AXI launches Commercially Useful Function Validator

AXI has released a new feature, embedded directly into every contract Utilization Plan, that automatically validates the certified industry codes for each firm listed on the plan. Whenever a certified firm is added to a Utilization Plan, the system syncs in real time with the firm's official certification profile and displays the industry codes — NAICS, NIGP, and CSI — for which the firm is certified on the same row of the online form.

This means contractors and compliance analysts no longer have to rely on a written scope description alone. They can select the official codes the firm is certified for, alongside the written description of the scope of work and trade to be utilized.

Designed to confirm CUF, eliminate pass-through risk

Commercially Useful Function (CUF) is one of the most consequential — and most contested — determinations in supplier diversity compliance. Determining whether a certified firm is actually performing a CUF on a project, rather than serving as a pass-through, has historically required cross-referencing the firm's scope against its certification by hand. With the CUF Validator, that comparison is now performed automatically and surfaced inline.

Analysts can validate CUF in a single review pass and flag mismatches before a Utilization Plan is approved. The result is a faster review cycle, a defensible audit trail for every utilization decision, and a substantial reduction in the fraud and pass-through risk that diversity programs are increasingly asked to mitigate.

The CUF Validator is available in all AXI environments and requires no client configuration. It builds on AXI's daily-refreshed certified business directory of more than half a million firms across the country.