Where Your Day-to-Day Begins

• To get started, tell us your primary role and the teams you work with most on supply chain risk. Options: Chief Supply Chain Officer, VP/Head of Risk Management, VP/Head of Procurement, Head of Operations/Manufacturing, Head of Logistics, IT/ERP Lead, Other (please specify)
• Roughly how many direct (Tier-1) suppliers and total countries does your supply base span? Options: <100 suppliers / <5 countries, 100–500 suppliers / 5–15 countries, 500–2,000 suppliers / 15–40 countries, >2,000 suppliers / >40 countries
• Which systems currently feed your risk or supplier data (select all that apply)? Options: ERP (SAP/Oracle/others), SRM/Procurement system, GRC/Risk tool, BI/Analytics, Custom spreadsheets, Third‑party risk feeds, We don’t have integrated systems
• How would you describe your team's confidence in visibility below Tier‑1 today? Options: High — we track multi‑tier, Moderate — partial Tier‑2 visibility, Low — occasional pockets only, None — we have virtually no sub‑tier view
• What is the single most important outcome you want a supply‑chain risk platform to deliver for you?

When the Lights Go Out: Where Blindspots Hide

• How often do disruptions reveal you had blindspots beyond Tier‑1 that you only learned about after production slowed? Options: Almost every quarter, A few times a year, Once a year, Rarely or never
• Tell us about the last time a sub‑tier or upstream issue surprised you—what happened and who felt the impact first?
• Which signal sources failed to pick up that event earlier (select all that apply)? Options: Financial distress indicators, News/media alerts, Shipping/logistics anomalies, Environmental/disaster feeds, Supplier communications, We had internal warning signals
• How long did it take you to move from discovery to a quantified revenue or production impact? Options: <24 hours, 1–3 days, 4–10 days, >10 days or never fully quantified
• Who within your organization was pressured to make decisions during that incident (roles), and how did that pressure manifest?

If Alerts Actually Led to Action

• When you get an alert today, does it help you prioritize action or does it more often add noise? Options: Usually helps prioritize, Sometimes useful, Often noisy, Mostly false positives
• What false positive rate would you accept from a system before you stop trusting its alerts? Options: <5%, 5–10%, 10–20%, >20%
• How fast do you need to be alerted to operationally meaningful risks to take effective mitigation (SLA)? Options: Near real‑time (minutes), Within an hour, Same business day, 1–3 business days
• What minimal information must an alert include for your team to act without delay (select top items)? Options: Affected supplier(s), Affected part(s)/SKUs, Estimated revenue/production at risk, Confidence level and source links, Suggested mitigation actions, Historical context/precedent
• Which internal stakeholders must be included in an urgent alert (select all who apply)? Options: Supply Chain Leadership, Procurement, Operations/Plant Leads, Finance/CFO, Legal/Compliance, Customer Success/Account Management
• Describe an alert or notification in any system that actually changed behavior or a decision—what made it credible?

The Real Price of Not Knowing

• If visibility disappeared tomorrow for one critical component, what is the most likely 5‑day financial impact you would expect? Options: <$100k, $100k–$1M, $1M–$10M, >$10M
• Which categories or parts would create the largest revenue‑at‑risk if disrupted (select up to three)? Options: Semiconductors/ICs, Key subassemblies, Specialty chemicals, Critical raw materials, Packaging/containers, Contracted services
• How do you currently map parts or SKUs back to revenue or production lines? Options: Automated mapping in ERP/WMS, Semi‑automated with manual adjustments, Manual spreadsheets, We don’t map parts to revenue
• Which hidden costs from past disruptions still resonate—expedite fees, lost sales, penalties, reputational damage, or internal firefighting? Options: Expedite/freight costs, Lost sales/revenue, Customer SLA penalties, Overtime and internal resource diversion, Reputational/customer churn, Regulatory fines
• Share a brief example of a near‑miss where earlier visibility would have materially changed the outcome.

What Would Make You Hand Over Control?

