Tropic

The days of rubber-stamping spend approvals are over. Finance leaders are (rightfully so) pushing back. But here’s the problem: Much of the pushback is on new spend. Whereas legacy spend has an easier time getting through. I personally think that’s backwards. 
Here’s why: Legacy spend was often approved during the good years. When money grew on trees. 
New spend is being scrutinized and measured against a raised bar. My recommendation: Take a good hard look at the spend you have approved in the past few years (it’s likely a lot!). 
If it were new spend today, would you still approve it? If you wouldn’t approve it as new spend today, you probably shouldn’t approve it as renewing spend either. #Spendmanagement #Finance

How to increase visibility to manage spend more effectively ⤵ After all, you can't manage what you can't see. Without visibility, effective #spendmanagement is hard to achieve as these aspects below become very difficult to do: ⚙ Improving control 🛠 Optimizing efficiency 💰 Driving cost savings You’d be surprised at how many companies lack proper visibility into their spend. To get on the right track, #finance and #procurement teams can lay a strong foundation and increase visibility through these 8 steps 👇

Here's a common dilemma (and how to fix it): Procurement achieves strong results for the organization, but the CFO is still disappointed. According to Chandhrika Venkataraman and Michael Shields, you can mitigate that disappointment by leveraging spend data to set proper expectations up front. That's your key to gaining stakeholder alignment. Keep your #CFO happy by 👇 1️⃣ Using spend data to communicate realistic goals (even provide an updated forecast) 2️⃣ Using spend data to present potential options and outcomes (then let your stakeholder decide which path to proceed) Learn how to do all this in our latest blog: https://lnkd.in/gYd3wgkh

#Finance and #Procurement teams overlook one important area when trying to increase internal adoption of their purchasing process: User Experience 👆 According to Michael Shields, that should always be your starting point when looking to drive adoption. After all, no one likes a bad buying or checkout experience. 🛒 Use these 5 guiding questions to improve the user experience of your purchasing process and increase stakeholder adoption 👇

During implementation, 80% of our customers find out they’ve had a #SaaS contract auto-renew without their knowledge. 🤦♂️ Your key to avoid this? Visibility into upcoming contracts and critical dates, which is what a renewal calendar with automatic alerts can give you. Having one also means you have the time to proactively: 📊 Dig into usage data 🤝 Negotiate better deals 🔎 Source more strategically No more digging through emails, chasing down contract owners, or relying on memory. Learn how a renewal calendar is your ticket to manage #spend more effectively: https://lnkd.in/ghPdVVnJ

How do you determine who gets a license…and who doesn’t? Too often companies make the mistake of cutting license count based on little data and collaboration. Here’s a better way Michael Shields approached this situation for a past renewal, where usage had ballooned by over 120% 👇 1️⃣ He partnered with IT and the supplier to collect data, looking at how often the company used XYZ tool. 2️⃣ Together, they also explored alternative solutions already available in their existing tech stack. 3️⃣ They defined an acceptable ROI of using XYZ tool. 4️⃣ They separated users into 2 groups: Those who achieved the acceptable ROI and those who didn’t. 5️⃣ They sent emails to these 2 groups. For those who met the criteria for XYZ tool, they told them they could keep their license but still offered the opportunity to voluntarily it up give up (by using an alternative). The email included a video on how to use the alternatives. For those in the other camp, they told them they would be removing their license but allowed them the opportunity to appeal by providing additional data and context they may not have considered. The result? Licenses (and potential costs) were cut in half. 💡 In the process, Michael gave up his license but found that one of the alternative solutions actually met his needs better. Without this simple exercise, he had no idea the other solution was even an option. #procurement #spendmanagement #saas

SaaS buying trends are changing. (And here’s why it matters if you are in Sales, Customer Success, Finance, etc). 2021: Multi-year deal (in exchange for a discount).  Ramping commit Pre-buying licenses based on growth projections Aggressive usage for things like API calls 2024: Contract flexibility (including short terms) Conservative commitments (can always restructure later!) Higher ROI requirements for license utilization Optimization of usage based agreements These buying trends will not only impact ACV and TCV but NDR and CRPO as well. As a buyer, I see many companies haven't adapted and are pushing what they did in 2021. But it's 2024... So the question is, what are you doing about it?

Did you know that companies invest 10.75% of their total software budget toward operations tools? In fact, Tropic customers have spent over $150 million on this #SaaS category, making it very important to avoid over-provisioning and right-size your #operations technology where necessary. Tropic #procurement expert Tyler Jackson shares his trends and actionable insights to help you optimize your operations tech stack in 2024: https://lnkd.in/gwvze6ee

“The best way to get visibility into our spend was to put in processes, requests, and approvals in Tropic," says Alex Paquette, COO at IRONSCALES. Eliminating overspend, gaining visibility, and getting ahead of renewals were the challenges the company faced. But with Tropic's platform and data, IRONSCALES launched a strong purchasing process with full visibility + control over all spend…even saving $138K. That's the beauty of maximum leverage.  Learn more below 👇 #SaaS #Procurement

SaaS sprawl is real – and it is top of mind for CFOs. In a survey of finance executives in The Circle, 74% of respondents said they have or will consolidate their systems. Here are 4 ways how: #️⃣ Use a key ROI “headcount” metric to streamline the buying process 💬 Position software consolidations against other controllable business costs (notably jobs) 👩🏾💻 Hire a dedicated business analyst  📄 Protect against overpriced contracts To dig into the details, read the Takeaways with expert insights from Alyssa Filter, CFO, Tropic, and Caitlin Steel, former CFO and VP of Product, Leapfin: https://lnkd.in/e8ivbm2K #cfo #softwarespend #saassprawl #budget #softwarestack #growthcompanies