Purpose and Scope
This policy sets out the criteria Customerwise Ltd considers when selecting new suppliers and renewing agreements with existing suppliers, to ensure our procurement decisions reflect our commitment to environmental responsibility, ethical conduct, and fair business practice.
This policy applies to our technology, professional services, and other business suppliers, for example, our cloud, software, telephony, legal, and accountancy providers. It does not apply to the engagement of mystery shoppers, who are engaged under separate terms and guidelines specific to that function.
Customerwise Ltd is a small business with a limited and stable supplier base, and we identify new suppliers infrequently. As a result, this policy is applied at the point a new supplier is being considered, or when a material existing agreement comes up for renewal, rather than through a routine procurement cycle.
Our Approach
Where practicable, and proportionate to the value and nature of the engagement, we consider the following when selecting or renewing a supplier.
Environmental credentials
● Whether the supplier has a published environmental or sustainability policy or commitment;
● Whether the supplier has made public commitments relating to renewable energy or emissions reduction;
● For our cloud and hosting providers in particular, whether energy-efficient or renewable-powered data centres are used, where this information is published.
Our suppliers are, in every case, substantially larger organisations than Customerwise Ltd, and our influence over their practices is limited. Our approach is to factor published credentials into supplier choice where a genuine choice exists, rather than to impose requirements we have no commercial leverage to enforce. This is consistent with the assessment set out in our Environmental Policy.
Ethical and legal compliance
● Compliance with all applicable law, including data protection, anti-bribery and corruption, and modern slavery legislation;
● Where we hold a direct commercial agreement with a supplier, we will seek to include a clause confirming the supplier’s compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (or equivalent legislation) at the point of contracting or renewal;
● We will not knowingly engage, or continue to engage, a supplier where we have credible reason to believe they are in breach of anti-bribery, modern slavery, or equivalent legislation.
Financial stability
● For suppliers considered material to our ability to deliver services to clients, we will carry out a basic financial stability check (for example, via Companies House or a free credit-check tool) before entering into, or renewing, a significant agreement;
● This check also forms part of our annual supplier review for suppliers already engaged, under our Supply Chain Risk Management Policy.
Payment practices
● We are committed to paying our suppliers within 30 days of receipt of a valid invoice, in accordance with agreed terms, and to paying late payment interest where a payment is delayed, in line with our Fair Payment Code pledge;
● We have been awarded accreditation under the Fair Payment Code, and our standard supplier terms (used where a supplier does not provide their own) reflect this commitment directly.
Roles and Responsibilities
The Directors are responsible for supplier selection decisions and for applying this policy when engaging a new supplier or renewing a material agreement. Given the size of our supplier base, we do not operate a dedicated procurement function; responsibility sits with whichever Director or manager holds the relevant supplier relationship, with oversight from the Managing Director.
Relationship to Our Other Policies
This policy should be read alongside our Environmental Policy, which sets out our approach to supplier-related climate and environmental risk, and our Supply Chain Risk Management Policy, which sets out our approach to ongoing supplier risk assessment, primarily from a cybersecurity and operational resilience perspective. Together, these three documents form our overall approach to responsible supplier management.
Monitoring and Review
This policy will be reviewed at least annually by the Directors, and applied to any new supplier engagement or material contract renewal in the interim.