• What single promise would make you comfortable relying on an external risk platform for operational decisions?
• Which SLAs or accuracy guarantees are non‑negotiable for a pilot to earn your trust? Options: Alert timeliness SLA, Accuracy/confidence threshold, Revenue‑at‑risk modeling accuracy, Data handling and privacy SLA, Integration uptime
• What specific data integrations must be in place for a pilot to run (select all that apply)? Options: ERP transactions, Supplier master data, PO/SO feeds, Shipping/ASN feeds, Financial supplier data, Incident/claims history, None required for initial pilot
• Are there governance, legal, or privacy constraints we should plan for before requesting any supplier data? Options: Yes — strict NDAs and DPA required, Some constraints — limited sharing allowed, Minimal constraints — internal approvals only, Unsure, need to consult legal
• Who would be the executive sponsor and who would be the day‑to‑day owner for a pilot from your side?
• What timeline would you expect from kickoff to an actionable pilot decision? Options: 2–4 weeks, 1–2 months, 3 months, Longer than 3 months

Designing a Pilot That Proves Value

• If we ran a 60–90 day pilot, what would be the single success signal that would make you advocate for the platform?
• Which KPIs should we measure during the pilot to prove impact (select all that matter)? Options: Reduction in time to detect risks, Dollars of revenue at risk identified, Decrease in false positive rate, Share of critical parts mapped to sub‑tiers, Time to generate a mitigation plan, Executive reporting readiness
• What sample scope makes sense for a pilot—number of suppliers, parts, or geographies? Options: 10–25 suppliers (critical tiers), 25–100 suppliers, Focus on one product line or plant, Focus on one geography/country, Other (please specify)
• Which data access would you be willing to provide in week one to get started (select all that apply)? Options: Supplier master list, Bill of Materials or part list, Open POs and lead times, Logistics/shipping feeds, Supplier financial snapshots, No access in week one
• What decision(s) would your leadership need to make at pilot completion to move to a paid engagement? Options: Approve budget for subscription, Sign data sharing agreement, Greenlight expanded integration, Formal governance cadence, Unsure—need to align stakeholders
• When could we schedule a 60–90 minute alignment workshop to finalize pilot goals, sample scope, and success metrics? Options: This week, Next week, In 2–4 weeks, Later than a month

Start with a quick snapshot — who you are and what keeps you up at night

• What's your role and your primary responsibility for supply chain or risk decisions? Options: Chief Supply Chain Officer, VP/Head of Risk Management, Head of Procurement, Plant/Operations Leader, Head of Logistics, Other
• Which industry or vertical best describes the majority of what you manage? Options: Automotive / OEM, Manufacturing (industrial), Retail / CPG, Electronics, Aerospace & Defense, Pharma / Medical, Other
• Over the last 12 months, how many supplier-related disruptions materially impacted output or delivery? Options: None, 1–2, 3–5, 6–10, More than 10
• If you can estimate, what’s the typical order-of-magnitude cost of a single major disruption to your organization? Options: <$100k, $100k–$1M, $1M–$10M, $10M–$50M, >$50M, Prefer not to say
• Who ultimately signs off on investments in supply chain risk tooling and pilots in your organization? Options: CFO/Finance, CEO/Executive Sponsor, SVP Supply Chain, Board / Risk Committee, Decentralized business unit leaders, Other

Are you flying blind beyond Tier‑1?

• How complete is your supplier mapping across tiers right now? Options: Tier‑1 only (no sub‑tier visibility), Tier‑1 + partial Tier‑2, Comprehensive Tier‑2 coverage, Partial Tier‑3 visibility, Full multi‑tier (rare), Unsure
• Which parts, commodities, or categories do you suspect have the deepest sub‑tier blind spots? Options: Electronic components, Fasteners & hardware, Chemical / raw materials, Packaging, Logistics / 3PL dependencies, Custom tooling / molds, Other
• How do you currently discover sub‑tier suppliers (select all that apply)? Options: Supplier self-reporting / questionnaires, ERP / purchase order lineage, Trade/shipping manifests, Third‑party mapping providers, On‑site audits, We don't have a reliable method, Other
• How frequently is your supplier mapping updated or validated? Options: Real‑time / continuous, Monthly, Quarterly, Annually, Ad‑hoc after incidents, Never/unknown
• Tell me about a time you discovered a crucial sub‑tier only after it failed — what did that reveal about your visibility gaps?

Where do signals break down before crisis?

