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Supplier Diversity Statement

Supplier Diversity Goals

Transact is recognized as a leading education technology software and consulting services provider. We take this responsibility seriously and continually seek to create, and develop strategic business partnerships that meet the needs of the colleges and universities we serve. We are committed to developing mutually beneficial relationships with small, women-owned, veteran-owned, minority-owned, disadvantaged/disabled, and LGBTQIA+ businesses.

Transact’s supplier diversity efforts center around our corporate commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and our desire to support clients in achieving their diversity goals. We seek to offer our clients quality solutions at competitive prices while creating business relationships that allow diverse organizations to succeed. Our goal is to provide viable business opportunities for diverse suppliers that fulfill mutually beneficial business needs and enable the growth of diverse businesses in our communities.

One of the challenges we face in our commitment to supplier diversity is opportunities to engage diverse suppliers in the provision of our services. As a software and consulting provider, Transact employs staff to perform most if not all duties associated with our work, and opportunities to subcontract are rare. Additionally, when we do partner with vendors, the services are within highly-niched specialized areas, such as door locks, security software, card manufacturing, or merchant services. Still, over the past year, we’ve made it our mission to determine how we can better engage diverse suppliers and we’ve challenged ourselves to set benchmarks for diverse supplier engagement. Below we outline our current objectives and strategies related to supplier diversity.

Transact Supplier Diversity Highlights

During 2022-2023 YTD, Transact's spending for women-owned businesses $661K+

During 2022-2023 YTD, Transact's spend for veteran-owned businesses is $4.6M+

We partner with 35 businesses that are Women or Veteran Owned.

In 2023, Transact launched its CSR framework, which includes exploring strategic partnerships with diverse suppliers and vendors.

Objectives

With our supplier diversity goals clearly in focus, we have established the following objectives:

  • Actively explore diverse businesses that can provide competitive, high-quality services and whose business models are aligned with Transact's business strategy
  • Ensure diverse suppliers have opportunities to be part of Transact's business partnerships
  • Continually communicate the value of supplier diversity with internal and external stakeholders
  • Leverage supplier diversity results to help meet our clients’ supplier diversity requirements

These objectives are updated as needed and communicated broadly to the company.

Strategy

As a broad strategy, Transact is continually exploring national, regional, and local efforts that enable us to be aware of diverse resources. Working collaboratively with various functional groups, our supplier diversity efforts help us identify ways for departments to explore partnership opportunities with diverse businesses and our clients whenever possible.

Transact encourages all departments to identify and include diverse providers to help fulfill business needs whenever possible. Diverse businesses that add value, demonstrate their ability to provide high-quality solutions, and are competitively priced, reliable, and aligned with our values are included in our strategic business model. This company-wide policy reflects Transact’s commitment to creating opportunities for diverse companies to market to Transact and encourages Transact to offer opportunities to diverse companies.

Broader Scope

Our supplier diversity initiatives are part of a broader commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Transact supports the notion that being in an organization that has an engaged and empowered workforce allows employees to bring their authentic selves to work, which in turn allows Transact to provide the best solutions and services to our clients in ways that positively impact our communities.

Transact strives to find ways to attract, develop, and retain the talent needed to meet business objectives and to recruit and employ highly-qualified individuals representing the diverse communities in which we live. To prioritize this goal, Transact has employed Mechelle King as its VP of Corporate Social Responsibility who oversees the diversity, equity and inclusion strategy. Mechelle and Carmelitia Coleman, Director of Inclusion, Diversity and Engagement lead Transact’s DEI strategy and initiatives that focus on fostering an inclusive culture through: 

  • Support from senior leadership
  • The ability to link the organization’s DEI strategy with the overall business strategy
  • Emphasizing the importance of DEI in and to the organization
  • Diverse representation
  • Metrics to measure progress
  • Consistent communication of goals and efforts
  • A long-term strategy
  • Fostering impactful client outreach and engagement programs

These DEI strategic pillars focus on communication and accountability, educational programs, partnerships, and policies and practices. As an example of policy commitments to diversity, in 2020, Transact created a program to match employees’ contributions toward qualified 501c3 charitable organizations that are not-for-profit. Our company also grants 16 hours of volunteer time to employees who commit time to the critical imperative of social justice, community outreach, and volunteering.

Transact also supports a diverse and inclusive workforce through Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) for women (Transact Women’s Interest Network – T-WIN), minority ethnic groups (Tapestry), LGBTQIA+ community (PRIDE), and Military and Veterans. In fact, about 1 in 4 US employees are members of at least one group