{"id":5858,"date":"2026-03-18T08:40:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T08:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?p=5858"},"modified":"2026-03-18T09:16:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T09:16:39","slug":"supply25-supplier-assurance-and-supply-chain-management-fit-for-the-twenty-first-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2026\/03\/18\/supply25-supplier-assurance-and-supply-chain-management-fit-for-the-twenty-first-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Supply25: supplier assurance and supply chain management fit for the twenty-first century!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lee Rutherford, Sam Ernstzen and Mark McKenny in the Scottish Government\u2019s Digital Directorate and CivTech 9.5 co-sponsors blog about addressing the challenges of procurement.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Across Scotland, the public sector navigates hundreds of thousands of procurements every year. These range from quick, routine purchases to major, highly complex projects, and the private sector faces a similarly broad and demanding landscape.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s vital these procurements are handled consistently, efficiently and securely. Traditional procurement assurance methods can be inefficient and slow creating huge amounts of work for the buying teams as well as barriers for the suppliers \u2013 especially Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs).<\/p>\n

Supply chain management is one of the most important digital risk areas, but assessing it properly has long been a challenge. Organisations have often relied on a mix of spreadsheets, emails and one off questionnaires, creating a fragmented and inconsistent process. For suppliers, this results in a confusing landscape of shifting expectations and repetitive form\u2011filling frequently starting from scratch even when tenders look almost identical.<\/p>\n

But not any longer, because Supply25 solves the problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Scottish Government, through its CivTech Scotland<\/a> Programme, have been working with start-up company AR-SQ Ltd (now trading as Supply25) to bring structure, security, and intelligence to public sector procurement by enabling organisations to assess suppliers in a consistent, collaborative and transparent way. Over an 18-month Pre-Commercial Agreement (PCA), Supply25 and the Scottish Government have developed a platform that initially enables assessment of supplier cyber security and accessibility requirements.<\/p>\n

By embedding cyber and accessibility standards directly into the Supply25 platform, organisations can evaluate suppliers against common benchmarks and give clear feedback, which in turn means suppliers can build their understanding of their potential clients and so improve their approach. We are only just beginning with the capabilities Supply25 can offer, with other specialisms including data protection, finance and AI assurance identified as future regimes that can be integrated into the platform. Following cyber security best practice, the platform has been fully penetration tested and the supplier has achieved Cyber Essentials Plus certification.<\/p>\n

With Supply25, both buyer and seller can work from a shared playbook \u2013 reducing repetition, improving clarity, and raising the bar for assurance. Not to mention creating massive efficiencies for\u00a0 ever-busy procurement & specialist teams such as Cyber.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Key Benefits<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Supply25 has already delivered tangible benefits for procurement, cyber security teams and suppliers, replacing time-consuming manual processes with a structured, secure, and consistent approach to supplier assurance.<\/p>\n