• Which data sources currently feed your risk monitoring capability? Options: Financial filings / credit data, News & media monitoring, Weather & natural hazard feeds, Shipping / AIS / customs data, Cyber / breach alerts, Regulatory watchlists, Internal ERP/PO data, Supplier self‑reporting, We don’t have consolidated feeds
• Which single data source do you trust least when it comes to early warning? Options: Supplier questionnaires, News/media alerts, Financial signals, Logistics/shipping data, Weather models, None — we trust them all, Unsure
• How are alerts triaged today and what criteria determine escalation to operations or execs? Options: Manual review by risk team, Automated thresholds based on score, Escalate by impacted spend, Escalate by parts criticality, No formal triage process
• What failure modes have you seen in your current monitoring (e.g., late detection, false positives, misattribution)? Please list the top 2–3.
• Who owns ongoing alert monitoring and what is their average response time? Options: Dedicated risk team / SOC, Procurement / Category manager, Operations / Plant manager, Shared across functions, No designated owner, Other

When it actually hits — who bleeds first and why?

• Think of the most recent surprising supplier failure — what was the earliest signal you later wish you had seen?
• How do you currently quantify revenue, production, or delivery at risk for an unfolding supplier incident? Options: Real‑time linked to ERP/production plan, Post‑event manual estimates, Predefined scenario models, No formal quantification, Finance provides ad‑hoc estimates
• Typically, how much lead time (hours/days/weeks) passes between a first signal and measurable production impact for your critical parts? Options: <24 hours, 1–3 days, 4–14 days, 2–8 weeks, Longer than 2 months, Varies widely/unsure
• Which teams are pulled into the response immediately and which teams learn about it later? Options: Procurement, Operations / Plant, Logistics, Finance, Sales / Customer Service, Legal / Compliance, Executive leadership
• How did executive reporting and decision‑making perform during that event — what felt missing emotionally or operationally?

Imagine trusted, early warnings that move you to action — what would that look like?

• What minimum actionable lead time would change your response from reactive to proactive? Options: >8 weeks, 4–8 weeks, 2–4 weeks, 1–2 weeks, 3–7 days, <3 days
• What false positive tolerance would you accept for automated alerts before they become noise? Options: Very low (<=5%), Low (6–15%), Moderate (16–30%), High (>30%), Unsure / needs discussion
• Which priority signal would drive the most value for you: financial distress of a supplier, imminent logistics disruption, environmental hazard, or cyber compromise? Options: Supplier financial distress, Logistics / shipment disruption, Natural disaster / weather, Cybersecurity incident, Regulatory / trade action, All are equally important
• Which integrations would be must‑haves in a pilot to prove value (select up to 3)? Options: ERP (e.g., SAP, Oracle), Procurement/SRM, BI / Exec dashboards, Incident management / ticketing, EDI / trading partner feeds, No integrations required for proof
• How will you define success for a pilot—what are the concrete acceptance criteria your team will use?

What's standing between us and a working pilot?

• What are the top constraints you expect to block rapid deployment (people, data access, legal, budget, technical)? Options: People / bandwidth, Supplier data access / NDAs, IT integrations / APIs, Budget / procurement cycle, Governance / privacy concerns, Other
• Which data‑sharing constraints are non‑negotiable (e.g., no supplier PII outside systems, aggregation only, anonymization)? Options: No supplier PII outside systems, Only aggregated risk scores, Data shared under NDA only, We require on‑prem options, No constraints / open
• Who in your organization must sign off to grant us the data and system access needed for a 3‑month pilot? Options: CISO / Security, Legal / Contracts, IT / Integrations, Procurement / Category lead, Plant Ops / Site owner, Executive sponsor
• What timeline and budget envelope would make a pilot realistic for you (pick the closest)? Options: Start in 2–4 weeks, <$50k, Start in 1–2 months, $50–150k, Start in 3–6 months, $150–350k, Longer timeline or bespoke budget, Unsure
• If we provided a sandbox with synthetic/scrubbed data and a named proving set of suppliers, how comfortable would you be to proceed? Options: Very comfortable, Somewhat comfortable, Needs more legal review, Not comfortable

If we could start tomorrow, what would you want us to prove first?

• Which single metric would convince your CFO to scale this solution (e.g., $ revenue at risk reduced, days of lead time gained, % fewer unexpected outages)? Options: $ revenue at risk reduced, Days of lead time gained, % reduction in outages, Reduction in expedited freight cost, Improved on‑time delivery %, Other
• What supplier set should we use for a focused pilot? Options: Single critical supplier, Top 10 suppliers by spend, High‑risk commodity group, Regional supplier cluster (country/port), You choose — we’ll provide initial candidates, Other
• Who should be on the pilot working group from your side (names or roles)? Options: Sr. Procurement / Category Manager, Site Operations Lead, Risk Monitoring Owner, IT / Integration Engineer, Finance representative, Executive sponsor
• What cadence and format for pilot updates would keep your stakeholders confident (weekly email, biweekly demo, executive monthly review)? Options: Weekly written update, Biweekly working session + demo, Monthly executive summary, Ad‑hoc on major signals only, Other
• At pilot end, what concrete outcome would make you say: 'Yes — we should scale this across the business'?

