The technology for ensuring that supply chains are free of modern slavery is here, says Koray Kose, senior director analyst with Gartner. The challenge lies in getting companies to adopt it.

Various types of emerging technology are beginning to address critical issues of compliance with strictures against modern slavery in the supply chain, as well as the need for a greater overall degree of resilience, Kose says. It’s especially important, he adds, to bring sub-tier suppliers into the picture, giving brands and manufacturers full visibility of vendor activity all the way up the supply chain.

Graph technology is one tool that’s proving to be of value in this effort. It allows companies to address the problem of imperfect data matching, which often occurs in sub-tier relationships, as well as manage unstructured data relating to elements such as vendor part numbers. Traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems generally work on perfect data matches, so they fall short when it comes to accessing crucial information about tier-two vendors and beyond. Graph technology provides “statistical-based modeling that helps companies to structure data even if it’s not a perfect match, so you can get to a confidence level where you can say ‘this is true,’” Kose says. With such data in hand, companies can work with non-governmental organizations that are experts in compliance in order to eradicate slavery from their multi-tier supply chains.

It's vital that companies get a complete picture of their vendors, through access to data both structured and unstructured, to “make that story come together.” Currently, however, only about 5% of businesses have good visibility of vendors beyond tier two, Kose says.

The pieces are slowly coming together. A newfound emphasis on risk management is causing companies to seek visibility and data across traditional silos, Kose says.