Tropic

When it comes to sourcing, people often ask 1 question when they should actually be asking 2. (And the missed impact is substantial!) I could talk for days about sourcing. I think it’s often done inefficiently. At the same time, I think too few organizations make sourcing a priority. Check out my 2 minute video about the importance of understanding the distinction between these questions. And let me know what you think! I post these videos partly because I want to share what I’ve learned and also because I want to continue to learn from this awesome network and you all have awesome comments and ideas. #procurement #spend #sourcing

The SVP of Finance at a 500 person tech company told his team to not negotiate 10 of his Top 20 SaaS renewals. Why? He realized he already had great pricing on half his tools, so why spend even five minutes banging his head against the wall when there was no juice to squeeze. How’d he get there? Check it out: A year ago, his board told him that they needed to spend more efficiently to extend runway. Familiar comment in board meetings. He took that directive and told his team to negotiate hard on their next 20 upcoming renewals to save money. The result? Some solid savings on a few contracts, but a lot of 0s with a ton of wasted time. Surely all of these large, six figure contracts require a ton of time and energy to get the best deal. But over and over he saw the hours his team invested only led to a few bucks - massive opportunity cost for critical employees at the company. Finance leaders are responsible for capital allocation - dollars AND people. The dollars get a lot of attention, but the people can sometimes get overlooked. There’s a perception that every large contract renewal has some savings potential that can be unlocked with enough time and energy. As tempting as that thought might be, it’s wrong. 6 months ago, this SVP Finance brought on price benchmarks, not just to save dollars on critical renewals, but to get better leverage from his team’s time. Today, he can benchmark his contracts to determine where there’s juice to squeeze, and where it’s bone dry. A team that at one point would have had to find time for 20 renewals can now focus on just the 10 that matter. Now that’s leverage.

“I don’t have the time to apply the right level of scrutiny to business cases for vendors,” says one VP of Finance. ⏳ Finance leaders like her are struggling with questions like: ▶ Am I getting a fair price for supplier A? ▶ Where are my opportunities to save? ▶ What are best practices when negotiating with this supplier versus that supplier? But what if you could get rid of these frustrations? What if you could solve for efficiency and gain leverage in a self-serve way? We’re talking about making informed software buying decisions…in minutes. Exciting news and updates are brewing in the next couple of weeks…STAY TUNED! ☕ #SaaS #finance #procurement

Scenes from Tropic's incredible Revenue Kickoff in #Atlanta last week 📸 We had an amazing time bringing our Revenue organization together for a week filled with insightful discussions, hands-on trainings, and fun team bonding. Plus, some of us even made the most of a global outage and cancelled flights by exploring the city. 😉🌴 We've got exciting news on the horizon…stay tuned!

5 current trends that impact how you buy #software in a belt-tightening market 👇 1. Aggressive supplier uplifts have increased dramatically 2. Willingness to consider alternatives is at an all-time high 3. Rationalization is frequently on your CFO's mind 4. Scrutiny from finance/budget holders has increased 5. Greater emphasis on accessing/using strong data to gain leverage 👆 These patterns affect CRPO (current remaining performance obligation) and ACV (annual contract value) – important for any #finance, #procurement, and even revenue leader to understand. Understand these trends better (with actionable tips) in our latest blog from Michael Shields: https://lnkd.in/gMBmcu7S

Here’s a quick example of how spend management can be a competitive advantage. (Which in this market can seriously be life or death for a company). Every month I do a 30 minute Spend Review with our Head of Procurement Strategy, Michael Shields. Running this process out of the Tropic platform a year ago would have been nearly impossible: too many sharp edges, data inconsistencies, and enough question marks to cast doubt on the whole thing. Thanks to the constant feedback from our customers, the vigilant efforts from out GTM teams to advocate for feature gaps, and the diligent work from our design, product, and engineering orgs, last week’s spend review was the first where I felt the full leverage of the Tropic platform to give me visibility into our spend, and control around where we’re spending. These updates have allowed us to evolve from reactive to proactive purchasing, getting way ahead of our renewals, and maximizing the efficiency of our spend. Here’s our process: 🔹 Step 1: Visibility into upcoming spend Pull up my favorite report that shows a snapshot of the status of all upcoming Contracts in the next 6 months, and the status of those Contracts. 🔹 Step 2: Near-term pipeline health We then look at contracts renewing in the next three months to determine the health of our pipeline ▪ Are we wrapped up on Contracts that are renewing in the next month?  ▪ Are all Requests in for Contracts that renew in the next three months? ▪ Are we at risk of missing any key dates due to delays?  ▪ Are the proposals we’re getting from our Suppliers fair according to our benchmark intelligence? We can seamlessly answer these questions based on reporting views in Tropic, and compile a list of action items. 🔹 Step 3: Mid-term strategic purchasing We look at contracts renewing in the 3-6 month range to critically evaluate needs over the next year. If we wish to move away from any of these tools, we need to start those conversations now, because it’s no small effort to remove an embedded software tool. We’re still small enough of an org that I have a good grasp on how we’re using our big ticket tools across the org, and can push for a re-justification on spend where I may have questions. 🔹 Step 4: Action Items Shields and I summarize the action items for this month and he takes next steps with each stakeholder. It’s taken many months of banging our heads against the wall to get to this point. Next on the horizon, automating the entire workflow above with AI 😉

We're extremely excited to welcome Russell Lester as our new Chief Financial Officer 🎉 Russell brings over two decades of experience leading financial and operational transformation at successful companies of all stages (most notably as #CFO at Calendly and Versapay). His vision that CFOs are strategic business partners and proactive agents of change aligns with how Tropic wants to continue to impact #spendmanagement and uplevel the #finance function. In his words, finance leaders "have the full opportunity to transform how procurement and spend management operate together." 🌴 Get to know Russell in our full announcement 👉 https://lnkd.in/dNy-DJ8y

How to simplify procurement planning in 4 steps to develop an initial process within 100 days 👇 1️⃣ Baseline your spend: Organize suppliers and contracts in one place to improve visibility 2️⃣ Build a brand: Develop relationships with internal and external stakeholders to reduce “procurement bypass” and get buy-in   3️⃣ Get points on the board: Leverage data and insights to start sourcing and negotiating 4️⃣ Get early-buy-in: Implement a simple purchasing policy for stakeholders to follow By day 100, #Finance and #Procurement teams now have better visibility, a pipeline of opportunities, a V1 design of processes, and an early network of supporters. Take a page out of Michael Shields' book and learn how to build a strong foundation and scalable procurement process in our latest blog: https://lnkd.in/ggwhu8Jf

Just in case you didn't catch our latest webinar with Tropic, Populi and Anthropic on 'Finance & Accounting Best Practices for High-Growth Teams', we've collated all the insightful takeaways right here for you. Interested in learning more about how Campfire can help you? Check us out at https://bit.ly/3WhgerW

We're honored to be recognized as a G2 grid leader in SaaS spend management, strategic sourcing, and purchasing! 🌴 Our customers are continuing to find value – using Tropic to proactively manage their spend and identify ways to gain leverage, drive savings, and increase procurement efficiencies. 💪 #spendmanagement #procurement #SaaS