Quick Snapshot: Who's in the Room?

• What is your role and primary responsibility related to supplier risk or procurement? Options: Chief Supply Chain Officer, VP of Supply Chain / Operations, Head of Procurement, Head of Risk/Continuity, Plant/Factory Manager, IT/Integration Lead, Other (please specify)
• Which part of the business will be most active in this pilot or evaluation? Options: Procurement/SRM, Supply Chain/Planning, Manufacturing/Operations, Risk & Continuity, Finance/CFO office, IT/ERP team, Other
• How many direct (Tier‑1) suppliers and total parts/SKUs would you expect to include in an initial pilot? Options: < 50 suppliers / < 200 SKUs, 50–200 suppliers / 200–1,000 SKUs, 200–500 suppliers / 1,000–5,000 SKUs, > 500 suppliers / > 5,000 SKUs, Unsure
• Which timeline best describes your readiness to start a pilot? Options: Immediately (weeks), 1–2 months, 3–6 months, 6+ months, Undecided
• Who is the executive sponsor for supplier risk/continuity work and how do they measure success?

If Visibility Is Safety, Why Are You Still in the Dark?

• Where do you currently lose visibility in your supplier network—geography, tiers, categories, or specific plants? Options: Beyond Tier‑1 (sub‑tiers), Offshore suppliers, Critical commodity suppliers, Small/spare-parts suppliers, Contract manufacturers/CMOs, Unsure
• Tell me about the last time lack of visibility cost you—what happened and what was the tangible impact?
• Which internal systems hold the most reliable supplier data today? Options: ERP (e.g., SAP, Oracle), SRM/Procurement tool, PLM/MRP, Spreadsheets / Shared drives, Third‑party data providers, Other
• How frequently is supplier data updated across those systems? Options: Real time/automated, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Ad hoc/manual, We don’t have a single source
• On a scale from 1–5, how confident are you in the accuracy of your supplier-to-part mapping across tiers? (1 = not confident, 5 = very confident) Options: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• If you had to name the single biggest gap in your supplier visibility, what would it be?

When Near‑Misses Become Nightmares: How Prepared Are You?

• How often do you receive alerts about supplier events that later turn out to be irrelevant or false positives? Options: Almost always, Often, Sometimes, Rarely, Never
• Describe a recent supplier incident where an alert arrived too late—what was the lead time and outcome?
• Which risk types cause you the most sleepless nights (choose top 3)? Options: Supplier financial distress, Natural disasters / weather, Geopolitical disruptions, Cyber/security incidents, Quality or capacity failures, Regulatory or trade changes
• What is the typical internal cadence for responding to a high‑severity supplier alert? Options: Immediate war room (hours), Same‑day triage, 24–72 hours, Weekly review, Ad hoc / no formal cadence
• Who must sign off on emergency mitigation spend (e.g., expedited freight, alternate sourcing)? Options: Plant/ops manager, Procurement leader, CFO/finance, Executive sponsor, Other
• How do past emergency costs (expedited freight, stop‑gap buys, lost production) influence decisions about investing in prevention tools?

What If You Could See Revenue at Risk Before It Happens?

• If you could quantify daily revenue‑at‑risk by part and plant, how would that change your prioritization? Options: We'd triage differently across suppliers, We'd change inventory buffers, We'd accelerate supplier audits, We'd involve finance earlier, Unsure
• What metrics would prove value to your CFO within a pilot (choose up to 3)? Options: $ revenue at risk, Days of production impacted, Avoided expedited cost, Reduction in false positives, Time to detect vs baseline, Improved supplier recovery time
• Are there specific parts, BOMs, or SKUs you’d want modeled first for revenue‑at‑risk? Please list examples.
• Do you need impact modelling to include substitution costs, lead‑time increases, and customer SLAs, or only immediate production loss estimates? Options: Full substitution & SLA modelling, Immediate production loss only, Prefer both but can start simple, Undecided
• How would you prefer impact outputs delivered—dashboard, daily executive brief, automated alerts into your ticketing/SRM system, or something else? Options: Real‑time dashboard, Daily executive brief, Automated tickets/alerts in SRM/ERP, Weekly summarized report, Other

What's Breaking Your Trust in Alerts Today?

