Case study: Shop Direct
The Challenge
Shop Direct Group is the UK’s leading online and home shopping retailer and includes the Littlewoods, Very, Woolworths, Kay&Co, and Isme brands.
Shop Direct relies on a network of 800 suppliers, which provide services such as logistics, call centers, finance, and manufacturing. Naturally, customers’ personal data has to be shared with these third-party organizations, and the retailer is therefore obliged to ensure that the data is sufficiently protected throughout the supply chain, in order to minimize security risks. Shop Direct wanted to improve the way that it audited its suppliers and called on SureCloud for help.
Manual spreadsheet-based auditing was cumbersome and time-consuming
The role of the group’s small compliance team is to undertake due diligence testing of all suppliers to ensure they meet the standards both customer and the regulators expect. Suppliers were firstly asked to complete a questionnaire held in a spreadsheet and return it via email. Then, they were visited by the compliance team, in order to validate the information received and establish further actions.