Infobric launches unique service for monitoring suppliers in the construction industry

Infobric is launching a digital service to help construction companies combat undeclared work and other risks posed by unserious contractors. The service makes it easy for construction companies to continuously monitor that all sub-contractors are compliant with rules and regulations.

For a long time, the construction industry has been hampered by problems and risks associated with unserious contractors who systematically circumvent applicable rules and conditions and, by extension, pose significant risks regarding tax evasion, exploitation of workers, unsafe work environments and the reputation of the industry. A research collection published by the Swedish Construction Federation, Byggföretagen, shows that one of the major problems here is a lack of possibilities when it comes to monitoring compliance with regulations. A contributing factor is a lack of tools for monitoring all the parties involved in the complex supplier hierarchies that are established on construction projects.

Automatic and continuous control of suppliers at all levels
The Supplier Control service eliminates the lack of transparency and monitoring at all levels since all suppliers who are, or will be, working on the company’s construction sites are monitored automatically and continuously with respect to the rules and requirements set out by the main contractor or developer. When a supplier registers at a worksite, the company is verified using data from external sources such as national competence registers and credit institutions. After verification, each supplier receives a status which, apart from being visualised centrally for all of the company’s worksites, is also displayed at each worksite where site managers can easily check that all companies in the subcontractor chain are compliant.

– Supplier Control is one of our biggest product investments to date. It addresses a complex challenge that all stakeholders in the construction industry face and we have created a unique solution that makes it easy for both key positions at the developer and ordering companies as well as site managers to verify on each project that all suppliers are compliant requirements that have been set. We have developed a powerful tool where we exploit all existing worksite data and enrich it with additional information to ensure complete overview of the supply chain, making it easy to minimise the risk of rogue actors getting involved,” says Björn Svennenfors, CTO at Infobric Construction.

Developed in collaboration with JM
Infobric developed the Supplier Control service in close collaboration with JM, one of the Nordics’ leading project developers for residential properties and the property sector. JM works tirelessly to strengthen its processes and digitisation is often the key to being able to work more effectively and with more structure. The process of manually verifying all companies working on JM’s
construction sites used to take up a lot of resources and maintaining a real-time overview was not possible in the way that it is with the help of a digital system. Now, sub-contractor monitoring is also being structured within the system, and the flows between purchasing and production is being strengthened.

– By conducting this supply chain check-up in real-time, and also easily verify whether all individuals present on the site have undergone the standard industry safety training, Safe Construction Training, we are increasing the level of safety and security at all our construction sites. JM sees a great deal of benefit to be gained from intra-industry collaboration on these issues, so that we can create safer, more secure and more sustainable construction sites together, says Helena Paulun, Head of Work Environment at JM Group.

Supplier Control will be launched on 15 June 2021 at a digital launch event together with JM. The first version of the service will verify all companies that are registered in Sweden.