• When an alert is sent, what information must always be included for your team to act within the SLA? Options: Exact supplier and plant, Impacted parts/SKUs, Estimated revenue/production impact, Confidence level/why alert fired, Recommended mitigation steps, Data sources that triggered the alert
• How do you currently validate whether an alert is accurate or actionable? Options: Manual supplier outreach, Cross‑checking ERP/SRM data, Triage by risk team, We rarely validate, Other
• What false‑positive rate would you accept for production‑critical alerts during a pilot (select one)? Options: < 5%, < 10%, < 20%, < 30%, No tolerance
• Which data sources would you prioritize integrating first to improve alert accuracy? Options: ERP/SRM master data, Shipment/ASN data, Financial filings/credit data, Production schedules / MES, Third‑party risk feeds, Supplier‑provided APIs
• How do alert ownership and escalation need to be structured in your organization for successful response?

What Would Success Look Like on Day 90?

• If the pilot succeeds, what three outcomes would indicate it was worth continuing and scaling?
• Which KPI will your executive sponsor use to greenlight follow‑on investment? Options: Reduction in expedited spend, Demonstrated $ revenue-at-risk visibility, Fewer missed production days, Improved risk detection lead time, Lower false positive rate, Other
• What governance cadence and stakeholders should be in place to decide on go/no‑go at pilot end? Options: Weekly steering committee, Bi‑weekly operations review, Monthly executive report, Ad hoc as incidents occur, Other
• What minimum data integrations do we need for the pilot to be credible (select all that apply)? Options: ERP (master supplier & part), ASN/shipping feeds, Supplier contacts/PO visibility, Financial/credit feeds, Production schedule/MES, None—start with snapshots
• How will we measure the pilot’s ROI—what inputs should the ROI model include? Options: Avoided expedited cost, Reduced downtime cost, Improved fill‑rate / customer SLA, Operational headcount efficiency, Insurance/premium reductions, Other

What's the Smallest Change That Would Unlock Big Value?

• If you had to start with one supplier cluster or commodity to prove value quickly, which would it be and why?
• Would you prefer a tightly scoped pilot (high fidelity on few suppliers) or broader low‑touch proof (many suppliers, lighter mapping)? Options: Tight, high‑fidelity pilot, Broad, low‑touch proof, Hybrid approach, Undecided
• What internal resource—data, people, or budget—can you commit for pilot success? Options: Dedicated FTEs for integration, Part‑time SME support, Access to supplier contacts, Budget for data licensing, Minimal/no resources available
• What would make you hesitate to proceed after a promising pilot? Options: Too many false positives, High integration effort, Insufficient executive buy‑in, Unclear ROI, Data security/compliance concerns, Other
• What would be an acceptable follow‑on plan if the pilot shows partial success? Options: Extend pilot timeline, Expand to more suppliers, Add deeper integrations, Run parallel financial validation, Rebuild success criteria, Other

Logistics, Legal, and Little Things That Break Big Plans

• Do you have existing data‑sharing agreements or NDAs in place that would speed supplier integration? Options: Yes, standard template ready, Partial—some agreements exist, No, we'd need new agreements, Unsure
• Which security/compliance checkpoints must be satisfied before we can ingest supplier data? Options: SOC2, ISO 27001, Vendor security questionnaire, Data residency/sovereignty, Contractual SLAs, Other
• What internal IT stakeholders must be involved for API or SFTP integrations?
• Are there supplier tiers or partners (e.g., contract manufacturers) that we should not contact directly without your permission? Options: Yes—contact via us only, No—direct outreach allowed, Depends on supplier, Unsure
• What cadence and format do you prefer for status updates during the pilot? Options: Weekly dashboard + notes, Weekly 30‑minute sync, Bi‑weekly steering call, As‑needed for incidents, Daily during cutover

Deciding Together: Next Steps and Commitments

• Based on this conversation, what are the one or two conditions that must be true for you to commit to a pilot?
• Who will be the primary point of contact (name / role) and who has final decision authority to move from pilot to paid engagement?
• What budget range has been tentatively allocated or approved for a pilot of this scope? Options: <$25k, $25k–$100k, $100k–$250k, >$250k, Not allocated / pending
• When would you like to schedule a technical scoping call to confirm data access and integration endpoints? Options: This week, Next week, In 2–4 weeks, Later than 4 weeks, Undecided
• Is there anything else we should know about internal politics, procurement windows, or upcoming audits that could impact timing?

