The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner
Can you even be bothered to read an explanation of what a Due Diligence System is? You probably think you’ve already got enough admin and systems in place and that a Due Diligence System (DDS) is over the top. You of course have an accounting department and human resources. Yes you’ve got stock control in place and your workflow systems are fully automated and highly efficient. These are the basic management systems that help you run everything, so why on earth would you want to bother with a DDS? And what does a DDS have to do with environmental sustainability? If this is how you feel, please try to think again.
A DDS is a system that makes your existing business systems more efficient. It’s also a way to keep track of environmental, legal and ethical standard compliances, so it makes customer communications easier. Think of a DDS as a risk assessment tool for the business, much as accounting reports are tools that help you assess the business’ financial health. Your DDS is a handy way of storing data about risks facing the business. This could be client information, facilities management schedules and anything else that could affect the future health of the company.
How you go about setting up a DDS is up to you but depends on the size of your company and your client profiles. The first question to ask is what do you want from a DDS? If you have lots of one-off clients, say from a web-to-print starting point, you probably don’t need anything too elaborate. But if your clients are large companies, or even just departments within large companies, you’ll need to integrate due diligence into existing management systems as a first step. The DDS is where you keep track of what you do to prevent, cease or minimise things like adverse carbon footprints. It is also where you monitor and assess how effective your policies are. You’ll also be able to use it for help with how you communicate information to staff and clients as needed. It will also help you consolidate your policies for fixing shortcomings such as a payables list that’s getting too long or capital expenditures that aren’t delivering.
You can gather information in simple quarterly reports from each department in the business. Ask managers to provide written reports covering such things as the number of staff, how long they’ve been in the department, what training they’ve had and so on. You can get summaries of receivables, cash flow forecasts, expense claims, whatever matters for your business. The point is that this sort of due diligence proves you are on top of things. If a customer wants to know details of say your carbon footprint, you’ve got the means of easily finding and sharing the information. A DDS sounds like a burdensome bit of admin overhead, but it’s actually a way to make your reporting and sustainability life easier.
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This article was produced by the Verdigris Project, an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print’s positive environmental impact. This weekly commentary helps printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines. Verdigris is supported by the following companies: Agfa Graphics, EFI, Fespa, Fujifilm, HP, Kodak, Miraclon, Ricoh, Unity Publishing and Xeikon.
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