Flatiron Health Reduces Purchase Approval Time by 50% with Tropic

About Flatiron Health 

Flatiron Health is a healthtech company expanding the possibilities for point of care solutions in oncology and using data for good to power smarter care for every person with cancer. Through machine learning and AI, real-world evidence, and clinical research improvements, they continue to transform patients’ real-life experiences into knowledge and create a more modern, connected oncology ecosystem. 

We sat down with Silver Wade, a Senior Manager in Procurement for Flatiron Health, to learn how she effectively manages spend management. Her professional expertise spans more than a decade in strategic sourcing and procurement.  

The Challenge

Limited visibility of new and renewed software purchases led to inefficient spending

Flatiron Health used an enterprise-level solution to handle purchase requests but felt the process was “disjointed.” Spend was tracked after the purchase was already made, so they couldn’t pinpoint when the purchase had gone through proper approval channels or if they negotiated a good deal.

As the company (and their tech stack) grew, the company knew they needed to improve their software spend efficiency. 

A purpose-built procurement solution for their intake-to-procure process would gather necessary information prior to making a purchase — giving the Flatiron Health team adequate time to review and prepare for negotiation. 

“We needed upstream visibility so we could do what’s best for the company from a risk and cost management perspective,” Wade said. “We needed something that put controls in place.”

The Solution

Proactive purchasing using dynamic procurement workflows and intake forms 

Flatiron Health now routes nearly all purchase requests (PR) through Tropic. Intake forms show different questions depending on the type of purchase – from software to events, to contractors and hardware. 

The form questions are responsive based on the different request types, ensuring every PR gets the right amount of attention – nothing more, nothing less. 

For example, whenever a purchase involves personally identifiable information (PII) or protected health information (PHI), the requestor is prompted to upload security documents. The intake form will hide the prompt when PII or PHI are not involved.

Collecting information upfront gives the team additional context and information to better manage negotiations. 

An improved, streamlined approval process backed by rule-based workflows

Since the company’s approval process involves multiple teams—including finance, legal, compliance, and security—it’s important that everyone is involved at the right time. 

Tropic’s flexible no-code workflow builder uses conditional logic to assign tasks based on specific intake answers. Hierarchical approval controls automatically unlock tasks after designated levels of approval. 

“If you have a lot of cross-functional reviews, Tropic makes it easy to build out workflows. I value the ability to customize each workflow to our needs,” Wade added. “It’s not over-engineered so you can take a rightsized approach to procurement.”

Access to a dedicated partner focused on innovating spend management

Wade noted that the Tropic platform continues to improve over time, releasing capabilities to make her job easier, like price benchmarking data for common suppliers. 

The Flatiron Health team is comfortable giving feedback knowing that their suggestions will be considered into product roadmap decisions.

“I love that Tropic is consistently iterating; I love the innovation on the product,” Wade added. “I appreciate how responsive the team is to requests and our feedback has the rare and unique ability to influence future product development.”

The Outcome

Cut down average request-to-approval time by half

With numerous purchase categories, various purchase types, and multiple teams involved, Tropic helped Flatiron Health centralize their process into one platform, giving them full control over spend. 

“Wherever workflow efficiency is a challenge, I would point someone to Tropic,” Wade noted.

Wade said Tropic reduced the time to approve a purchase from a month to just two weeks. The team also reduced the amount of duplicative suppliers (and subsequent costs) simply by incorporating an incumbent review into every new purchase. 

Established a streamlined purchasing process with enthusiastic adoption

When it came time to roll out their new purchasing process, Flatiron Health created a successful change management plan by limiting the number of trained users to smaller dedicated groups.

As these users have become more familiar with Tropic’s capabilities, they proactively ask Wade to build customized workflows to manage other types of spend. 

“People are adopting the platform because they see ways that it can add value,” she added. “Tropic is our trusted starting point for our procurement process.”