Quick hello: who are we talking with today?

• What is your role and primary responsibility for supply chain risk or procurement? Options: Chief Supply Chain Officer, VP Risk/Continuity, Head of Procurement, Head of Logistics, IT/Integration Lead, Other
• Which business unit or product lines are you responsible for in this conversation?
• How often do you actively review supplier risk metrics today? Options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Ad-hoc / after incidents
• What are the top 2–3 outcomes you hope a supply chain risk platform will deliver for your team this year?
• Who else will need to be involved in evaluating or approving a pilot and purchase (select all that apply)? Options: CFO / Finance, COO / Operations, Legal / Security, IT / Integration, Business Unit Leaders, Board/Exec Sponsor, Other

What are you silently losing today?

• Estimate: how much annual revenue or production value do you think is exposed to supplier disruption right now? Options: Under $100k, $100k–$1M, $1M–$10M, $10M–$50M, Over $50M, Don't know / no estimate
• When you reflect on your last significant supply chain incident, what was the primary failure that caused the most damage? Options: Supplier insolvency, Natural disaster, Logistics failure, Regulatory change, Cyber / IT outage, Quality/capacity issue, Other
• How long did it take from the first sign of trouble to your team being aware and taking action? Options: Hours, 1–2 days, 3–7 days, More than a week, We only learned after production was impacted
• Tell us a specific story about one incident that still bothers you—what happened, and what did it feel like for the team?
• Which consequences of disruptions worry you most (select up to three)? Options: Lost production, Expedited freight costs, Missed customer commitments, Contract penalties, Reputational damage, Safety/regulatory exposure

If Tier-2+ went dark tomorrow, would you know it?

• What percentage of your supplier spend do you have direct (Tier-1) visibility into today? Options: Under 25%, 25–50%, 50–75%, 75–95%, 95–100%, Unknown
• Do you have mapped relationships beyond Tier-1 (sub-tier / raw-material suppliers)? If so, how were they established? Options: No sub-tier mapping, Supplier-provided lists, Surveys / questionnaires, Proprietary mapping service, ERP/SRM inferred links, Other
• Which data sources feed your current supplier view (select all that apply)? Options: ERP/PO system, SRM/CRM, Supplier portals, Third-party risk feeds, Custom spreadsheets, None / manual
• Where do you feel the largest blind spots are—geography, commodity, or sub-tier—and why?
• How confident are you that the suppliers shown in your systems are still active and supplying the parts you think they are? Options: Very confident, Somewhat confident, Not very confident, We don’t track that

When an alert fires, does it help you prioritize—or just create noise?

• How would your team describe the current quality of risk alerts you receive—signal or noise? Options: Mostly high-signal, Mixed quality, Mostly noisy, We don't rely on alerts currently
• What percentage of alerts typically require immediate operational action versus being informational? Options: Under 10%, 10–25%, 25–50%, Over 50%, Unknown
• Describe a recent alert that was either extremely valuable or clearly irrelevant—what made it so?
• What false positive rate would you accept for a new alerting system before it becomes unusable for your team? Options: Under 5%, 5–10%, 10–20%, Over 20%, Not sure
• Which signals are most critical to you (select up to three): financial distress, natural disasters, logistics delays, compliance, cyber, capacity constraints? Options: Financial distress, Natural disasters, Logistics delays, Regulatory/compliance, Cyber incidents, Capacity constraints

Show me the dollars: how do you quantify exposure today?

• Do you currently calculate revenue-at-risk or margin-at-risk by supplier/part? If yes, how frequently? Options: Yes — real-time, Yes — daily/weekly, Yes — monthly, No — we estimate ad-hoc, No — not at all
• What inputs would you expect to feed an accurate revenue-at-risk calculation (select all that apply)? Options: Bill of materials / part-level mapping, Sales forecast, Lead times, Inventory on-hand, Alternate supplier capacity, Contract terms/pricing
• What level of granularity is required for finance/stakeholders to take action—part-level, SKU-level, plant-level, or aggregated by spend category? Options: Part-level, SKU-level, Plant-level, Spend category, Executive summary only
• How would finance want to see uncertainty expressed (ranges, probability, scenario-based loss estimates)? Options: Probability of failure, Dollar range (min-max), Scenario-based P&L impact, Single point estimate, Combination
• What modeling errors or assumptions would be unacceptable to your CFO when we present impact?

