A supplier self-disclosure is part of supplier management in purchasing and procurement. It is a method for systematically gathering information about suppliers and their capabilities, and helps you check in advance whether a supplier meets your requirements in specific areas, e.g. quality management. This makes the supplier self-disclosure a quality assurance tool in the supply and ordering process. Depending on its scope, it can take the form of a short online form or a comprehensive online supplier survey. On this page, we explain the term, present our template and share tips on designing and conducting it.
Table of Contents
What is a supplier self-disclosure?
A supplier self-disclosure, also known as a supplier self-assessment, is generally used to pre-select and evaluate suppliers, subcontractors or service providers. In it, the potential supplier provides information about their company, including key business figures, product range and quality assurance. This helps companies spot weaknesses in quality assurance, or in a supplier’s general ability to follow the required processes, at an early stage. It is therefore a prerequisite for approving a supplier to deliver to the company. A supplier self-disclosure can also be repeated at regular intervals with existing suppliers to capture the status quo.
A supplier self-disclosure can also form part of the risk analysis under the German Supply Chain Act (LkSG). Companies in Germany that fall under the Supply Chain Act must meet certain requirements and fulfil their due diligence obligations. These include a risk analysis to identify and assess risks along the supply chain. A supplier self-disclosure can provide relevant information for this risk management. You can find more on the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act here: LkSG: requirements, implementation & questionnaires
Key facts at a glance
What is a supplier self-disclosure?
A method for systematically gathering information about suppliers when assessing their suitability.
What is it used for?
It is part of the pre-selection and evaluation of suppliers in purchasing and procurement, and therefore supports quality assurance within a company.
How often is it carried out?
It is usually carried out before a supplier is selected and should be repeated regularly throughout supplier management to keep data up to date.
Supplier self-disclosure template: focus on quality assurance
In most cases, a supplier self-disclosure centres on quality assurance, e.g. information on quality management. Does the supplier have a quality management system (QMS) that is geared towards customer satisfaction and documented? And if so, is the QMS certified? The most widely used standard setting out the requirements for a quality management system is ISO 9001. There are also many industry-specific standards, such as IATF 16949 in the automotive industry.
What a supplier self-disclosure typically covers
- Company details such as legal form, number of employees and turnover
- Contact persons and responsibilities
- Range of products and services
- Quality management and certificates, e.g. ISO 9001 or IATF 16949
- Environmental, health and safety, and sustainability aspects
- Information security and data protection
- Supporting documents via file upload
Need a supplier self-disclosure template that focuses on quality management? Feel free to use our free template. Click “Use template” to copy it to your LamaPoll account and adapt it to your company’s internal requirements:
As a method for pre-selecting suppliers, the supplier self-disclosure plays an important role in sustainability management. The materiality analysis carried out for sustainability reporting also addresses existing suppliers, alongside other stakeholders. Find out more about materiality analysis in sustainability management here: Materiality analysis
Why use LamaPoll for an online supplier self-disclosure?
An online supplier self-disclosure saves time and money and can be set up quickly with the right template. A supplier questionnaire typically asks for company details such as headcount, personal data such as contact persons, and even bank details, so it is essential to collect this data with a secure, GDPR-compliant online tool. LamaPoll is exactly that: a secure, GDPR-compliant tool for creating, conducting and analysing online surveys and online forms. The operation and development of our software are ISO/IEC 27001-certified. LamaPoll gives you comprehensive, secure software for your supplier self-disclosure that, among other things, lets suppliers upload documents such as proof of quality management certification (file upload from the Platinum plan).
You can find all key information on data protection and data security here: Security and protection for your online survey data.
Tips for an online supplier self-disclosure
Conducted online, a supplier self-disclosure can help purchasing and procurement teams minimise procurement risk.
A few tips for your supplier self-disclosure form:
- A supplier questionnaire that matches your corporate design (logo, fonts, etc.)
- Dynamic questioning with branching: the supplier self-disclosure follows a different path depending on the answer selected
- File upload (from the Platinum plan): potential suppliers can upload supporting documents such as certificates
- Suppliers can pause the form at any time and continue later
- Restricted access: each supplier receives an individual access key to complete the form
Conclusion
A supplier self-disclosure supports quality assurance and is a prerequisite for approving suppliers to deliver to a company. It can also be repeated at regular intervals with existing suppliers to cross-check and, where necessary, update their records. Supplier self-disclosure forms are easy to create online and embed on your own website.
With LamaPoll, surveys can be created quickly and easily. The tool offers many options for individual adjustments. The help pages are useful for solving many questions independently. For special requests, competent and easily accessible customer support is available.
What is LamaPoll?
LamaPoll is a survey tool for creating online questionnaires. Our survey tool lets you create, run and analyse online questionnaires quickly and easily. Create your questionnaire in just a few steps, customise it for your organisation and conveniently invite customers or employees by email. An online questionnaire enables you to gather insights quickly and easily to improve customer or employee satisfaction. You can register for the LamaPoll survey tool free of charge and immediately create and run online surveys with up to 50 participants. If you need more responses for your online questionnaire, simply choose one of our plans: billed monthly, cancel any month. You can also choose from our online questionnaire templates and examples.
