Identify high-risk product sales by highlighting “Indicators” or flags during the product sale process.
Transaction Evaluation for Suspicious Indicators (TESI©) is a simple tool developed by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) to help chemical distributors, suppliers, and retailers implement Know Your Customer (KYC) best practices. The tool is designed around a framework that integrates an organization’s products, customers, sales, and shipping databases. This integrated database approach helps the facility to identify any abnormalities (or suspicious indicators) during the sale of their products that may be a security concern.
Key Features
- Customizable
- Link chemical hazards with order information
- Compare orders for abnormalities
The goal of TESI is to identify high-risk product sales by showing the seller “Indicators” or flags prior to the product being sold or otherwise provided to a customer. This tool has been developed to help chemical manufacturers or distributors directly selling products that contain dual-use chemicals in implementing KYC best practices. In the scope of this tool, dual-use chemicals include those identified in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Wassenaar Arrangement, and Australia Group, as well as specific toxic chemicals which pose a risk if used in a malicious scenario.
The TESI tool looks at a number of suspicious indicators, including validation of the customer (ensuring they are who they claim to be), scrutinizing unusual orders (that may include orders outside the normal activity of a customer), changes in order placement or funding source, requesting unusual shipping routes or packaging, or asking unusual questions during the placement of the order which may raise suspicion about the intended use of the chemicals. The scope of the tool is for small-to-medium industries, but the underlying methodology can be applied by any organization selling products which may contain dual-use chemicals.
A robust sales management system will ultimately lead to better data integration, automation, and data reporting capabilities for both the identification of suspicious indicators as well as sales management. These benefits not only reduce time and resource costs but also improve recordkeeping, which supports historical data analysis. The TESI software is easy to use and implements a chemical sales database system that supports broader sales operations.
You can contact GCBS@sandia.gov for more information.