Tropic

🚨 Budget season and annual strategic planning is here. Are you ready? Tropic #CFO Russell Lester said it best: "No exercise is more anticipated YET dreaded by business leaders than budget season and annual strategic planning." You can make this exercise less of a headache by asking yourself (and team) questions like ⤵ ▶ Are you including all vendor contracts in your budget baseline? ▶ Are you treating revenue and expense gaps as interrelated? ▶ Are you using supplier benchmark data to understand trends and set realistic goals? Grab more tips and follow 10 steps to navigate the budgeting and planning process in our latest blog from Russell 👇

Speaking with a VP of Finance confirmed something I’ve been feeling recently about how people buy tools. The number 1 priority for implementing a new major system wasn’t the ROI. It was ease of use for employees across the organization. He knew that a successful outcome with this system would only be possible if his employees bought in and used it. And in 2024, a year where his employees are spread way to thin and wearing lots of hats, the last thing he wanted was to implement something clunky that would create unnecessary friction. I think many of us can over-rotate on building a bullet proof business case, when what matters most is simplicity. And unfortunately, you can’t quantify that. That means delivering against high expectations for user experience - not only for the primary persona, but anyone that touches the system. Nowhere is this truer than in Spend Management. As the champions of efficiency in organizations, finance leaders have an even higher bar for the systems they implement and friction they introduce for their employees. Spend Management, by design, is intended to introduce some amount of friction for necessary spend controls. But not at the risk of employee adoption. Every organization is different, so kudos to finance leaders for striking that perfect balance. 

Don’t miss part 2 of my chat with Michael Shields! Michael and I have known each other for a couple years now and I continue to be impressed with his passion, knowledge, and approach to Procurement. If that wasn’t enough, he is a really fun guy to chat with. During our conversation, I learned more about his approach for influencing positive change. Take a moment and give it a listen and you may learn something too!

Software buyers: Here's how to turn wasted hours into productive minutes ⏳ After all, hours of your time is lost: ▶ Tracking down unreliable pricing data ▶ Engaging in endless negotiations without any leverage ▶ Researching suppliers and information from various sources You can make more efficient and informed #software buying decisions with reliable commercial intelligence: 1. Utilize on-demand and unbiased pricing benchmarks 2. Follow supplier-specific negotiation strategies & tactics 3. Grab actionable supplier information & context from one place Learn how to maximize your time (and money) below. ⌚💰

What happens in Vegas…is #SuiteWorld 2024 ☀️ We’re gearing up for a jam-packed week full of fun sponsoring NetSuite’s annual conference on Sep 9-12. 👋 If you’re headed there, stop by booth 8 and meet Joshua Howard and Kyle Friedman as they talk about Tropic’s NetSuite integration and our intelligent approach to #spendmanagement. Grab the details and we’ll see you there! 👉 https://lnkd.in/ez8y4Dq #NetSuitePartner

It's been frustrating to have purchase requests get stuck in the process or have approvers not appreciate the hard work that went into crafting a deal. (True for procurement people, sales folks, and other business leaders). In this market, getting spend approved can be tricky. But here's what works for me to: 1️⃣ Quicken approval timelines.  2️⃣ Help stakeholders better understand the value procurement brings. When I’ve concluded my negotiation, I send a summary to the approvers with the needed information including: 🔹 A little background about the supplier, who it’s for and why it’s needed (aligned with company goals). 🔹 Final price compared to budget / goal / benchmark.  🔹 High level summary regarding strategy. 🔹 Recommendation. All of this can easily be incorporated into a spend management workflow tool. Otherwise, it can be sent via slack/email (depending on approver preference). In my experience this works really well. No one wants to be a rubber stamp. And very few want to be a bottleneck. So arm them with the information they can quickly absorb and make a decision. If you don’t do this, be prepared for approvers to “sit” on the requests, ask for more information, request that you negotiate harder, or just flat out reject your request. Below is an example. “J’s” response might appear underwhelming at first. But if you know him at all, you’ll realize the lack of questions combined with the positive response means that in reality he is VERY pleased. Anything I'm missing?

Here's what smart #software buyers are pushing for with only 1 month left in Q3 (and a few months until the end of the year): ➕ Contract flexibility (including short terms) ➕ Conservative commitments (can always restructure later) ➕ Higher ROI requirements for license utilization ➕ Optimization of usage based agreements ☝ Understanding those trends can help companies make informed buying decisions for the remainder of the year. #Procurement leaders will want to adjust their sourcing and negotiation strategies. #Finance leaders will want pay close attention to utilization and feel empowered to leverage data to push back on new and legacy requests. Revenue leaders will need to adjust for longer buying cycles. Get the scoop 👇 -- Learn more details in this blog: https://lnkd.in/gMBmcu7S

Anyone headed to #SuiteWorld 2024? We’re excited to sponsor NetSuite’s annual conference, SuiteWorld, in Las Vegas from September 9-12. ☀ 👋  If you’re there, stop by booth 8 and say hi to Joshua Howard and Kyle Friedman! They'll tell you how our NetSuite integration brings an intelligent approach to #spendmanagement. We hope to see you there: https://lnkd.in/ez8y4Dq #NetSuitePartner

For the first time, I approved a request to spend 50% more with one of our suppliers for their AI functionality. Here's what convinced me: 🔹 Successful Pilot - For AI sales motions to work, you need a trial to believe the hype. This supplier quickly provided pilot access to the Tropic buyer and he was immediately able to experience and articulate the efficiency gains 🔹 Short-term increase ➡ long-term consolidation - This buyer has been diligently working to drive more efficient spending across his tech stack. While we’ll be increasing spend now, we’ll be able to substantially cut elsewhere in a few months 🔹 ROI case - Once the value was proven, the supplier did a great job of quantifying the efficiency gains with real dollars. The metrics felt believable, and all the Tropic buyer had to do was pass along the business case to me for approval. 🔹 Trust - This person is a top performer, and a team of 1. If I need to spend more money to make him more efficient at his job, I will happily do so - that investment will more than pay for itself. There’s a lot of hype around different AI tools, much of it unjustified. When deployed in the right application, the value is real and will drive massive efficiencies.

I did not pay him to say this. Here's why this 2 minute video with Russell Lester (CFO) is so impactful: If you are in procurement, you'll understand what a finance leader expects from a good procurement partner. If you are in finance, you'll better understand how to leverage your procurement partner to the fullest extent. If you are somewhere else in the business, Russell summarized his "checklist" for approving spend. Bottom line? There is something for everyone! This is the 3rd (and final) video in this mini-series. You can check out parts 1 and 2 here: https://lnkd.in/gVgxf25Q https://lnkd.in/gkuKgB3C