Eraneos Virtual Summit: Anticipating risks within the supply chain (NL)

Suppliers are essential for every company. Whether it's the supply of raw materials, cloud storage, or office chairs, no product or service today comes into being without reliance on a supplier. Gaining insight into these supply chains is increasingly important from the perspectives of business continuity, cybersecurity, sustainability, and cost reduction. A disruption in the chain can have significant consequences for service delivery. Whether it’s a ship blocking the Suez Canal or a data breach, such incidents can greatly impact your operations, even in the digital world.

Taco Hettema (Information Security Officer at NS), Michiel van Veen (Chief Supply Chain Officer at Quooker), and Bram Ketting (co-founder of 3rdRisk) join Willem van der Valk (Practice Lead Cyber & Privacy at Eraneos) to provide a glimpse into the rapidly changing world of supplier management. Our growing dependence on digital services means that even small incidents can have significant repercussions.

Bram Ketting will demonstrate why gaining control over suppliers (third parties) is becoming increasingly important, partly due to European regulations like DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) and NIS-2. Taco Hettema will discuss a recent challenge at NS, where a data breach at a supplier triggered large-scale action—not only at NS but also among other major organisations using similar services from this supplier. This incident at a relatively small company had a widespread ripple effect on multiple multinationals.

While cost reduction in procurement remains a major focus, it also brings the risk that a supplier might be insufficiently prepared for their role in the (digital) chain. Michiel van Veen will share an example of how things can be done differently, highlighting Quooker’s emphasis on collaboration with suppliers. Beyond costs, risks in the supply chain are now gaining more attention as well.