Who decides, and how fast can they act?

• Who holds the approval authority to change suppliers, redirect production, or authorize expedited freight? Options: Plant/Operations Manager, Procurement Lead, CRO/COO, Finance, Cross-functional committee, Other
• What is your typical decision-to-action window for high-severity supplier incidents? Options: Under 4 hours, 4–24 hours, 1–3 days, More than 3 days
• Describe the escalation path when a supplier risk threatens customer delivery—who is looped in and when?
• What governance body or KPIs would need to sign off on a change driven by a risk alert (select all that apply)? Options: Operational KPIs, Finance KPIs, Risk Committee, Procurement Council, Executive Sponsor, Board-level reporting
• How do political or contractual constraints (e.g., single-source agreements) limit the actions you can take when risk emerges?

What would success look like in 90 days if we ran a pilot together?

• Pick up to three measurable success signals you'd accept at pilot close to consider it a win. Options: Reduced mean time to detect, Accurate revenue-at-risk estimates, Reduction in false positives, Validated multi-tier map coverage, Stakeholder adoption / active users, Executive dashboard delivered
• What sample of suppliers, parts, or plants would make for a representative pilot (by geography, spend, criticality)?
• What is an acceptable pilot length for your team to evaluate impact and integration feasibility? Options: 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8–12 weeks, 3–6 months
• Which acceptance criteria would force you to pause or expand the pilot (e.g., >10% false positives, <50% mapping coverage)?
• How will you measure ROI from the pilot—costs avoided, reduced expedited spend, fewer production stoppages, or another metric? Options: Cost avoidance, Reduced expedited freight, Fewer stockouts, Improved service levels, Other

What stands between intent and launch?

• Which technical integrations are non-negotiable for a pilot (select all that apply)? Options: ERP (e.g., SAP/Oracle), SRM/Procurement system, WMS/TMS, BI/Reporting tools, SFTP/API supplier feeds, Identity/SSO
• What legal, privacy, or vendor risk approvals are required before sharing supplier or contract data with a third party? Options: Standard NDA, Data processing agreement, Security assessment, Legal contract review, Board-level approval, None / unclear
• How available are the data owners who will need to provide credentials, mappings, and SME time during the pilot? Options: Fully available, Partially available, Limited availability, Unavailable / need scheduling
• What internal IT or security checks typically add the most time to integrations (e.g., SOC2 review, firewall rules, API approvals)?
• If we needed a sample extract of your BOMs or procurement spend, how quickly could you provide it? Options: Within 48 hours, Within 1 week, Within 2–4 weeks, Longer / requires approvals

How will we keep this working after go‑live?

• Who will own the day-to-day tuning and validation of alerts after deployment? Options: Risk team, Procurement, Operations, Joint rotational team, Third-party managed service, Not yet assigned
• What cadence of review would you want for alert rules, mappings, and model performance (select one)? Options: Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Ad-hoc after incidents
• How will you measure whether alert tuning is improving outcomes (what operational KPI do you watch)?
• What training or enablement formats work best for your teams—hands-on workshops, recorded modules, or embedded playbooks? Options: Hands-on workshops, Recorded training, Embedded playbooks/cheat-sheets, Office hours/consulting, All of the above
• Describe any organizational incentives or disincentives that might affect sustained use of a new risk platform (bonuses, SLAs, change fatigue, headcount limits).

Commitment and next steps: where do we go from here?

• Assuming the pilot proves out, how quickly would you aim to expand to other product lines or plants? Options: Immediately (0–3 months), 3–6 months, 6–12 months, Dependent on budget/validation
• What is the primary internal barrier to moving forward—budget, resources, data access, or executive alignment? Options: Budget, Resources, Data access, Executive alignment, Legal/security
• What would you need to see from us in the next 7 days to feel comfortable committing to a pilot (e.g., SOW, architecture diagram, reference intro)?
• What start date window are you targeting for a pilot? Options: Immediately, Within 30 days, Within 60–90 days, Beyond 90 days, Undecided
• On a scale of 1–5, how ready is your organization to participate actively in a joint pilot (1 = not ready, 5 = ready now)? Options: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5