Nick Verkroost is CEO of Canopy, a supplier master data and automation platform specifically designed for small, overworked procurement teams.
Nick joined the business in 2020, where he saw an opportunity to capitalise on the expertise harnessed from developing supplier management solutions for some of the world’s biggest companies, including CBRE, Caterpillar and EDF. Canopy was launched in 2021 as an out-of-the-box SaaS platform serving the SME and Mid-Market.
Nick is a start-up veteran of over 10 years. A former strategy consultant, he built a venture portfolio for the Thomson Family Office before transitioning into Chief Operating Officer roles in B2B SaaS spanning MediaTech, EdTech, FinTech and a number of advisory roles. Having been educated as an engineer, he is passionate about how technology can bring efficiency to everyday challenges.
We caught up with Nick to get the low down on what’s on offer at Canopy.
Nick what is Canopy?
Canopy is a supplier master data and automation platform.
Canopy is designed specifically for small, overworked procurement teams, who have very limited visibility of what’s going on in their supply chains.
Canopy eliminates all that wasted time and effort by putting all your supplier data in one place, and automating its administration.
Unlike some of the other tools out there, you can pick up and use Canopy today, out-of-the-box, so it delivers value for you from day 1.
What issue does your solution solve?
Managing suppliers is time-consuming, admin-heavy, and requires the collection and assimilation of a wide range of data. Yet despite all the incredible technology available to Procurement Teams today, most practitioners still rely on Excel and paper forms sitting in email attachments as their only window into their supply chain.
Operating in this environment makes it almost impossible to contribute to the value-enhancing objectives that most Procurement practitioners are striving for: improving profitability, enhancing strategic relationships, and driving ESG initiatives. Instead, they are faced with the reality that:
- They don’t know who their suppliers are
- They don’t know how to communicate with them
- They don’t know how much they’re spending with them
- The don’t know where the contract is
- They don’t understand what risks they need to be aware of
- They don’t know whether or not the supplier is compliant with their operational and regulatory requirements.
Most Procurement Teams don’t have any visibility of what’s going on in their supply chains.
How does Canopy solve the problem?
Canopy gives practitioners one place to go to find out everything about their suppliers.
It provides a single point of intake, to ensure consistency in the process for supplier verification and due diligence.
Canopy’s approach is driven by rules, which means the process adapts based on who the supplier is, what they do, where they do it, and the risk they are likely to present. This means suppliers are never asked for information that isn’t relevant, and approvals are proportionate to request being made.
Through trusted and consistent data, Canopy creates the foundation to automate business processes and eliminate time-consuming supplier administration.
By integrating with downstream systems, Canopy facilitates the governance of ERP, which is the gateway to managing spend.
Canopy’s feature set includes the following modules:
- Supplier Profiles
- Contract Repository
- Adaptive Question Sets
- Approval Workflows
- Risk Mitigation
- Rules-Driven Supplier Availability
- ERP Onboarding & Administration
- Bi-directional API Integrations
Who is your solution aimed at? What does your perfect client look like?
Canopy has been specifically developed for small, time-poor Procurement Teams, of generally 1 to 5 people, who are at the point of transition as they start to digitise their supplier operations.
Canopy is often the first tool a new CPO or Head of Procurement will introduce to their organisation, as it provides holistic benefits for Finance teams, Risk & Compliance teams, Commercial teams and Senior Leadership, generating a 5x ROI within 6 months of launching the platform.
Although Canopy can deliver value to any Procurement operation, our customers primarily come from the Construction, Facilities Management, Datacentre, Hospitality, Financial Services, Food Production, and Industrials sectors.
At Canopy, we believe that technology should be accessible to everyone, not just those with the biggest cheque books. Our mission is to stand up for the “little guys” (and girls!). We want to empower the Procurement Heroes out there who achieve so much with very little support.
What is the biggest challenge Canopy faces?
The biggest challenge is that it’s really hard to articulate the value of clean, harmonised, accessible supplier data. Despite the fact that procurement teams complain about it all the time!
Yet for our clients, the ROI is very apparent.
Example case study:
- One of our clients operates in 18 countries and has 17,000 supplier records in ERP
- ERP duplicates records for each country the supplier work in, but isn’t able to recognise this
- By automating the administration of ERP, Canopy reduced the administrative cost of the Finance team by 71%
- By categorising and classified all supplier records, Canopy identified opportunities for spend reduction and laid the foundations to launch a Preferred Supplier programme
- By granting Commercial Teams with access to the Supplier Directory, our client is able to respond to tenders faster and more accurately
Once you give people access to data, suddenly they can make game-changing decisions.
Why pick Canopy?
- You can launch Canopy in a day, so it can start delivering value for you immediately.
- Because Canopy is a modular solution, you can start with something very simple, and add sophistication over time as your operations evolve.
- Canopy automates everything, so you don’t end up in the trap of spend the time you’ve saved on administering the system.
- Canopy delivers a positive Supplier Experience, whereby suppliers are only asked to do what is relevant and proportionate, without compromising on the standard of assessment.
- Canopy is affordable for single-person procurement functions.