Against a backdrop of rising prices, Canopy can help procurement show its value by cutting costs even while controlling spend
The current economic climate is tough - and of course, broader economic trends have a massive impact on procurement. We don't need to tell you that supply chain disruption from the last two years remains ongoing. There's a lack of available talent in tight labour markets. And there are new ethics regulations in Europe which will put an increasing onus on finding out about your customers (with the new German supply chain act forthcoming in 2023). But for many organisations, it's inflation that's having the biggest impact right now. For procurement teams, it's especially difficult to deliver value within a context where prices are rising. In this blog, we look at how Canopy can help you control your costs so that you mitigate the risks of inflation on your overall spend.
Starting with the basics: smoother processes can cut costs
For procurement teams, there's rightly a focus on spend: where are we spending money to get the goods and services we need. Working with suppliers for the most favourable terms is the bread and butter of procurement. But procurement isn't always very good at analysing and controlling the costs of its own operations. Many of those costs are hidden - and at heart, that's because much of the data about suppliers is hidden in non-sharable formats across the company. In fact, many procurement costs are the opportunity costs of complicated procurement processes because you don't have supplier data at your fingertips.
Canopy presents a way to cut costs. By implementing operational improvements in procurement, automating processes and feeding data to the people who need it, you'll reduce overheads. It's a platform that streamlines onboarding and tells you when suppliers might be becoming non-compliant through the expiry of compliance documents. Canopy puts information at everyone’s fingertips, rather than you having to spend time checking compliance. And you won't have to send out Excel spreadsheets periodically to those who need to know about supplier data. Gone will be the problems of those quickly being out of date, and version control becomes a thing of the past.
Understanding suppliers and category spend
The platform builds from basic information and allows greater visibility across the organisation. That way, you'll have a record of all your supplier information in one place with everything from the registered address and company number, up to compliance and performance information. What's more, you can ensure that your spend is targeted at companies that themselves have the best processes.
And there can be direct benefits on spend too. Canopy won't automatically scan your supplier base to see where you can spend less. But it does help you understand how many suppliers you have in a category. By allowing you complete visibility of your suppliers, the platform can prompt you to rationalise your spend.
Canopy enhances procurement's value added
We know what you'll be asking. At a time of inflation, why would I choose to spend money on a supplier management platform? Our answer is simple: Canopy is inexpensive for the value it delivers. By reducing your costs, you can concentrate on ways of doing your job. You can spend your time working with suppliers to tackle spend and manage the problem of higher prices.
Canopy isn’t here to put procurement people out of a job. On the contrary, it makes you more valuable and gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your value to your company. In short, Canopy allows you to focus your energy on
– enhancing value for money and keeping spend under control. That's why procurement needs Canopy at a time of rising prices.
To find out more about how Canopy, our award-winning supplier management platform, helps procurement teams at a time of rising prices, contact one of the team today.
Visit: www.team-canopy.com
Email: hello@team-canopy.com
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Post by Nick Verkroost
Nick is an experienced business leader and the CEO for Canopy (OCG Software), the rules-based Supplier Management platform. Nick's focus is on commercial and operational excellence and ensuring our clients maximise the opportunities that Canopy offers.