Reviewing the Solution: Tanja Øvrebø Hunshamar, Supply Chain Manager at Solvang ASA, and Ole-Jørgen Åsen, Developer at Profitbase.
The Transparency Act and its associated requirements are now a reality. The shipping company Solvang sought quality and got custom-made software to handle the task.
– I think the whole process has gone very well, says Tanja Øvrebø Hunshamar, Supply Chain Manager at Solvang ASA.
The calendar has just flipped to 2024. In the “Vågen” meeting room at Solvang, the Supply Chain Manager has just had a review meeting with developer Ole Jørgen Åsen and CEO of Profitbase, Stig Roar Sandvik.
-If there’s anything else, don’t hesitate to reach out, smiles Åsen.
In recent months, the Profitbase team has worked closely with Solvang to expand the CFO platform with a custom solution for the Transparency Act.
– We had an internal discussion about which provider to choose. We had already received several offers from different vendors but decided that Profitbase would develop the software for us. We reached out to them because we already have other software from them and a customer relationship spanning over 20 years, says Hunshamar, adding:
-It was important for us to get quality. It’s something we’re committed to delivering ourselves and something we want to reflect our company.
About the Transparency Act
The Consumer Authority summarizes the Transparency Act as follows: The Transparency Act is designed to promote businesses’ respect for human rights and decent working conditions, as well as to ensure public access to information. The law imposes an obligation on businesses to provide information and conduct due diligence assessments, which must be reported in a published document.
An article written in November 2023 revealed that one in five businesses lacks such a report. The same article states that failure to comply with the law can result in injunctions and prohibitions, and the company may face financial penalties in the form of coercive fines or infringement fees. The article further notes that approximately 9,000 Norwegian businesses have such obligations.
PwC offers an overview of which companies are covered by this law: “The law applies to all companies that are not defined as small enterprises under the Accounting Act and that sell goods and services in or outside of Norway. This mainly includes public limited companies, listed companies, and companies that meet two of the following three criteria:
- Sales revenue: NOK 70 million
- Balance sheet total: NOK 35 million
- An average of 50 employees during the fiscal year.”
They further state that “the law also applies to foreign companies offering goods and services in Norway if they are taxable in Norway and meet the above criteria.”
The World as a Workplace—Reflected in the Mapping Tool
Solvang ASA is a shipping company with vessels sailing worldwide, with subcontractors from all over the globe.
-As mentioned, it was very important for us to comply with the requirements, says Hunshamar, praising the developers for thoroughly understanding the requirements to create software that delivers exactly that.
The Consumer Authority requires companies to “identify, prevent, account for, and follow up on how actual and potential negative impacts of their operations are managed,” according to an article from the Consumer Authority.
The result from Profitbase was a mapping tool that offers the following features:
The customer receives a list of all their suppliers, starting with a score based solely on the country and region where the supplier is located. They can then perform internal evaluations of each supplier based on their own knowledge, which also assigns a score to the supplier. They can send out questionnaires to each supplier, where the supplier’s responses form the basis for a score. The average of these four scores gives the “total score” for the supplier.
-With this mapping tool, it’s easy for us to keep track at all times. It’s easy for us to reach many suppliers with questionnaires with just a few clicks and to single out certain suppliers we want to follow up on in specific areas—geographical or technical. It’s color-coded, providing a quick overview of where extra effort might be needed. It allows us to securely store data and is easy to navigate and find information both internally and in the event of an audit, says Hunshamar, concluding:
-This way, we can be confident that we comply with the law.
