Webinar: Data Silos Leave Supply Chains Blind

Without a single source of truth, procurement and supply chain leaders are flying blind.

As global supply chains grow more complex, the need for unified, high-quality data across compliance and procurement has never been greater. Supply chains are multi-tiered ecosystems, yet organisations often lack visibility beyond their Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, leaving deeper vulnerabilities unmonitored. Poor-quality or fragmented data remains one of the biggest barriers to managing third-party risk effectively.

To keep pace with increasingly diverse regulatory expectations and rapid shifts in supplier risk, organisations need a single source of truth: a unified data foundation that consolidates risk insights, connects supplier identities and powers continuous monitoring.

In partnership with Procurement Magazine, Dun & Bradstreet's webinar, The Compliance–Procurement Alliance: Building a Single Source of Truth for Third-Party Risk, demonstrates how CCOs and CPOs can break down data silos, modernise their third-party risk programmes and build a shared operational model that strengthens enterprise resilience.

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The scale of the visibility problem

The scale of this visibility problem is borne out in Dun & Bradstreet's Manufacturing Pulse Survey Report, which surveyed more than 2,000 supply chain and procurement leaders across five major markets.

While US manufacturers typically operate supply chains extending as far as Tier 3, compliance monitoring generally stops at Tier 2, with only 11% of organisations assessing their full multi-tiered network.

The reasons are structural rather than a lack of will. Nearly half (47%) of US manufacturers say a lack of data is what stops them monitoring deeper tiers, while 45% cite insufficient time and resources.

The consequences are already visible: 97% of manufacturers reported disruption caused by supply chain complexity, and just 43% believe their organisation's visibility has actually improved over the past five years.

This is not simply a monitoring problem, but a data foundation problem. Only 36% of manufacturers feel confident making informed decisions with the data currently available to them, and nearly 44% report that AI projects have failed outright due to underlying data issues.

As Dun & Bradstreet manufacturing expert Björn Gerster puts it, supply chains have become multi-tiered ecosystems spanning multiple geographies and supplier layers, with Tier 1 suppliers typically well-managed while the real complexity and risk sit deeper, where visibility sharply declines.

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Blind spots and compounding risk

The webinar features Neil Isherwood, Director UK SME & Strategy Group at Dun & Bradstreet, and Martin Skeens, Senior Subject Matter Expert, Risk & Compliance at Dun & Bradstreet.

During the conversation, the duo said that this data gap is not just a statistical concern — it is one that industry experts are seeing play out in real time. Neil argues that limited visibility beyond Tier 1 suppliers significantly amplifies risk across global supply chains, leaving organisations effectively 'blind and waiting to see if those waves hit you or not.'

For Neil, this is a clear signal that transparency initiatives can no longer be treated as optional.

He points to geopolitical volatility, trade sanctions and environmental disruptions as forces that are actively compounding this complexity, often in ways that stack on top of one another.

A storm-related delay, for instance, can trigger a tariff penalty, setting off ripple effects that spread far beyond the original disruption and across entire industries.

Martin frames the challenge in similar terms, describing modern supply chains as interconnected ecosystems rather than linear models. He points to examples such as the cross-border movement of car door components and cascading effects across fertiliser and meat production, to illustrate how dependencies that go unseen can quietly amplify risk well beyond their point of origin.

Both speakers agree that fragmented data is central to the problem. Martin stresses that when procurement, compliance and legal functions operate on siloed data, the result is limited visibility and persistent blind spots, particularly around tracking beneficial ownership, sanctions exposure and supplier risk.

Looking ahead, Neil points to emerging technologies, including data lakes and governance layers, as a route towards what he calls a 'pseudo single source of truth.' These tools can unify internal and external data, handle unstructured formats and deliver value more quickly, allowing organisations to manage risk consistently without needing full system centralisation.

Watch the webinar on demand now.