Spend your expertise assessing the evidence, not searching for it.

The information may already exist somewhere in the business. Design has the bill of materials. Procurement knows the supplier. A declaration sits in a shared folder. Someone has the latest version in their inbox.

Your team becomes responsible for putting the pieces together. Then the next request arrives, in a different format, and the collection starts again.

Stop chasing data through emails, calls and chats

Today the evidence arrives in pieces: an attachment in one inbox, a phone call nobody wrote down, a chat message with a photo of a certificate, a file dropped into a shared drive with a name like final_v3. Keystone’s request module replaces that chase with one structured request.

• Ask once, precisely. Each request is built from the BOM, so the supplier sees exactly which component, field, unit and document you need, with clear instructions.
• Let the reminders do the chasing. Automatic follow-ups and a live status per supplier show who has answered, who is late and what is still missing.
• Answers land on the record. Data and files go straight to the right product, component or batch, in a consistent format, not into someone’s inbox.
• Chain it upstream. When your supplier does not hold the answer, the request passes to whoever does, tier by tier.

Suppliers can answer from a simple link. If they choose, they can also create an account to store their answers and documents, keep them up to date, and reuse them for your next request instead of starting again. See how supplier requests work.

The missing piece is often the connection

A document is useful only when you know what it supports. Which product or component does it cover? Which supplier or facility? Which production period? Has the specification changed since the document was issued?

The same principle applies to environmental assessments. The European Commission’s Environmental Footprint methods address modelling, calculation and reporting across a product’s lifecycle. Reliable assessment depends on the underlying data and method, not simply the presence of a carbon figure.

Source: European Commission: Environmental Footprint methods

Keystone connects product and supplier information to a shared structure, so your team can understand an answer in context.

One foundation for several different questions

Build or connect the BOM once. Link materials and components to supplier information and supporting documents. Use structured requests and automated reminders to obtain missing inputs. From there, different teams can work with the same foundation:

• Sustainability can prepare assessment inputs and document assumptions.
• Compliance can organise evidence against a specific buyer or regulatory request.
• Sourcing can resolve unanswered supplier questions.
• Marketing can identify which reviewed facts are suitable for publication.

Each team retains responsibility for its own assessment. Reusing the source does not mean assuming it is valid for every purpose.

What changes when a material changes?

Imagine a chair’s upholstery is replaced. Instead of independently rebuilding several spreadsheets, the teams begin with the same component identity and revised specification. Supply chain obtains the new composition and declaration. Sustainability reviews the assessment implications. Compliance checks the evidence relevant to its request. The common collection work happens once; the specialist reviews remain visible.

Make the next request easier than the last

Measure more than the number of documents collected. Track how long it takes to produce a usable response, how many fields remain unresolved, and how often reviewed information can be reused.