Today’s supply chains are more threatened than ever. Throughout 2025, earthquakes, floods, and other severe weather events generated major sourcing challenges for many large companies operating on the global stage. The geopolitical environment also underwent significant upheaval, marked by heightened tensions between the U.S. and China and a sweeping new tariff regime implemented by the Trump administration. Finally, critical minerals emerged as a key supply chain variable in 2025, too, as large companies raised alarms about impending shortages and were forced to close factories for extended periods.
Many of these trends are set to persist well into 2026, forcing companies to reassess risk management approaches that were built for a slower, more predictable supply chain environment. For years, experienced teams have relied on institutional knowledge, supplier relationships, and spreadsheet-based tracking to understand disruptions and assess impact. But as risks multiply and evolve faster, those once-reliable methods are struggling to keep pace—driving leading organizations to adopt advanced supplier risk management tools that can surface issues earlier, evaluate exposure, and support swifter, more informed decisions.
As we move into 2026, managing supplier risk is no longer just about knowing which threats exist or responding to them one at a time—it’s about rethinking how risk is addressed altogether. Today’s supply chain teams are being bombarded with a growing variety of risks, from geopolitical shocks and sanctions to financial instability and compliance pressures. To keep up, organizations need tools that can not only help them respond effectively to individual disruptions, but also support consistent, scalable risk mitigation across many different scenarios. In an environment defined by constant change, the most effective supplier risk management platforms are those with the data depth and flexibility to adapt to diverse use cases without overwhelming already stretched teams.
Below are six ways that Z2Data’s supplier risk software exemplifies this increasingly crucial versatility, providing tangible value that helps businesses tackle a myriad of different risks with agility and confidence.
Six Business Use Cases for Z2Data’s Supplier Risk Software in 2026 1. Obtain Instant Risk Analysis on All Your Suppliers
With a simple supplier list upload, users of Z2Data can receive thousands of data points and related insights into their suppliers. For public companies, this trove of information includes a company’s financial information, ESG, cybersecurity, business relationships, geopolitical exposure, manufacturing operations, sanctions, sourcing dependencies, tariffs, active litigation, mineral risk, and more. For private companies, Z2Data evaluates alternative signals such as growth trends, workforce changes, and any relevant financial or business news.
All these supplier data points are integrated into supplier scores Z2Data users can use to prioritize threats, identify early risks, and take action to mitigate risks where necessary. For example, Z2Data’s supplier scores surface risks identified through capabilities like the Sanctions Watchlist, which enables businesses to identify entities at risk of being sanctioned in the near future based on congressional reports and business relationships, among other sources. Companies can use this info to detect hidden risks in their Tier 1 and sub-tier supplier relationships, allowing them to take steps ahead of time to reduce potential disruptions.
2. Respond Swiftly With Real-Time Event Notifications
Severe storms, tornados, earthquakes, labor strikes, and other news events occur all over the world every day. The challenge for many companies is identifying which of their components are produced at which facilities, and then working to determine whether those facilities were impacted by major weather events. Z2Data allows companies to be notified in real-time of events impacting their manufacturing sites.
For example, during the Nexperia ownership dispute, Z2Data helped companies manage supplier risk by providing immediate visibility into where Nexperia sat within their supply chains and which parts and products were directly impacted. This clarity allowed teams to quickly assess supplier dependency, identify high-risk exposure, and take proactive steps—such as qualifying alternative suppliers or rebalancing sourcing strategies—to reduce the risk of disruption before it affected operations.
For incidents like these and more, Z2Data lets users customize risk notifications so they only receive alerts for high-impact events. But that’s not the only form of customization the software offers. Event notifications can also be tailored around specific suppliers, enabling users to reduce data noise and narrow their focus to the most essential manufacturers in their supply chains. Companies can customize their alerts to focus specifically on Nexperia, for example, or chipmaking companies whose manufacturing is primarily based in natural disaster-prone regions like Taiwan.
3. Map your Supply Chain to the Nth Tier for Visibility and Traceability
Z2Data has an industry-leading relationship database that captures and scores millions of company-to-company relationships. Relationships are generated from publicly available information, using trustworthy sources like corporate websites, public filings, news publications, and congressional reports. By combining this relationship database with industry knowledge of part requirements, Z2Data can show potential relationships and build out supply chains multiple tiers down.
This multitier visibility can be especially important for organizations seeking to identify sanctioned entities operating deep within their supply chains. For example, when Chinese mining firm Zijin Mining Group was added to the UFLPA Entity List in January 2025, Z2Data was able to show users their potential exposure to the sanctioned entity—including indirect connections to Tier 1 suppliers in the automotive and electronics industries. This level of visibility is one of the most powerful ways to surface supply chain risk, enabling businesses to pinpoint potential disruptions with surgical precision and act decisively to remove threats before they impact operations.
4. Identify and Mitigate Single-Sourcing Risks
Z2Data evaluates the sourcing dependency of individual components in its database, giving users a valuable resource for determining the sourcing vulnerability of specific parts. Using Z2Data, companies can quickly identify which parts are being single-sourced, whether that be at the country, site, or manufacturer level.
To provide users with a nuanced and highly actionable tool for understanding sourcing status, Z2Data utilizes a unique item-level risk scoring system based on sourcing diversification. The system automatically flags parts that are overly dependent on a single supplier, site, or country, while also highlighting strong candidates for crosses or other alternatives with robust sourcing.
