Rate My Trading Partners: Feature Overview

The Rate My Trading Partners feature enables you to get more visibility on the sustainability practices of your business operations and supply chain. 

Key Benefits:

  1. Understand your trading partners’ performance. Request ratings of your own trading partners and monitor their performance over time:
    • For up to five (5) trading partners with Premium subscription;
    • For up to ten (10) trading partners with Select subscription.
      If your supply base is very small, this may cover a significant portion or even all of your ratings needs. For most companies, however, this feature will provide a limited view of the sustainable supply chain management features that are available with an Enterprise subscription.
  2. Improve your sustainable procurement practices. “Sustainable Procurement” is one of the four pillars of the EcoVadis assessment methodology. Although there is no guarantee of any specific score increase, increasing your engagement in sustainability with your trading partners - across criteria such as breadth and depth of coverage and follow-up actions - is the right path to improve the “Sustainable Procurement” theme score of your EcoVadis Rating.
  3. Secure and confidential. The platform ensures confidentiality of your sensitive trading partner information. EcoVadis General Terms & Conditions apply to any companies invited by you; it will be for your trading partners to decide with whom they share. Your trading partners’ scorecards are not shared with any of your connections or other sharees on the platform without the express consent of your trading partners.

New Capabilities on Your Platform

The Rate My Trading Partners feature allows you to request assessments for up to five (5) or ten (10) of your own trading partners depending on your subscription. You will gain access to a subset of the sustainable supply chain portfolio management features used by requesting companies with an Enterprise subscription, including:

  • Invite your trading partners to participate in an EcoVadis Rating (including a Directory lookup feature);

  • Monitor progress of your invited trading partners through the rating process;

  • View scorecards of these trading partners including benchmarking data;

  • Access strengths and improvement areas, 360° Watch Findings and more.

 

How It Works

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Step 1: Identify trading partners to invite.

  • Engage your colleagues internally who are responsible for trading partners’ engagement/procurement and share this information with them; 
  • Begin selecting the list of your most important trading partners. Your selection criteria might include:
    • Trading partners with whom you spend the most money;
    • Key suppliers of essential raw materials, services or other goods;
    • High-risk trading partners (those in regions and industries with exposure to labor or environmental risks).
  • Prepare the appropriate contact information for each trading partner: Company name, contact name, contact email address and telephone number including country code.

Step 2: Send introductory email to your trading partners

Send an introductory email to your trading partners in advance of your direct invitation from the platform (Step 3). It is strongly encouraged to send a dedicated message apart from the formal invitation because it will allow you to provide more context and make a personal connection, which has been proven to significantly increase the response rate of invited trading partners. Here is a template that you can modify: Rate My Trading Partner (RMTP) - Email - Tier 1 to Tier 2.pdf

Step 3: Invite your trading partners through the EcoVadis platform

Invite your trading partners directly from the EcoVadis platform using the Directory’s assessment request function. Be sure to check this short tutorial. Go to www.ecovadis-survey.com/app/ to log in to your EcoVadis platform.

Step 4: Track the progress of your trading partners in the platform

Understand if they have accepted or declined your requests, if there were any problems with the contact information you provided, and at what stage they are in their assessment. A guided tour is available inside the platform with Eva, your personal in-platform assistant. Alternatively, you can access this Help Center article on tracking assessment requests. 

Step 5: Review results and plan next steps

The final and most important stage of this initiative will be the review of results. When your trading partners’ scorecards start arriving, you will be able to review their performance in detail and take actions accordingly. This will be the time to engage with your trading partners about their performance, and consider requesting corrective actions as needed.

 

Rate My Trading Partners: Frequently Asked Questions

What is the process for rated companies?

The process for rated companies is the exact same as the process that all companies go through to get rated by EcoVadis, including the process your own company went through. You can get a refresher on the EcoVadis process in this article or in this video.

 

How long does it take to get results?

It typically takes about two to three months for a company to complete their rating. If you are requesting a rating from a company with an active scorecard, the sharing can be immediate, assuming they review your request and share their scorecard swiftly.

 

Do rated companies need to pay for subscriptions?

Yes, companies requested to be rated via this feature will need to pay for an EcoVadis subscription just like any other company that chooses to be rated on their own or is requested by a company with an Enterprise subscription. Learn more about pricing options.

Companies with a valid EcoVadis subscription can share their scorecard at no additional cost.

 

How long will their scorecards be available to me?

Scorecards shared with you will be available for as long as you are a Premium or Select subscriber on the EcoVadis platform. Scorecards are valid for one year, after which a company must be reassessed to renew their rating. You will have access to both expired and new scorecards from companies that have shared with you as long as your Premium or Select subscription is current. 

 

Does the limit of invitations refer to requests or scorecards received?

The limit refers to scorecards received or shared. If a company declines your assessment or sharing request, a slot will open back up immediately. If a company does not decline yet does not complete an assessment or share, it may take approximately two to three months for a slot to open back up in their place. This is one reason why it is advised to include an introductory email along with your platform request, as well as follow up with your requested trading partners throughout the process.

 

What languages are available for the invitations to my trading partners? 

Invitation emails are sent in the user’s preferred language. Emails are available in 14 languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Thai, Korean, Turkish, and Arabic. 

 

What information will customers with whom I am sharing my scorecard see? 

EcoVadis General Terms & Conditions apply to any rated company in the Network. Thus, it will be for your trading partners to decide if they wish to share their performance. Your trading partners’ scorecards are not shared with any of your connections or other sharees on the platform without the express consent of your trading partners. In all circumstances, the EcoVadis platform ensures confidentiality of your sensitive trading partner information. You can learn more about how EcoVadis ensures the security of data.