, ComplyWorks ensures that, with regard to time-sensitive documents that have an expiry date, those expiry dates are correctly entered into the system, as the system allows for automated alerts when any time-sensitive information expires and, therefore, affects the contractor’s compliance. The system will notify ComplyWorks, the contractor and the relevant employer organisation that the status of the contractor company might have changed.

“Essentially, when employer organisations log into their profile, different views of contractors, each containing a different visual marker, will be displayed. The markers indicate whether the contractor is compliant or not, with an explanation for the contractor not being compliant, depending on the compliance requirements of the employer organisation.

“Further, if members from a new employer organisation log into the system, they can search the database for a type of service and the geographical area in which the service is provided to identify which contractor companies match their requirements,” explains Massyn.

He adds that, if an employer organisation can view a contractor on screen, the organisation will know there is an 80% to 90% match of requirements.

Massyn notes that employer organisations can invite a contractor to become a participating contractor. The moment the contractor accepts the invitation, the system automatically measures present contractor data against the employer companies’ requirements.

“We always match the information so there is no duplication. Whatever information is supplied to other employer organisations will already be embedded in the system and will be matched to whatever questions we receive from other employer organisations. This significantly reduces the burden on the contractor to ensure compliance,” he concludes.