Z2Data codes components’ sourcing status using five different designations, each denoting a different level of stability/vulnerability:
MMM: Multi-Sourced, Multi-Country, Multi-SiteMSM: Multi-Sourced, Single-Country, Multi-SiteSMM: Single-Sourced, Multi-Country, Multi-SiteSSM: Single-Sourced, Single-Country, Multi-SiteSSS: Single-Sourced, Single-Country, Single-Site
Parts classified as “SSS”—single-sourced, single-country, single-site—pose the highest risk from a sourcing diversification standpoint. By offering this single-sourcing capability, Z2Data helps companies shine a light on potential supply chain bottlenecks, while also giving them the opportunity to root out suppliers and parts that are one disruption away from shattering production continuity.
A supply chain resilience professional using Z2Data may discover through the tool that one of their company’s highest-use semiconductors is “SSM”—single-sourced, single-country, multi-site. While the part is being manufactured at more than one site, those sites are all in the same country, and they’re all operated by the same manufacturer. If the U.S. government were to impose steep tariffs on that country, or trade tensions triggered export restrictions from that nation to the U.S., the ripple effects could be significant. The supply chain professional might then respond by diversifying away from that part, or working with the engineering department to design around it.
5. Locate and Respond to Sanctioned Entities
Z2Data allows companies to upload their complete supplier list and have those organizations screened for sanctions. The tool’s sanction features can also screen suppliers for relationships with sanctioned entities using Z2Data’s relationship database. For example, if a user uploads Texas Instruments as a tier one supplier, Z2Data can then analyze all the potential subtier suppliers Texas Instruments sources from for sanctions risks. This means screening key semiconductor foundries like TSMC but also smaller manufacturers producing parts like bonding wire and other modest electronic commodities. In this way, the tool can show organizations potential relationships to sanctioned entities at both their tier one and multiple subtiers down. The screening process covers all major global sanctions lists, including critical regulations like the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), OFAC sanctions programs, and international trade restrictions.
In addition to screening users’ supplier lists against dozens of global sanctions lists, Z2Data also gives companies access to its proprietary Sanctions Watchlist. Using a wide range of evidence also utilized by regulators—including high-credibility NGO reports on human rights violations, forced labor, and other ESG risks, a demonstrable history of sanctions evasion, known or suspected ties to government or military, or relationships with entities hostile to the U.S.—Z2Data maintains a list of companies that are at high-risk for being sanctioned in the near future. Sources like these, as well as congressional briefings and journalistic investigations, can function as potent “signals” that specific companies are engaging in behavior that often leads to sanctions by the U.S. or other governments.
The Sanctions Watchlist and the sanctions forecasting it provides can be a valuable starting point for organizations determined to maintain a high level of supply chain resilience. An internal analysis conducted by Z2Data in 2025 found that, based on historical trends, users can expect upwards of 80% of the entities added to our watchlist to be eventually sanctioned by a national government or other major regulatory body. To cite one hypothetical example, a business might see one of their tier two suppliers added to Z2Data’s Sanctions Watchlist, prompting a further investigation concerning enough for the firm to cut ties with the supplier. When that supplier is sanctioned a few months later, the company has proactively avoided what could have been a major supply chain disruption.
Finally, Z2Data also draws data and intelligence from Kharon, a research company specializing in compliance risks that’s used by the U.S. government and Customs and Border Protection. Considering its credibility in the eyes of the federal government and their agencies, Kharon’s data and insights can be an invaluable resource for pinpointing the next wave of sanctions targets.
In a trade environment as dynamic and contentious as the one we’re living in today, access to sanctions data and effective forecasting is a powerful way for companies to keep their supply chains compliant. By using Z2Data and its Sanctions Watchlist, organizations can expertly steer clear of the trade hazards potentially just months away from transforming into damaging supply chain bottlenecks.
6. Centralize Supplier Management and Outreach Efforts
Traditional outreach efforts often rely on a small group of employees to manage campaigns for dozens of suppliers all over the world. This old-fashioned system relies on team members providing manual updates to leadership. In cases where individual team members are absent or otherwise unavailable, this system can quickly break down, grinding outreach campaigns to a halt.
Z2Data is designed to avoid those kinds of bottlenecks, expanding access to all stakeholders and functioning as a centralized hub where team members can collaborate on campaigns and store results in supplier profiles. Approved users—including company leadership—can view survey responses on everything from sanctions to tariffs to critical minerals sourcing, giving them the data they need to understand their suppliers on a deeper level and make more informed sourcing decisions.
After campaigns are carried out, users can create custom scores for their suppliers, helping their colleagues understand where their supply chain vulnerabilities lie, and what manufacturers are performing below expectations. Whether its annual supplier review scores, event responsiveness scores, or risk evaluations, Z2Data allows users to create scores that utilize a broad range of relevant data points—a potent form of customization that distinguishes the supplier risk software from many of its competitors.
Use Z2Data’s Supplier Risk Software to Build Long-Term Resilience
Z2Data is a comprehensive solution for businesses with complex supplier risk management needs. As your organization heads into 2026, Z2Data can supply your internal teams with powerful intelligence and insights that enhance your business’s supply chain resilience while bolstering its capacity to respond to challenges with agility and precision. Whether it’s supplier risk, subtier visibility, or sanctions detection, Z2Data has the capabilities to effectively navigate our era’s unique supply chain challenges.
To learn more about Z2Data and its array of critical use cases, schedule a free trial with one of our product experts.