Who is this article for?

Suppliers who want to learn to complete product mapping tasks.

No elevated permissions are required.

The Authenticate platform helps businesses manage compliance by creating supply chain transparency through product mapping.

Customers list products, their components, and suppliers. Suppliers are notified to confirm their components and can map their own supply chains. This builds provenance and strengthens supplier-customer relationships. This guide instructs suppliers on how to handle product links and map their supply chain if desired.

1. Receiving a customer product request

1. You or the contact selected from your company by your customer will receive an email regarding the product request.

2. If you are not already a member of the Authenticate platform, follow the instructions in the email to register and receive your user credentials to access your company profile.
3. Please note this is a free service and there is no cost for using the platform as a supplier.
4. Once you log in, there will be a task on your homepage with the following details:
   • The customer requesting the information.
   • The specific product that they receive from you.
   • The product reference number they associate with this specific product.

2. Responding to a product request

1. You will receive a separate request for every product you supply to your customers who are using the Authenticate platform.

2. Once you have selected Respond on the homepage task you can choose from one of the following:
   • Select from your existing products on Authenticate.
   • Create a new product.
   • Deny request.

3. If you do not supply the product, you can choose Deny Request and provide a reason. Rejecting a request will notify the customer along with the reason you selected from the drop‑down options.

4. If you are a first‑time user, your product will not yet exist. You will need to select Create a New Product. You can then either pre‑populate the details using the customer’s request or enter your own.

5. If you have already created the exact product or supply chain in your product catalogue, you can accept this against an existing product line by selecting from the dropdown. This will share the details of the product and the existing supply chain with your customer.

3. Mapping your product supply chain

1. Once you have accepted a product from your customer, the next task is to map your supply chain. You can choose to do this immediately or select Map later, which will create a task on your homepage.

2. When you choose to map your suppliers, you will be presented with a form. To map your product, start typing the name of your supplier in the supplier box.

3. If the supplier does not yet exist on the Authenticate Platform, you can create the company with basic information by selecting Add a new company to Authenticate. The new company will be sent an email inviting them to join.
4. The Product Name and Product Reference are the details of the product supplied to you by your direct supplier.
5. If you have multiple suppliers of the same product or multi‑components/ingredients, select Add another supplier/component to map to multiple businesses.
6. If you know your direct supplier’s exact site, select from the existing list of declared sites. Your direct suppliers will need to confirm this when they accept your link request.
7. Once you have mapped your product, you can view the supply chain via your product catalogue. Your direct suppliers will receive a product request email and a task on their homepage to complete the request.

8. If you are unable to map your supply chain for reasons such as not knowing your direct suppliers, not willing to disclose, being the end of the chain, or the process being too complex, select I do not want to map when responding to the task and choose from the options provided. This will notify your customer of your response.

4. Managing your product catalogue

1. Your product catalogue allows you to organize and store product information. You can create category folders and sub‑folders to organize this as you wish.
2. Select an image from the image folder or add your own to categories or sub‑categories.

3. If you wish to move products or supply chains and reorganize your catalogue, select the Move product icon and choose the catalogue you wish to move the products to.

5. Maintaining or making changes to your product

1. Once you have accepted a customer’s product request and mapped it to your supply chain, any changes to your product name, reference, or supply chain need to be maintained in the product area.
2. To change your product name, select the edit pencil icon on the product chain or catalogue.

3. If you have changed the site that the product comes from or need to add another site, amend this in the associated sites area.

6. Adding or removing suppliers in your supply chain

1. From your product catalogue, you can access the supply chain for any of your products. Select the product you wish to view, then from the Product Line Details panel select the View supply chain button.
2. To add a direct supplier, ensure you have your company selected in the supply chain and click the Add Supplier button from the profile on the right. This will open a form.

3. To remove a supplier, select the supplier you wish to remove and click the More Actions link on the profile. You can then choose to delete the supplier (if the link has already been accepted) or rescind the supplier (if the link is still pending).